Bereaved Parents USA Meeting
The other night we had our usual bereaved parent meeting. I had found an article about gratitude and printed it out. I first talked about doing a thankfulness blog last year for 365 days. Everyday I wrote about something that I was grateful for. It could have been something as simple as watching the beautiful birds in my backyard to something as funny as losing big chunks of my hair from a new conditioner my daughter told me to use or as serious as being thankful that my daughter, who was in a terrible car accident, the air bags all deployed, walked away without a scratch! Each person in the group was supposed to discuss something that they are grateful for in their lives. I brought a few blog posts from last year to read. Blogging about gratefulness really changed the entire way that I look at life. I now notice more of the positive things in my life. I still will be sad everyday because my 18 year old daughter died but that doesn't mean that I am not supposed to be thankful for the good things in my life. It is very difficult for bereaved parents to find things to be grateful for in their lives when they live with such immense grief. But there are hundreds of things to be thankful for if we just look around at our own lives or at the world in general. I have Parkinson's and I am not thankful that I have this disease but I am thankful that I have a good doctor and I can still be independent. I am thankful that there are Facebook groups to meet other Parkinson's sufferers and we can share information and offer support to each other. There were probably about 15 people at the meeting last night and everyone was grateful for different things. Most members were thankful for family members and friends. Some people were thankful for the bereaved parent group. Almost EVERYONE felt that doing things for others made them feel better, maybe not great, but gave them a purpose in life and a happy feeling.
Below are a few of my posts from 365 Days of Being Thankful.
Day 193 of 365 Days of Being Thankful
MORE HOLY YIKES!!!!!! Another freaking bat in the house!!!!!!!! I want to move!!!
This morning I came downstairs and started washing a few bowls in the sink. Something flew up from the garbage disposal side of the sink. At first I didn't know what it was. Then I realized it was a bat!!!!! I was scared crapless!!!! I don't know if crapless is a word but it fits how I was feeling!! I took a bowl and put it over the bat and it is still sitting in the top of the garbage disposal. I don't know if it is dead or alive. I called Dan and he told me he couldn't come home so the bat is still there. I called the game warden's office and they gave me the name of a wildlife removal company. They are coming later today. I don't know if this is the same bat or I have a bat nest or colony in my house. I am scared!! I want to move!! And they are protected so they can't be exterminated. I am thankful I got someone to come today.
https://ideapod.com/neuroscience-reveals-gratitude-literally-changes-brain-happier/
Below are a few of my posts from 365 Days of Being Thankful.
Day 193 of 365 Days of Being Thankful
MORE HOLY YIKES!!!!!! Another freaking bat in the house!!!!!!!! I want to move!!!
Today I am thankful that Dan and I and Olivia and Olya and their boyfriends went to a play. We went to the sight and sound theater and saw the play "Jesus." The play was amazing! The actors were fabulous. In that theater, things are going on all over, on the stage, on the sides of the theater and in the air! It is overwhelming to try to take it all in. I didn't know how the girls' boyfriends would like the play but it seemed like they loved it! We were on the aisle where the animals and actors went on and off the stage. Olivia LOVED the animals. There were horses, pigs, goats, camels, pigeons, dogs and goats!
Everyone knows how the story ends but I kept hoping that Jesus wouldn't die. People were openly sobbing in the theater. After the play, the six of us went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I didn't think the kids would be hungry because they ate hot dogs at intermission at the snack bar. But they were still hungry and ate all of their food they ordered! I am thankful that we all had a great time! AT that theater we have seen the Moses show, the Miracle of Christmas show, and now the Jesus show and they have all been excellent.
YIKES!!!!!!!!!! and YIKES again!!!!!!!
Today I am thankful that I woke up with hair on my head!! Really, I am! Olivia is in Cosmetology school, probably has attended about 2 months. We went to the beauty supply store last week for her to get supplies. She bought a deep conditioning treatment container that supposedly gives hair a deep scalp and root treatment. It should have been called a deep scalping procedure. Olivia followed all the directions and told me to leave it on for 20 minutes. Then she read the label of this brand and it said 10 minutes. The treatment at her cosmetology school is left on for 20 minutes, but this was a different brand. I washed it off in 10 minutes, thank GOD!!! I would have been hairless, like a hairless cat, if I left it on for 20 minutes. When I was in the shower washing it off, clumps of hair(BIG CLUMPS) came out in my hands! I lost two fistfuls of hair! I shampooed it 3 times!! I feel as if there is still some left in my hair but I and afraid to shampoo again or do anything to it. I was thinking "what the heck"(insert a different word for heck)!! It fell out a bit more when Olivia combed it. I was freaking out thinking I would be bald. Olivia felt bad and said she would cut her hair off if I lost all of my hair!! I would NEVER want her to do that, one bald head in a family is enough!! I was trying to think of which of my friends had a wig I could borrow to go to the wig store and where the heck is a wig store any way?? My friend Leslie had a wig from Chemo and I was going to call her this morning. And my friend Carol has a wig, so one of them might have gotten a desperate phone call this morning. I just kept picturing waking up with my hair all fallen off on my pillow! I woke up almost every hour last night and touched my head. My hair is already thin!! But thankfully, I still have most of my hair. Olya was going to be second for the treatment but she decided to decline having the treatment done!!!!!! Olivia spoke to her cosmetology instructor who said I probably had a reaction to the treatment! Do you think I had a reaction, lady???..........of course I did!
https://ideapod.com/neuroscience-reveals-gratitude-literally-changes-brain-happier/
Neuroscience reveals how gratitude literally rewires your brain to be happier
We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?
According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.
When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant. And gratitude is the most effective practice for stimulating feelings of happiness.
In this article we’ll share some of the research demonstrating that gratitude makes you happier, followed by some practical steps you can take to positively transform the molecular structure of the brain.
We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?
According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.
When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant. And gratitude is the most effective practice for stimulating feelings of happiness.
In this article we’ll share some of the research demonstrating that gratitude makes you happier, followed by some practical steps you can take to positively transform the molecular structure of the brain.
Studies of gratitude making you happier
In one study of gratitude, conducted by Robert A. Emmons at the University of California at Davis and his colleague Mike McCullough at the University of Miami, randomly assigned participants were given one of three tasks. The participants kept a journal each week, with one group describing things they were grateful for, another group describing what was hassling them and the other keeping track of neutral events. After ten weeks, the participants in the gratitude group felt 25 percent better than the other groups, and had exercised an average of 1.5 hours more.
In a later study by Emmons with a similar setup, participants completing gratitude exercises each day offered other people in their lives more emotional support than those in other groups.
Another study on gratitude was conducted with adults suffering from congenital and adult-onset neuromuscular disorders (NMDs), with the majority of people having post-polio syndrome (PPS). Compared to those not jotting down what they’re grateful for every night, participants that did express gratitude felt more refreshed each day upon wakening. They also felt more connected with others than did participants in the group not expressing gratitude.
A fourth study didn’t require a gratitude journal, but looked at the amount of gratitude people showed in their daily lives. In this study, a group of Chinese researchers found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and also with lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Better sleep, with less anxiety and depression. Some compelling reasons to express gratitude more regularly.
If you’ve only got time to say one prayer today, make it the simple words of “thank you.”
This is worth keeping in mind as you go about figuring out your daily practices and routines.
Here are three practical steps you can take to infusing routines of gratitude into your life.
1) Keep a daily journal of three things you are thankful for. This works well first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed.
2) Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them every day.
3) Look in the mirror when you are brushing your teeth, and think about something you have done well recently or something you like about yourself.
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