Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude (Book Review)

We’ve all heard that it’s helpful to be grateful. But how do we become grateful?

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Lesowitz and Sammons’ book, Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude, provides an easily readable yet comprehensive introduction to the practice of grateful living. For someone already familiar with gratitude practices, the book gives numerous inspirational stories and ideas of practices to follow. I like to add Post-it flags to parts of books I find particularly informative or inspirational. My copy of this book is filled with Post-it flags.

The book uses examples from many faiths and belief systems, so not everything will be meaningful for every individual. I found it helpful to read the entire book but to emphasize the stories and practices that resonated the most for me.

Following is an example of one of the gratitude practices in the book.

Create a Top 10 list of the things you are most grateful for in your life.  Carry it with you in your purse or pocket, or post it on your mirror, your refrigerator, or at your office to remind you daily of what you are grateful for. What you are grateful for will seemingly leap off the page at the times when you most need the reminder.

In addition to gratitude-related quotes, stories, and practices, the book has many tidbits of information, such as the following excerpt.

A study published in the British Medical Journal by scientists from Harvard University and UC San Diego showed that happiness spreads through social networks of family members, friends, and neighbors.  Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3 percent more likely to be happy yourself, the study found.  A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8 percent, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6 percent boost.

Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard who cowrote the study, found that your emotional state is affected by the actions and choices of other people, many of whom you don’t even know.

There is much inspiration to be gained from Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude. I highly recommend the book.