I'm Dr. Esther Sternberg, and This is an excerpt from the spirituality chapter in my book, Well at Work, Creating Well Being in Any Workspace. The practice of gratitude has echoes in many traditions. In Jewish observance, a prayer is recited every morning thanking God for awakening, and blessings are recited at the start and end of every meal to thank God for providing food and sustenance. Christianity, a similar gratitude prayer, the rituals of saying grace, starts every meal. Gratitude practice is so embedded in Western culture that it is at the core of America's most beloved holidays, Thanksgiving. Yet how many of us take the time to intentionally feel gratitude on a regular basis?

If you can't find a moment or a place to do this in the middle of a busy work day, try stepping outside before you start your day to look all around you. Take in the horizon, the larger and smaller things you see, a tree, a leaf, the reflection of light on the leaves or on a building's windows and doors.

Feel the crunch of gravel or the smooth pavement under your feet and the brush of wind on your sleeve. Listen to the rush of traffic or the birds chirping. Breathe deeply and slowly. Try to consciously feel gratitude for all that is around you and for all the people in your life who are meaningful to you, including those at work.

This mindfulness and gratitude practice is moving your stress response back along that rainbow, allowing you to start the day at a calmer place so that when the stresses of the day do hit, you won't fall over the edge into anxiety and distress. At the same time, the gratitude practice is triggering those feel good dopamine reward pathways in the brain, and the feel good endorphin pathways too, all of which help to reduce the stress response. From the brain's point of view, enhancing the positive is a more effective way to reduce stress than trying to reduce the negative.

I think of Oscar Wilde's quote from Lady Windermere's fan, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

That notion gave me a sense of hope and peace and calm.

I'm Dr. Esther Sternberg, and that was an excerpt from my book, Well at Work, Creating Wellbeing in Any Workspace.