Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise. Then you will discover the fullness of your life.

- Brother David Steindl-Rast

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love it for many of the traditional reasons - being with family and friends, eating a delicious meal, watching the Macy's parade from the warmth and comfort of my living room, and walking off the turkey and pumpkin pie on a beautiful autumn afternoon, to name a few.

Most of all, I love this holiday for the opportunity it provides to reflect on all the blessings in my life and to express my appreciation and gratitude in my own unique way.

For example, I am profoundly grateful for these blessings ...

• A son and a granddaughter I love and adore.
• A fascinating, talented, and geographically diverse extended family.
• Many very special friends, some of whom I have known "forverer" and others I have only recently met.
• Good health and a youthful zest for life.
• Work I love and can't wait to do each day.
• A cozy home with a view of the ocean in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

It wasn't always this way. There was a time when I took the good things for granted, and paid more attention to what was wrong with my life than to what was right. And then I began to notice that the more I paid attention to what wasn't working, the worse things seemed to get.

The turnaround in my own life came about when, as a result of developing and then teaching my Designing Your Life workshop, I started keeping a Gratitude Journal. I was browsing in a large bookstore when I came across a structured blank journal: Counting My Blessings: a journal of things to be thankful for, produced by ArtWorks International. Our Theme Quote for this month appears on every page of this journal:

Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise. Then you will discover the fullness of your life.

I started that journal, and began my intentional practice of gratitude, on May 14, 1999. Since that time, many wonderful things have opened up in my life. And when I am consciously engaged in practicing gratitude, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't stand tall and smile and feel lucky to be alive, even through bad hair days, bad weather days, and bad news days.

What better time to begin a conscious practice of gratitude than in this month of Thanksgiving?

Think about it - what are all the things YOU are grateful for? How many blessings can you count instead of sheep?

Here are 10 simple suggestions for practicing gratitude on a daily basis:

• As you wake up each morning, think of at least 3 things you are grateful for in your life.
• As you walk, run, exercise, shower, bathe, or drive in your car, make a mental list of all you are grateful for.
• As you sit down to a meal, alone or with others, offer a shared or silent blessing for the food and nourishment you are about to receive.
• Create or purchase a Gratitude Journal and make daily entries in it.
• Remember to say thank you for any kindness, gift, or opportunity given to you by another.
• Send thank-you notes and small tokens of appreciation.
• Appreciate yourself often for all your strengths and good qualities.
• Notice everything in your life that you have to be thankful for.
• When you go to bed at night, count your blessings instead of sheep.
• Openly share with others your sense of wonder, gratitude, and appreciation.

As you begin to practice gratitude on a conscious and daily basis, notice what begins to change in your life - and be grateful for that too!

When you find yourself in a time of upheaval and confusion - as is often the case during a relationship change, a career change, or a passage to a new life stage - know, trust and accept that this is a blessing, though it may seem otherwise at the time.

In any transition, you are taking apart the known structure of your life, like a child playing with Legos or other building toys, and for a time the pieces are strewn about, waiting to be re-configured into something new and different.

Transition times can seem scary and confusing because we are no longer on familiar ground, even if that familiar ground was non-nourishing or harmful. In reality, however, transition times are opportunities for enormous growth and transformation. They are opportunities for re-assessing our lives, for re-inventing ourselves, for moving our lives, careers, or businesses to the next level, for identifying our true calling, for creating, building, and living our ideal future - in short, for designing or re-designing our lives.

In 2006, our popular program, Designing Your Life, is being offered in a variety of formats, locations, and times. This program - ideal for anyone in transition - focuses in depth on the three KEY questions in life: Who am I? Where am I going? How do I get there?

We will begin posting the 2006 Designing Your Life schedule very soon. Check the News & Events section of our Web site often for announcements and schedules. Contact us if you have any questions or requests for specific days, dates, or times.

Our Writing Your Life workshop has been created for those of you who enjoy writing and wish to explore your life or tell your story through writing.

We explore writing about ourselves through a variety of genres including journals & diaries, blogs, memoir, personal essay, autobiography, and poetry.

Each session involves a combination of learning the craft, reading and discussing published examples, and doing your own writing, stimulated by a variety of creative writing exercises.

The Winter/Spring 2006 course is offered through North Shore Community College's Corporate and Community Education Division at the Cummings Center in Beverly, MA. This non-credit class meets Tuesday mornings, March 7th through April 11th, 9:00 -11:30am. Registration begins November 18th.

Highlighted below are some of the programs offered by LifeWork Enterprises:

Workshop series:

• Designing Your Life
• Balancing Your Life
• Writing Your Life
• Exploring Entrepreneurship
• Speaking Made Easy
• Retirement:The Best is Yet to Be!

Presentations and Keynotes:

• Creating a Values-Based Business and Life
• Passion, Purpose, Vision, and Mission
• The Power of Thought: Harnessing the Power of Your Mind to Create Your Ideal Life or Work
• Goal-Setting for Success
• Living and Working on Purpose