Being Thankful and Good Mental Health
For those of you who do not know, today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It is a day in which people are meant remember the survival of the Pilgrims who went to the new world through the first year and to be thankful for their survival and the help of the Native Americans who made it possible.
I think it is unfortunate that we do not think in terms of being thankful on a daily basis. There is much for us to be thankful for. As a Solution Focused Practitioner, I assist clients to focus on the solutions to their issues rather than getting bogged down by the problem itself. One of the approaches I use is to get clients to think and note every week things that they are thankful for with regards to their improvement.
I am not saying that clients should be thankful for me or any other therapist, but rather to be thankful for all the things which makes them who they are. By doing this one can be thankful for the positive as well as acknowledging the negative and realising that a person can always improve. Improvement of the human condition is something we should all be thankful for. So if you celebrate Thanksgiving please enjoy for those who don’t think of things to be thankful for and see how that improves your mood.
