Gratitude is a foundational strength. When you feel gratitude, a lot of other strengths can be built on top. For instance, the ability to love and be loved would be difficult, if not impossible, without gratitude.

The challenge of creating motivation for making changes by using resolutions is that they are notoriously hard to keep. The notion of practice, however, has an appeal because practice is a part of learning a new skill, moving toward improvement, and it is both a noun and a verb!

Have you ever heard the saying, "When one door closes, another door opens"? I don't feel another door opens on its own; gratitude is the force that opens doors.

What do most people write about in their gratitude journals? If you're a cynic, it may surprise you -- money and possessions do not top the list.

Moving on after tragedy, not letting it be our guide but taking its wisdom into our next experience of love, is the practice of routine gratitude.