For many people, November is the month to stop, pause, and take a moment to feel grateful for the amazing people and things in our lives that actually make it an enjoyable experience.

Gratitude is a feeling of being in a positive state where we can recognize the good qualities about a person or particular thing.

Gratitude, it turns out, isn’t just a feel-good idea, but it can also be extremely beneficial for one's physical, mental, and emotional health. In addition, like anything else in life, it can be practiced.

Four Benefits and Tips for Practicing Gratitude:

Gratitude Connects Us to (and with) Others: As you begin to recognize the good qualities of others around you, and begin to express it to them, it makes people want to be around you even more.

Tip for Practice: Write a letter, a quick note, or verbally tell someone why you are thankful for having them in your life.

Gratitude Increases our Physical Health: Practicing gratitude reduces stress and increases the state of feeling calm.

Tip for Practice: Whether it is lifting weights, getting into yoga poses, taking a run, or hitting the dance floor, make some time for physical movement in order to start feeling more grateful.

Gratitude Increases our Self-Esteem: As we practice appreciating others, humans feel the need to reciprocate - they'll do the same for us!

Tip for Practice: There is a concept called “Paying it Forward.” As someone does something nice for you, do that same nice thing for someone else! It could be as simple as holding a door open, sharing a smile, or giving someone a small treat!

Gratitude Increases Resilience: Resilience is the ability to recover quickly after experiencing a negative, or even traumatic, event.

Tip for Practice: Train your brain to find the miracle in the mud. While trudging through dark times, look for lights: a new appreciation for what’s really important in life, new goals/opportunities/possibilities, increased physical, mental, and emotional strength, stronger relations with people and/or spirit.