Review by
Darcie Czajkowski
When was the
last time you stopped to smell a rose?
When was the
last time you expressed gratitude to your spouse for taking out the trash or
making dinner?
When was the
last time you gave thanks for the good things in your life when everything
around you was falling apart?
When was the
last time you were grateful that you are healthy and can walk or run a mile?
When was the
last time you took a minute to think about what you were about to eat instead
of devouring three slices of pizza in less than five minutes?
In the Gratitude Diaries, journalist Janice
Kaplan spends a year living gratefully. Instead of feeling upset or annoyed
when things don’t go her way, she makes a conscious effort to put that incident
in perspective. The particulars of the events don’t change, but her attitude
does.
Utilizing
progressive research from doctors, psychologists, philosophers, and academics,
Kaplan uses gratitude to transform her entire life, including her marriage,
children, health, finances, career, and fitness. When she focuses on the good
things and expressing gratitude for the positive aspects of her life, she finds
that she is consistently happier, healthier, no longer plagued by migraines,
and feels improvements in her relationships with her husband, children, and
friends.
This book
was indubitably the best book I’ve read this year. It’s truly a book for
everyone. What if bad days could become okay days, and okay days could become
good days? What if we got along better with our significant other and felt more
connected to him or her just by showing a little appreciation? Would you do it?
Challenge
yourself to make today the day that you start living gratefully. Be kind to
others. Send a card to a friend who’s going through a hard time. Thank your
parents for taking you on adventures when you were a kid. Send an email to a
friend overseas. It doesn’t take much to thank others for the impact they make
on our lives. You don’t know if today will be your last, so why would you want
to spend it being negative or focusing on the things that didn’t go right?
As Kaplan wrote,
“I’d learned this year that gratitude didn’t depend on the right events or even
the right decisions, but how I processed them. Gratitude gave you back control.
I didn’t have to pick the perfect restaurant (or hotel or flight home) to
appreciate the vacation and be grateful I was here.”
Life isn’t
going to be perfect. It’s wrought with difficult times, bad news, hard choices,
and tragic moments. But it’s also filled with love, joy, friendship, and
family. Everyone has something to be grateful for, and we all have a minute (or
more) each day to reflect on what made that day special. Even on the bad days, look
for it, something good is there. It can be as simple as being thankful to be
alive, because really, in the end, being alive means that tomorrow is a new
day. And that is something to be grateful for.
Purchase the
book at:
About the Author:
Janice
Kaplan is widely known for her achievements as a writer, television producer
and magazine editor. As the Editor-in-Chief of Parade, the most widely read
publication in America, she brought new energy and excitement to the magazine,
increasing readership to over 74 million every Sunday. She attracted some of
America’s best writers and biggest-name celebrities.
Author and
co-author of eleven books, her bestselling novels include The Botox
Diaries, Mine Are Spectacular! and The Men I
Didn’t Marry. Her popular Lacy Fields mysteries include Looks To
Die For and A Job To Kill For, and her books have been
translated and published in more than a dozen countries. A former columnist
at Seventeen magazine, she was a contributing editor at Vogue and
has written hundreds of articles for national magazines.
Janice appears frequently on television shows including Today, Good Morning America, Entertainment
Tonight and CBS Early Show, and is a
popular speaker around the country. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale
University and won Yale’s Murray Fellowship for writing. Kaplan lives in New
York City and Kent, Connecticut with her husband and has two wonderful sons who
graduated Yale.
Connect with the author at: