Like so many other positive acts, it turns out that hugging boosts our immune system. Plus it just plain feels good! So hug someone today, perhaps a person who seems particularly in need.

Gratitude is like a flashlight. It lights up what is already there. You don't necessarily have anything more or different, but suddenly you can actually see what it is. And because you can see, you no longer take it for granted.

Gratitude makes us feel bursting with delight, just to remember the gifts we have received. Thus we are doubly blessed when we receive something: for the gift itself and later, in recall, for the miracle of having been given it.

Patience is no small, fell-good personal quality. It is at the heart of diplomacy and civility, lawfulness and civil order. Without it, people can't work together and society can't function at all. With it, we create the possibility of peace between people and between nations.

Gratitude helps us love well by keeping us focused on the beauty in our relationship and the person we love.

Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy.

Gratitude is the antidote to bitterness and resentment.