It’s Jeni here,

In the wake of the biggest powerball in history, I thought I would post something about happiness.

When you stop to count your blessings, it becomes pretty clear that we, in this country, live a pretty plentiful life. This especially goes for us here in Idaho. We DO live in the Treasure Valley after all.

Sometimes it’s easy to focus on the things we are lacking and that can be a dangerous path to go down in terms of our day to day happiness. The good news is that there is something extremely simple you can do to make your life more plentiful and lift your spirits. The even better news is that it’s easy and completely free. What is it? It’s Gratitude.

Many years ago, a friend’s mother said something to me that changed the way I think about life and what it means to be “rich”.

Long ago, after complaining about the current state of my life and how I needed This and that, my friends mother chimed in on the conversation with this Gem:

“Sweetheart, If you don’t appreciate what you have, What makes you think you deserve more?”

That one sentence literally stopped me in my tracks and made me re-evaluate my state of mind. I made an inventory that night of all the things I had in life, a list of things that were going right, and then I went to sleep. In the morning I looked at it again. I went on to have an amazing day. The strange part about it was that there wasn’t anything better or different about my day except for me. That one simple exercize changed my whole state of mind and I realized how lucky i was.

Although this post seems very “Pollyanna”, this little ritual ACTUALLY WORKS. If you are feeling down, make a list of all the things you feel grateful about. When you are coming from a place of gratitude, your life is full and complete. Only then is there room for more!