Give Thanks Every Day
"Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life."
Rumi
Thanksgiving comes once a year, but gratitude is such a powerful phenomenon, it’s worth cultivating for everyday use!
Gratitude is many things: a feeling, an attitude, a practice, a way of life.
A Feeling
Amazing things happen in the brain and body when we experience the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude opens our hearts. Research has shown that feeling grateful can literally shift our hearts into a healthy heart frequency.
When we feel grateful, our brains flood with chemicals — endorphins — that make us feel good. It’s also true that we can’t feel grateful and have a negative emotion such as anger or fear at the same time. That makes gratitude the antidote to worry, frustration, fear and depression. That’s worth remembering!
An Attitude
When we cultivate an attitude of gratitude, it expands our world and attracts people to us. (Blaming, complaining, and judging contract our world, making us less attractive and more isolated.) In a neat twist, an attitude of gratitude often shifts our feelings.
A Practice
Pessimists are people who have exercised their muscles of negativity and lack until those muscles are very strong.
A Way of Life
Optimists are people who have developed their gratitude muscles. The real gift is when, through practice, gratitude becomes a way of life.
It strikes me that experiencing gratitude for small things may be the only way to thrive and remain cheerful in the long haul, through the inevitable big and little difficulties of our individual and collective lives. Often gratitude for small things brings us right to the present moment. The past may be painful, the future murky, but here, now, right this minute, I am having an absolutely delicious cup of coffee. Or a friend sends me a cartoon, and I’m tickled and laugh, grateful for the small and precious moment of sharing.
Coaching Questions
I encourage you to develop your gratitude muscles until they are strong and automatic, making gratitude a way of life. Here are some things that will help:
- Count your blessings! Stop right now and write down at least ten things you’re genuinely grateful for. Include small things and large, such as: the fact that you woke up this morning, that you are loved, that the sun is shining through the window, and making a beautiful mosaic on your hardwood floor, that you love many people, that pears are in season, the support you get from others, your devoted dog, cat, goat, etc. etc.
- Consider keeping a gratitude journal. Use any spiral notebook, or check online for a gratitude journal especially for keeping track of what you’re grateful for. I love the free app Gratitude 365.
- Think of someone in your life who annoys you. Now think of two things about that person you’re grateful for. Notice how quickly a feeling can change depending on what you focus on.
- If you have trouble thinking of things you’re grateful for, be ridiculous. Be grateful for bad things that haven’t happened – you don’t have a broken leg, for example.
- Start a business meeting by sharing what you’re grateful for. Include progress on projects, help received from various people both in and out of the room. You’ll be amazed at the positive energy this generates.
- Read Attitudes of Gratitude, How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life, by M.J. Ryan.
I am a coach. To find out how I might be helpful to you, please email me at sharon@sharoneakes.com to schedule a Discovery Session.
I've written Fresh Views every month since 2000. The best have been collected into a book titled Fresh Views on Resilient Living. Purchase it here from Amazon.
My partner in Two Wise Women, Nancy Smyth, and I have published another book, Chocolate or Lunch, How Choices Impact Relationships. If you have any tense relationships that need help, this book is for you! Find it here: Chocolate or Lunch on Amazon.
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