When you make gratitude a habit, every day comes bearing gifts. And boy do we get a lot of stories from people who have shifted their perspective by actively counting their blessings and focusing on the good instead of the bad. It just made sense that we dedicate an entire book to stories about gratitude. And that’s just what we did with our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Attitude of Gratitude.

Oh sure, some days are either than others in practicing gratitude, but just like everything we do in life, a little practice goes a long way!

Here’s a preview of two of my favorite stories from the book about how to practice gratitude:

Remember the good luck you’ve had.
In Marv Stone’s story, "We Have Jalapeños," Marv plants a garden with his young son who was most excited about the jalapeños. But as spring turned into summer, all they were getting were tomatoes, squash, and bell peppers. No jalapeños. Marv’s son was disappointed.

Later that summer, Marv was on a business trip making a presentation to a very difficult client. A morning of venting had turned into an afternoon of yelling. His wife called him twice in a row during the meeting, a sign that it was an emergency. He excused himself and called her back, but his son answered on the first ring, exclaiming, “We have jalapeños!”

Marv says, “Billy is in seminary now and grows his own jalapeños on the balcony of his apartment. My wife and I don’t eat them, but I grow one plant each year, just to remind me to keep everything in perspective. And should my wife or I ever lose that perspective and allow the troubles of life to begin sapping our joy, we just look the other in the eye and state, ‘We have jalapeños!’”

Focus only on your thankfulness and don’t ask for a thing.
In her story, "Prayers of Thanksgiving," Jane McBride says that her daily prayers were less about thanksgiving than about what God could do for her. She realized that she was issuing instructions in her prayers but not expressing any appreciation for what she already had.

She asked herself what she could do to change that, and she decided to challenge herself: for one week, her prayers would just be about gratitude. She started small, thanking God for a sunny day and the flowers outside her window. As she continued this practice, something changed. Jane says she became more aware of all the blessings in her life… and she became happier.

Thank you!