Thank you, “Life is Good!”

I will always be grateful that I am able to spend a wonderful week with my kids and their families at the Jersey Shore every year.  We have been vacationing on Long Beach Island for almost 40 years.   LBI is a barrier island off the coast of New Jersey and somehow still maintains the old timey feeling from when we first visited.

My kids live on opposite coasts so we rent a house where everyone can spend at least a week together.  It is so nice to have watched my grandchildren get to know each other over the years.  Families are often geographically separated now, which makes it difficult for our kids and grandkids to spend time together.  Our LBI vacations have been very important to me and were also very important to my husband Tom who started us on the Jersey Shore tradition.

While shopping in the little beach stores, we found a “Life is Good” store.  I have worn their shirts with clever drawings and positive sayings for years but did not know they had retail stores.  Everyone found something they wanted and I found a perfect beach read:  Life is Good: The Book.

The book’s authors are Bert and John Jacobs, the two brothers who founded the Life Is Good company.  They were the two youngest of six children in a lower middle-class family outside Boston.  It sounds like their home was filled with action and adventures and a couple of tragedies, but a loving family and a wonderful mom made it work. They started designing and selling their shirts on the street in 1989 and started the Life Is Good company in 1994.  It is now valued at over $100 million.

The brothers learned that life is not perfect in their own lives, when their parents and their sister were seriously injured in accidents.  Their mom started every dinner by asking everyone to say something good that had happened to them that day.  Somehow in the most difficult times, her request changed the energy and mood in the room.  The brothers write that their mom Joan was truly the inspiration for Life Is Good.

The idea behind their company is that our lives are open to infinite possibilities if we are open to them.  They developed a list of ten Life is Good Super Powers:  Openness, Courage, Simplicity, Humor, Gratitude, Fun, Compassion, Creativity, Authenticity and Love.  These Super Powers will help you through difficult times and overcome obstacles, have more purpose and simply enjoy the one life we all have.

Their Sixth Super Power is Gratitude.  This is not a scientific journal article but it provides some common sense, understandable facts about what gratitude does for us and a couple of ways to increase it in ourselves.

The book notes that in the past psychology was more about mental and emotional illnesses but now the focus is shifting.  Hundreds of studies have been done about the benefits of gratitude and its positive effects on our physical and mental health.

Journal of Personality and the journal Personality and Individual Differences have reported that grateful people are happier, more social and more satisfied with their lives and relationships.  They have stronger coping skills to deal with difficult times and are more willing to ask for help from others when needed.  A few of the physical benefits for grateful people are better sleep, a stronger immune system, fewer headaches and energy to exercise more.

Our lives are so busy now it is very easy to just move through without even noticing the good things we enjoy every day.  Positive psychology studies show that anyone can develop an attitude of more gratitude.  Some of the suggestions for doing this are as follows:

  • Appreciate the challenges you face and the new opportunities they open
  • Make gratitude part of every morning before you get up and get going.
  • Write a gratitude journal of things and people you are grateful for
  • Notice the good around you
  • Get involved and contribute to something outside yourself
  • Share your gratitude with others
  • Express your thanks in an email to someone who helped you
  • Include words of gratitude like lucky, fortunate, thankful describing your life
  • Remember the good things of the day before going to sleep

In spite of the challenges of aging, studies show people become progressively happier and more appreciative starting in their twenties and continuing through their senior years.  Laura Carstensen of the Stanford Center for Longevity writes that when people start to recognize the fragility of life and know that everyone’s time is limited, they begin to see and appreciate all the good things in their lives.

Professor Susan K Whitbourne of University of Massachusetts Amherst says seniors have experienced many positive and not so positive experiences in life.  This allows them to recognize that life does not always give us happiness and good fortune and to be sensitive to and appreciative of the many wonderful things in our lives.

My brain is aware that I have been super fortunate in most aspects of my life.  There have been difficult times of course where I had to really work on recognizing how many good things I have been given.  Life is Good: The Book gave me the very best tool to turn things around in a more positive way.  Instead of getting up every morning and saying today I have to go to the grocery store, have to visit my friend in the hospital and have to take my dogs to the park, I make a small change in the words I use.  I now tell myself today I get to go to the grocery store, I get to visit my friend in the hospital and I get take my best friends on a walk in the park.

By this time in our lives many seniors have seen friends and loved ones having to deal with disabilities and illnesses that can make it impossible “to get” to go wherever and whenever they want to.  I have two wonderful friends who can no longer just pick up and go on the most basic outing without substantial help.  These two women are far more courageous and positive than I believe I would be.   I never leave a visit with either one without feeling that I must be among the luckiest people on earth.

18 thoughts on “Thank you, “Life is Good!””

  1. Wonderfully uplifting article, Nancy! Thank you for posting!
    PS: The LG appliance brand (made in Korea) stands for ‘Life is Good’

    1. Thanks, Steve. I always wondered what it meant on the appliances. I’m glad it means something positive.

  2. Thank you for a terrific post, Nancy! I recently texted my kids the phrase, “Life is soooooo good,” after discovering chocolate hummus at Trader Joes! It’s the small things that are so delightful!

    1. Wow! Chocolate hummus at Trader Joe’s. I am going there today to get the only sparkling wine I like that has screw on tops. Will pick up some chocolate hummus also to enjoy with the wine. Thanks for your comment. .

  3. What a terrific reminder! My sister and I are working with our aging Dad to get his mindset moving in this direction. Being with the grandkids helps a lot with the effort!

    Thanks for keeping up the blog. It’s terrific!

    1. Thanks, Edward. Watching my grandchildren grow gives me much hope for the future of our country. Your Dad is a lucky man to have you and your sister to share his life with.

  4. Another wonderful blog, Nancy.

    There are so many things in life I am grateful for, which includes having friends like yourself in my life. It just makes life so much richer.

    Have a beautiful day.

    Lynn

    1. As we all grow “a little” older, I agree that having good friends is more important than ever. Keeping in touch with calls and lunches makes life better for all of us Thank you, Lynn

    2. I agree with lynn’s Comment. Nancy, it is a pleasure to have you as a friend. Keep writing. You are the best.

      1. Eileen, I am very grateful for a friend like you who enjoys going on our adventures. Thanks for your comment.

  5. Good morning Nancy, and many thanks – I really enjoyed this BLOG – I like the positive attitude, and agree that some mornings I get up and feel bad because I can no longer drive, and have to depend on others for every little thing – but then, my mind turns the other way, and I look at it from the standpoint – how lucky I am that I have good friends and children that are “willing” to help me – gives you a totally different outlook on the situation. Keep writing, as I really enjoy reading the BLOG. Much love, Ursula

    1. You are the perfect example of a person who has dealt with loss and has remained positive and optimistic about the future. Thank you, Ursula.

    2. The words we think and say to form sentences have a direct effect on our feelings. When you say, “I have to,” which sounds like a chore instead of, “I get to,” which is more like a gift, you will be more happy or grateful about doing it. Transitional vocabulary makes a lot of sense. Even saying, “I hate that,” instead of saying, “I don’t really like that” invokes different feelings, if you know what I mean.

      1. Hi, Carrie I really believe that also. Yesterday I got voice mail messages from several friends and family members asking if I was ok with the CA fires. My fist thought was before I do anything else I have to or need to return those messages. Reading your comment made me go back to say I am so lucky to have people who are concerned about me and the fires and I think my calls took on an entirely different prospective. Thanks.

  6. I loved this article and I try to do “appreciations” every day. It really does enhance my sense of well-being and happiness. Julie Osborn

  7. This is lovely, Nancy. Today I GET TO work on my required Continued Education Units (CEUs) in order to do tax returns next season. I am grateful. Have a wonderful day and thanks for all you do.

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