By Christine Cioppa   

Once a year many people take a special moment to appreciate what they have. It feels good to get together with family and/or friends and go around the table and give thanks. But when the turkey leftovers are long gone and that spirit of thankfulness slips from the foreground of our minds, thoughts of gratitude can be replaced with thoughts of to-do lists, everyday happenings and whatever annoyances that arise.

Do you leave room for gratitude? (Take this quiz to find out: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/6)

Researcher shows that continuous gratitude has physical, psychological and social benefits. According to The University of California Berkeley, the health benefits include less aches and pains, stronger immunity, lower blood pressure, more restful sleep, feelings of happiness, and reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Ready to get started for better health? Here are two steps:

Think differently. “Gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it; we’re less likely to take it for granted,” said Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., of the University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good—The Science of a Meaningful Life.

And when you’re focused on the good, you’re not focused on the bad. As simple as it seems, training ourselves to think differently on a daily basis can lead to greater happiness. How so?

“Gratitude blocks toxic, negative emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret—emotions that can destroy our happiness,” Emmons said.

For more on gratitude from California Berkeley, visit: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good/.

Start a gratitude journal and write down what you are grateful for each day. Oprah has kept a gratitude journal for more than a decade.

Not into writing? You can get an app for that! Go to https://www.azasu.me for the Gratitude Journal App for iOS and Android. You can privately type in a sentence a day.