Gratitude: Post-Thanksgiving.

So you’re probably thinking I’m late on this gratitude post, Thanksgiving is over…. but  no, I just think “why be thankful only on Thanksgiving day?”

Gratitude is the root for peace, love, and true joy. It is incredibly important to our mental and even physical well-being. Think about it: instead of focusing on what’s causing you pain, sadness, anger and complain, focus on appreciating what you have, even that pain and its importance to your growth!  This way you succeed in ridding your body and mind of negative emotions, replacing them with positive ones.

“Expectation is the Mother of all Frustration.”

Great gratitude comes ultimately from a place of great humility. Replacing expectation with awe, we see the world through childlike eyes. Everything is a gift, everything is alive; everything is thrilling! We let the quality of life fill us up instead of the quantity.

Gratitude as a health aspect is rooted in Eastern philosophies, but the idea is recently being incorporated into Western medicine.

A study by the Mayo Clinic cites these health benefits of positive thinking:

• Decreased negative stress
• Greater resistance to catching the common cold
• A sense of well-being and improved health
• Reduced risk of coronary artery disease
• Easier breathing with certain lung diseases, such as emphysema
• Improved coping ability for women with high-risk pregnancies
• Better coping skills during hardships

How to incorporate GRATITUDE into your daily life:

1. During a yoga or meditation practice: start your practice with an intention of gratitude.  Take a few breaths focusing on all you are grateful for.  During practice, be grateful for being able to breathe, move, think- the simple things in life that so many may not have.

2. During a difficult situation: If you find yourself entrenched in negative thinking, try to replace those stressful thoughts with thoughts of gratitude for yourself and others. For example, if you get caught in the rain, try not to focus on the fact that you’re wet, uncomfortable, stuck in traffic, (and probably late!), but rather focus on the benefits that rain brings to the Earth.

3. Journaling: Try journaling three or five small things for which you are grateful for, every morning after waking, or every evening before falling asleep.

4. Family dinner table conversation: Start your meal with going around as a family and each saying what they are grateful for from today. This is a great way to teach children early on to focus on those positive moments and be thankful.  Young children might need help with this one at the beginning as they don’t necessarily know to be grateful for the food they have in front of them or their school, friends, etc… but it is a great conversation to start!

Dig deep for gratitude and you will find peace. It’s always right in front of us, but we can’t always see it through the dust of daily life that makes it look ordinary and unimportant.

I’ll leave you with this gratitude poem by yoga teacher Jeanie Manchester:

I am grateful for my limits

that teach me patience and pace

I am grateful for challenge, defeat, and loss

They teach me hope is not a light at the end of the dark tunnel

It’s the ember burning within me that I forgot to fan

I am grateful to my teachers

for introducing me to myself

I am grateful for my past

that has delivered me to my present

I am grateful for all I have found and all I have lost

Both remind me I can live with and without

I am grateful for silence and for laughter

And for my ears that can hear both

I am grateful to my heart

that beats and breaks and heals

I am grateful for the fullness of my life

For the brief, heartbreaking, heartwarming fullness of life.