It’s officially December. You have made it to the last month of the year and the peak of the Holiday season! December can be a stressful, hectic, tiring month, but it is also a very rewarding month filled with family, friends, and love. However, often times our perception gets clouded due to high stress we experience throughout the month. It is often times hard to remember to be grateful and express our gratitude for ourselves and for those in our lives for all that they do.

Gratitude has been linked to an overall better quality of life, and one study shows that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked. Feeling gratitude is one of the most beneficial ways to feel more inner peace and bring us serenity. It gives a sense of pleasure, appreciation, generosity, and compassion. It opens our hearts and rewires our brain to embrace positive thinking.

Try this easy-to-remember breath meditation:
Inhale: I welcome happiness
Exhale: I am so grateful

Inhale:  I welcome inspiration
Exhale:  I am so grateful

Inhale:  I welcome love
Exhale:  I am so grateful

How to begin embracing gratitude:
1. Write a gratitude list: Writing a gratitude list keeps us focused on the solution and the positives in our lives.
2. Practice these mantras:

• I am enough.
• I trust myself to express my emotions and feelings.
• I choose to look at life through a lens of love.
• I will not let another person, place, or thing dictate my personal happiness.
• I am deserving to feel exactly how I feel.
• I am whole and complete just the way I am.

3. Send a loving text: It immediately connects you to another person and brings you to a higher level of consciousness. You are taken out of yourself and able to show up for another person.
4. Meditate: Meditation is a calming practice. Be creative with your meditation.
5.Get your natural endorphins: Do something you enjoy. Make it an opportunity to pick up a new hobby. Take a dance class, go on a bike ride, or join a group fitness class.