The Happy Guy declares Thanksgiving more important for happiness than Christmas

In a mercifully short news release, a leading specialist on happiness is declaring Thanksgiving more important than Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.

A leading specialist on happiness is declaring Thanksgiving more important than Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, in a public statement just released.

"For personal happiness, there can be no holiday more important than Thanksgiving," says David Leonhardt, also known as The Happy Guy. "Appreciation is the basis on which anything and anybody adds to our happiness, and gratitude is how we express appreciation. That's what Thanksgiving is all about."

Leonhardt is author of Climb your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness, in which he devotes two chapters to gratitude, and has often been heard saying that "count your blessings" is the most important of the happiness habits he proposes.

"I am certainly not suggesting that Thanksgiving should become more commercial, the way some holidays have," Leonhardt says. "But Thanksgiving should play a much more important role in our personal calendars.

Leonhardt offers tips for people to make every day Thanksgiving Day:

•   Keep a gratitude journal. If you don't have time to write, use a micro-cassette recorder while you walk or shop.

•   Take five minutes each day to look at things in your house that you take for granted. Imagine how life would be different if you did not have them.

•   Say grace at dinner every night. You don't have to religious, just grateful.

Leonhardt, a well-known consumer advocate, is also publisher of the motivational free ezine "Your Daily Dose of Happiness" (http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/daily-happiness-free-ezine.html) and runs http://www.TheHappyGuy.com