It can be so easy to go from planning a celebration of gratitude (be it thanksgiving or another celebration or tradition) to completely forgetting the things we hold dear and are grateful for.
It is inevitable to forget gratitude because a) we are human, and b) marketing does not help one little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love a sale as much as the next person, but it is not about shopping or not shopping.
Gratitude (imo) is about keeping in perspective not only the hecticness of the season (and the shopping) but also incorporating moments of appreciation for what we already have which is beautiful and worthy.
And because it is difficult to remember that there is so much in our life already, a helpful skill can be to know when we have lost sight of gratitude. And we can know this by understanding our red flags.
My red flags regarding forgetting gratitude are when my to-do voices are the loudest voices in my head. To-dos are essential, but when they are the only thing I think about, I soon become overwhelmed and, after that, burned out.
When I catch myself in these moments of overwhelm or burnout, or when I go to sleep thinking about to-dos and wake up thinking about to-dos, I remember a path back to gratitude that I learned over a decade ago when I read “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Inspired by the author, I began writing three things I was grateful for daily. Mundane things, the most ordinary things: my salad dressing being zesty, a clean office space, getting some alone time. This kind of thing. It gave me perspective and energy then, and it does so now too.
As we head into the winter holidays and the end of the year, I invite you to join me over the next four weeks to write three things you are grateful for DAILY. You can write down in a notebook or on a note in your phone, even the back of your hand. It is really more about the acknowledging and making space than about anything else.
And also, I take this opportunity to say that- I am so very grateful for YOU!
