In the US, we celebrate Thanksgiving this week. It is the one holiday that is focused on gratitude, abundance, and honoring and sharing the good things in our lives.
Personally, I’m an advocate for expressing gratitude 100% of our days and not only .03% of the time.
Many of us think of gratitude as sentimental, soft, a sugar coating of the tough, hard difficult world we inhabit. As I work with groups and signal spending time on gratitude, without fail, there is someone to joke that we are going to have a Kum Bi Yah moment. Often it is raised in disdain and not delight.
Conventional thinking would tell us it is better to focus on the problems. After all, that is the job of management. Others share the advice that you should avoid sharing appreciation to those you lead, since it might go to their heads. Then they might slack off or even have the audacity to ask for a raise.
Scientific Benefits of Gratitude
Scientists would beg to differ. Gratitude begets a bevy of benefits including:
- Increased levels of well-being and life satisfaction
- More happiness
- Better energy
- More optimism
- Less depression
- Improved health, specifically lower blood pressure
- Higher levels of control of their environment
- More personal growth
- Higher sense of purpose
- Better ability to deal with difficulties
- Fewer negative coping strategies (think drugs, alcohol, and other harmful habits)
- Better sleep
- Increased longevity
- Positive impact to others
After 20 years of practicing gratitude, I’ve noticed that gratitude does not prevent me from seeing and solving problems. It does not lull me into complacency or transform me into an annoyingly upbeat Pollyanna.
It puts me in a place in which I have a more balanced view.
However, I must admit, I spent many of my adult years in a place other than gratitude. I could walk through a beautiful garden on a sunny day with butterflies flitting and birds singing and flowers blooming and instead of seeing the beauty, focus on the weeds.
Establishing a Pattern of Gratitude
Once you establish a pattern of practicing gratitude, you open your eyes to how much there is to appreciate. I began to see how much the little things really mattered. I was struck with the insight that I could influence my life and others to be more joyful. I could build people up, rather than tear them down.
I encourage you, on this solitary day of the year, where we cease our frantic pace and join with others and savor a meal and perhaps a football game or parade – to really pause. The stores will be open (bright and early). Work will still be there, for those of you able to take the day off. All those worries and problems will patiently await your return.
Pause. Rest. Reflect. See your world through a different lens. And share your gratitude with others….in words, deeds, and actions.
2 Responses
Wise words as usual. I’m grateful for you and the work you are doing. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Greatest advice. The Principle of Magnatizim.
Be Well my friend! Happy Thanksgiving.
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