With Love and Gratitude

A blessing a day keeps the doc away

by Rita Watson

Pumpkin Flowers: The Nursing Home Arrangement

Visiting a recent nursing home activity I wondered why those who were unable to physically participate were not engaged in a companion "Gratitude or Remembrance Therapy" to brighten eyes and trigger memories Read More

10 Ways to Take Control of Saturday Night Alone

All too often we look for “breathless” instead of values and stability because too many of us were raised to believe in Prince Charming. But waiting for him to come with the glass slipper may mean waiting forever. Read More

20 Thoughts for Keeping Love Alive

In some ways walking the love road and starting with gratitude, forgiveness, and appreciation is like cleaning out closets, desk drawers, or tackling a pile of papers. You feel relieved and refreshed. Read More

Chilling News About Football and Teen Concussions

Will young athletes ever express gratitude that you as a parent kept them safe by having them sit out a game? Maybe someday if they read the reports on brain injuries, but probably not in the immediate future. Read More

3 Steps to Breaking up with Integrity

When you feel that the time has come to say “Good-by”, always do so with dignity, clarity, and firmness. Try to have a talk in person rather than through email. Read More

7 Ways to Create an Abundance Garden

Karma suggests that choices we made in our past, in words and deeds, will return to us. Fortunately we can start today to neutralize the past while laying a foundation for the future. To create the type of energy that brings about emotional generosity, here are some simple tips although the most is difficult is forgiveness. Read More

Happiness and the "Should" Struggle

The real problem with too much to do and not enough time to do it is the way it affects our attitude, our stress level, and anger. When anger sets in, our relationships change. Finding the happiness and gratitude balance can mean the difference between success or failure in our relationships. Read More

Disappointment: Three Layers, Hurt to Gratitude

Sometimes disappointment can be managed in small doses. But when it's out of our own control, it's the outcome that triggers the feelings of distress and sadness. Read More

When Love Is Lost

If we spend our days always speaking kindly to those whom we love, perhaps we can get through life with fewer regrets and find a place in our heart that helps us to rebound Read More

15 Secrets for September Love

The moon is beginning to approach the glorious colors of September and October that many will recall from the movie Moonstruck. It is a perfect time to begin a new love or rekindle and be grateful for the love in your life. Read More

Intimacy and Its 3 Challenging Dangers

With intimacy we see a sad irony. We strive for intimacy with our love, but once achieved, that intimacy bond becomes compromised in ways that lead to a break-down in communication, respect, and sexual passion. Read More

20 Thoughts on How to Say, “It’s Over”

A survey of British lawyers last year determined that “growing apart” was the number one reason for divorce even ahead of money issues and infidelity. There is no good way to say, “It’s over.” But here are some thoughts on how to proceed. Read More

For The Twilight Saga Couple: Outrage, the New Morality, and Forgiveness

In Tinsel Town when scandalous photos emerge the way to handle it is through denial, but Kristen Stewart blurted out the truth. Her words set scandal afire. The good news is that young people might be getting a picture of how it is that even emotional infidelity wreaks havoc. Read More

3 Challenges of “Happily Ever After”

The fairy tales promised us "happily ever after." It is seldom “happily ever after.” And there is an element to it of unconditional love; that is, love from the bottom of one’s heart despite behavior, actions or even qualities. However, the world of love is often entwined with "if you loved me" happiness. Read More

Deciding to Go or Stay When Infidelity Tarnishes Marriage

For many couples when infidelity is suspected, realization happens during an unsuspecting moment—the way he glances at another woman, the hushed phone call. Once reality sets in, there are many scenarios as to how women deal with the decision to go or stay. For all concerned forgiveness helps as a plan is formulated. Read More

Activity, Sex, Laughter and Meditation Are Stress Relief Secrets

Although the top stressors remain unchanged — money, work, relationships and health — people appear to be better adapting to the status quo. The media has helped to raise awareness about stress and preventive measures. Read More

When Fireworks Continue, Friends Can Be Protective

Fireworks in relationships can be distressing. Family peccadilloes may be one reason so many people view friends as treasures. Friends help us to stay balanced, laugh at ourselves, and can nudge us into forgiveness even when we are not feeling very loving or forgiving. Read More

Four Risks in Loving Men Who Can’t Commit

If you have heard yourself say: “He wouldn’t commit in the past, but I’m different. I can help him learn to love” -- pinch yourself. Unlike women who want to change a man, if you believe you can nurse him back to health you might be trapped in the wounded bird syndrome. Read More

Anxiety Attacks: Caregivers Smothered by Decisions

In many ways there is no answer to the nursing home crisis. Each person does what he or she does best and defines “in the best interest of” oftentimes according to his or her own needs. Read More

3 Ways to Rewrite Your Story and Embrace the Future

It is how we choose to remember our stories that shapes our personality and impacts our relationships. What determines our destiny is the way we fashion our stories. While it is always best to err on the side of truth, sometimes we are driven to reshape unhappy experiences to find a smidgeon of the positive and avoid the red flags of anger. Read More

3 Reasons Why Soft Porn for Women Is Ho-Hum

The soft porn for women movement is really nothing new, just more openly discussed and graphically conveyed just as “sexting” has become the new love note. Perhaps soft porn is an easy way to peak women’s imagination and desire for exotic sex lives, especially for the over-tired mommy. Read More

Forgiveness: Apology Lesson from Baseball Revisited

On the baseball field there was a costly mistake, an apology, and a gracious acceptance. Unlike what couples often experience when someone is hurt, angry, or wronged — there was no tantrum, no silent treatment, and no nagging “how could you?” The baseball example in some ways reflected the elegance of high profile women who have forgiven their spouses for infidelity. Read More

Mothering Our Mothers with Dementia

Through Berna Huebner’s devotion and those of the student art teachers -- who sometimes had to pick up a brush and put it in the artist’s hand when she resisted -- a daughter helped her mother find a way out the darkness of Alzheimer's to the world of painting that she so loved. Read More

Luscious Kisses, Sex, and 4 Secrets to Lifelong Love

In a world captivated by 50 Shades of Grey, maybe it is time to remember that loving kisses are a powerful turn-on. Then keep in mind the value of positive illusions and gratitude, forgiveness, oxytocin, and the power of laughter. Read More

Women's Top 4 Wishes and Why Men Should Grant Them

In my own research through the years, I have found that women are a faithful group as confirmed by my talks with Dr. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project . He tells me that just 14 percent of ever-married women reported an extramarital affair over their lifetimes. Read More

8 Ways to Express Love in May

We have learned from gratitude researchers that “thank you” may be the secret to good health, a long life, and lots of love. Even if you express gratitude when you don't feel like doing so, "eventually you will feel the gratitude you express." Read More

3 Tips to Be Free of the 10 Table Pounding Whys

Whenever we say “Yes,” when we mean “No” oftentimes it is because something inside of us has already reached the conclusion that things are not going to end well. But because we were raised to be pleasers, we compromise ourselves. Read More

The Little Miss Sunshine Mask Must Go

Today with married couples stressed financially, co-habitation trendier than marriage, and men from bad divorces commitment averse, women are often at the decision-making helm. And while many women are uncomfortable with their situation, speaking out for change can be even more difficult. Read More

6 Reasons Gift-Giving Men Are Good Lovers

Why is it that some people receive joy in buying a gift for lovers, friends and family, while others find no pleasure in giving? Gift givers are better lovers because of their expansive energy and emotions. Read More

Sex Trumps the King: Simple Love and Dating Rules

When we lived in the city, friends would give a call at the last minute and within half an hour there was laughter, there were stories, and secrets were shared about creative ways to thwart a blow up. Single friends were able to benefit from those of us in long-term relationships and marriages. Instead of reading “The Rules” we made them up as we went along. Read More

Rita Watson is an Associate Fellow at Yale's Ezra Stiles College and a columnist for The Providence Journal.

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About With Love and Gratitude

Surrounding oursleves with lingering gratitude may be the secret to the Fountain of Youth and lifelong love. Within columns ranging from love and marriage to cognition and health, research and quotes from leading physicians and scientists will be highlighted.