LIFE IN FOCUS

  The holidays provide an opportunity to pause  and reflect on the important  things that matter in our lives.    Y our already busy life inevitably gets busier this time of year. In addition to attempting to manage your never ending to-do list of personal and professional commitments and the ever-changing rules of the pandemic, here come the holidays, at full speed, with their added obligations and responsibilities.  You're now finding yourself immersed in making travel plans or preparing for out-of-town guests, budgeting gift giving and bonuses, decorating, baking, and scheduling social events, to name a few. While demands and commitments increase, time and finances decrease. The word many use to describe this time of year is   " STRESSFUL. " It's hard to feel festive and grateful  and connect with the meaning of the season when energy levels are drastically plummeting.  As the pace of our lives uncomfortably increases, our life satisfaction decreases. Unfortunatel

The practice of gratitude shifts your focus to abundance;  to the goodness and fullness of your life. The gains are made even with  just a slight movement toward appreciation.  Research has confirmed that a regular gratitude practice positively correlates with an overall self-rating of life satisfaction.  POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY The field of positive psychology, growing steadily since the late 1990s, researches methods to improve quality of life.  Findings support strong associations between the acknowledgement of gratitude and greater happiness.  Gratitude helps enhance positive emotions and experiences, and improve relationships and health .  Prominent within this area are psychologists Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough who conducted a 10-week study asking participants to write down things for which they were grateful. Their finding supported the benefits obtained from engaging in a consistent gratitude practice, expressing that this exercise alone led to increased reporting of