Putting Gratitude Back Into Thanksgiving
Like many holidays in America, Thanksgiving is romanticized and built on a one-sided story. There was very little happiness or peace between early European colonizers and Native Americans at the time of the actual event, but I’ll stop while I’m ahead because that’s not what this post is about. It’s not just about the turkey and ham, or Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It’s about the fact that Thanksgiving is one of the biggest and most universal platforms gratitude has. If gratitude gets no play any other time of the year, it’s this holiday that serves as an annual opportunity to gather with family and friends with gratitude and thankfulness in mind. So this post is going to be about just that: gratitude and thankfulness.
This year I think Thanksgiving will be different because I think many of us are in new and unfamiliar territory mentally as a result of the shift in our government and some of the issues it has caused. Everybody is used to going thru things in their personal lives, but for many of us millennials this is the first chaotic political landscape we’ve ever been a part of. But regardless of what is happening in the world and in our personal lives, there is always something to be grateful for.
This year when you head to the kitchen to cook or sit down at the table for Thanksgiving dinner, consider going a little further than the “what are you thankful for?” conversation at the table. While it makes for a nice, uniting family conversation, really digging deep with gratitude requires more than a one liner about what you’re thankful for. I recently read a book called The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown, which is all about letting go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embracing who you are. The overall message isn’t to settle, or get comfortable with your shortcomings or faults and say “it’s just the way I am”. The message is to stop beating yourself up for not being who you want to be, and acknowledge that who you think you should be might not be who you are. It’s about giving yourself credit for running a 5K even though your ultimate goal might be a marathon; giving yourself credit for making the effort to become a better communicator, even though you may not have it perfect just yet; being grateful for who you are and what you have in this very moment, despite the fact that you may not have reached all of your goals or your full potential yet.
In the book are several guideposts and following each guidepost, the author encourages the reader to “dig deep”: get deliberate about your intentions, get inspired by whatever inspires you, and get going. For me personally, I get deliberate about my intentions by journaling them so that I can see them on paper. Something really magical happens when you get certain ideas out of your head and make them visible. I get inspired by reflecting on how far I have come. As a recovering perfectionist, it can be very difficult for me to remember how much progress I’ve made when all I can think about is the fact that I’m still not at the finish line. But writing things down is really helpful because you don’t have to remember, you just have to read. I can even see changes in my perspective or outlook on life, based on the way I document things now and how I documented them a year ago. And then of course, the last step is to get going. Continue to push to reach your goals because you’ll only get as much out as you put in.
As with most things that are good for your mind, practicing gratitude is also good you’re your physical health. According the TIME, being grateful lowers your blood pressure, decreases stress, and lowers depression and when you’re feeling grateful, you’re also more giving. Generosity has positive effects on the world—and on our happiness, too. Although I’m an advocate for gratitude and thankfulness all year round, Thanksgiving usually gives us all a little extra down time to really dig deep. In the words of Brene, remember this: “the wholehearted journey is not the path of least resistance. It’s a path of consciousness and choice”. Continue to make the choice to be grateful because things could always be worse.
So here’s a little Thanksgiving gratitude/journaling prompt for you that I found really useful, and feel free to drop your answers in the comments:
- What is there about a challenge you’re experiencing right now that you can be thankful for?
- What are you taking for granted about your day to day that you can be thankful for?
- List 3 small ways that you can share your gratitude with others.
Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for journeying with me.
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