No doubt about it, this has been a tough year. 

From inflation to interest rates, many people are feeling a financial squeeze.
But even when things seem tough, there’s much to be thankful for — and there are several good reasons to start a practice of gratitude.

Being thankful can positively affect your health. According to research from Harvard University, “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” The Mayo Clinic says, “Practicing gratitude improves sleep, boosts immunity and decreases the risk of disease.”

People practice gratitude in a variety of ways, but here are some suggestions:

• On your daily to-do list, leave space to write down three things you were grateful for during the day.
• Try at least once a day to follow a “thank you” with a “because” statement — “Thank you for helping me with that project, because I never would have gotten it done on time without you!”
• At the dinner table, have everyone share the one thing that was a real highlight of their day.

At CommonWealth One, we have a lot to be thankful for. Here are the three things we’re grateful for today:

We’re thankful for our members. Our credit union literally would not exist without our members, and we’re glad that every member we have — new and old — has put their trust in CommonWealth One.

We’re thankful for the opportunity to give back. CommonWealth One puts a lot of value on giving back to the community. And that means that our staff (and our members, too) get to see happy faces when we donate school supplies to local schools, food to local organizations, money to local nonprofits, and when we participate in volunteer activities.

We’re thankful for technology. The credit union is very different than it was when it started back in 1944, and technology has a lot to do with that. Because of advances in banking and the Internet, we can now strengthen our members’ financial health through online learning tools, free webinars and more. And where would we all be without mobile deposit?!

We hope you have a happy, gratitude-filled Thanksgiving this year! No matter if you have challenges that you may be facing or plans you would like to achieve, we’re here to help you. Give us a call or stop by a branch to make an appointment with one of our certified financial professionals to talk about anything from budgeting to investing. We’ll see you soon!