Once Marcus and Alex arrive, our week is going to be full of connecting with family, with activities that will include a Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant (except, of course, they call it a “holiday” dinner here, since Thanksgiving is not thing, but Christmas sure is, and it’s already in full swing in Bath. Close enough). But for now, I’ve been enjoying my solitude. And I’ve been thinking about how grateful I am for my life.
This, by the way, isn’t new: I’ve had a pretty dogged gratitude practice for decades. Every night, before I go to sleep, I come up with at least one good thing that happened to me during the day. And I’ve mentioned before that the practice has changed my life. But here are two by-products of this little practice, ones that bear mentioning:
A dedicated gratitude practice makes you start looking for things to be grateful for. After you’re used to making a note for what you’re grateful for every night, you’ll start finding yourself looking for moments in your day that you can add to your list in the evening. Little things like, “Man, it was so good to hear from my college roommate out-of-the-blue today — that’s totally going on my list tonight.” “That was a great little conversation with the check-out guy at the grocery store. I’ve seen him so many times, it was cool to find out that he’s from the Caribbean, too! That’s totally going on my list.” Things that you might not have otherwise given a second thought to will now warrant a moment of reflection. But also:
On really crappy days, you’ll start going out of your way to make something good happen, if only for the sole purpose of having something on your list. This is the secret sauce right here: when your day is going awfully, knowing that you need to be grateful for something will make you do something kind for yourself. Maybe it’ll be a good long conversation with your best friend after work. Or buying yourself some grocery-store flowers. Or an extra-long bath and a book before bed. You’ll just start adding more of the good.
And the magic of creating this practice is that at the end of the month — or year, or even Thanksgiving day — you’ll look back and suddenly realize that you’ve been inadvertently cultivating joy all along. And that’s definitely something to be grateful for.
#thankful #week #KAREN #WALROND #trending #[now:year]
