According to Arthur Brooks, a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, acting grateful can actually make you grateful. And I’m a believer.

I’ve always been one to see the bright side.

If I have to wait in a doctor’s office for thirty minutes, I’m grateful it wasn’t forty.

In a hotel, if my room isn’t great, I’m grateful to be on vacation at all.

I never thought about why I functioned that way but in the article Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier, Brooks states there is a gene associated with gratitude.

But for those less inclined, there are things to be done.

Practice the AA slogan…

Because faking it til you make it works. Positive thinking affects our brain — and our mood.

Keep a Gratitude Journal. Every night before bed, jot down five things you are grateful for. These don’t have to be big things. In fact, I’m genuinely appreciative when the television show I wanted to watch was recorded.

And of course, I am thankful for the big things too. As I get older, I’m seriously grateful for the privilege of simply waking up each morning.

If you don’t want to write things down, just take the time to acknowledge them as Brooks suggests, with interior gratitude, giving thanks privately. Eventually, you may try exterior, or public, gratitude.

Over this last year, blog entries I’ve written about Mother’s Day (Are You Turning Into Your Mother?), Father’s Day (What My Father Gave Me) and Halloween (Halloween Costumes: Why They Matter) appeared after the actual day.

I’m grateful, and totally happy, that I finally got a holiday post out BEFORE the holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!!