Be grateful

In an article entitled 5 Things That Will Make You Happier, Clara Moskowitz writes that "recent research suggests people actually can take charge of their own happiness and boost it through certain practices."

Number one on the list of things which will make you happier is:
Be grateful – Some study participants were asked to write letters of gratitude to people who had helped them in some way. The study found that these people reported a lasting increase in happiness – over weeks and even months – after implementing the habit. What's even more surprising: Sending the letter is not necessary. Even when people wrote letters but never delivered them to the addressee, they still reported feeling better afterwards.
Read full article: http://www.livescience.com/health/how-to-be-happy-100222.html

The following is a letter by Beth Rittler to the Reader's Digest in which she writes about gratitude.

Years ago, I sent letters or made telephone calls to people I wanted to thank for being part of my life and adding to it. There was only one person I couldn't locate: a popular, handsome boy named Ed. I was a shy, gangly kid with low self-esteem, but when Ed paid attention to me, I felt like a princess. We were barely friends, but I never forgot him. When I heard that he was living in Michigan, I wrote to Ed and thanked him for being so kind to me. The night he received the letter; he called me - and practically every night after that. A year later, he returned to Pennsylvania, and we were reunited after almost 25 years. We've been married six and a half years - all because of a letter of gratitude.