Be grateful: 5 things you can do now

Thanksgiving Holiday

Be grateful! Today, October 12, 2020, is the Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday! Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday of October each year and it’s an official statutory holiday in most provinces of Canada. Thanksgiving is a holiday dedicated to the focus of being thankful.

I personally love this holiday. Not just because of the food and the fact that I am surrounded by family and friends, but also because being thankful is a great feeling. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word thankful as “pleased and relieved.” Who doesn’t like being pleased and relieved about something? We all love good news.

In today’s blog, I pondered on the words thankful and grateful. They are similar and have slightly different meanings as well. Being grateful seems to go a bit deeper than being thankful. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word grateful as “feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness.” This is where I find the difference in the two words; being thankful is a feeling, and being grateful includes an action.

Be Grateful and Be Thankful

You may be wondering why this distinction is important. As we all know, feelings come and go, however, an action has lasting impact. I know we are thankful many times over the course of a day, week, months and year because we just don’t wait for Thanksgiving holiday to be thankful. The holiday does give us an opportunity to reflect and create those habits of being grateful. Gratitude is more than just the feeling of thankfulness.

 When we are thankful, this is step number 1 which should lead us to cultivate that habit of gratitude. With a habit of gratitude, our senses become heightened to the roles of our creator and others in our lives. We show appreciation for little things, big things and everything in between. With this practice, we will notice that we complain less, we love more and we attract more happiness into our days and lives.

What does it mean to be grateful?

The scriptures tell us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks…”. This command though simple is certainly not easy to practice -”in everything…” There are times we just don’t feel there’s anything to be thankful for. When I am sick or struggling, I don’t feel thankful in those moments. Losing a loved one does not immediately evoke any thankful feelings and probably for a long time. We are all human and we cannot fight our feelings. This is however, where the actions of being grateful kick in and are very helpful

In this command , “give thanks” notice it’s an action: give thanks- be grateful. Though I may not feel thankful at times, I can always embrace giving thanks. As with many life principles, we know the principles work, they are usually simple, yet our logical minds would rather work on complicating the simple principles and end up not practicing them.

While it’s not easy to dictate to our emotions what to do at any point in time, it is what we do with those emotions that we have control over. You can give this life principle a try now as you read. Take just 30 seconds to recall something you are thankful for and just be grateful for it even if you don’t feel thankful right now. Now, that wasn’t so hard to do, was it? And how do you feel once you recalled that pleasant experience and was actually grateful for it? Now you’ve done this short practice, let’s explore more actions you can take to be grateful, today and always.

It’s hard to be hateful when you are grateful

Chris Hogan

5 things you can do now

1. Gratitude list: Are you going through a challenging time right now? As we touched on earlier, challenging times are one of the worst for any feelings of thankfulness, however, all is not lost. You are more than any challenges you may be going through right now. When you search within you, you will find that there are small or big things happening in your life right now that you can be thankful for.

I often look at my life using some financial analogies. In finance, we talk of a person or company’s net worth. The net worth is made up of what you own minus what you owe. Your challenges may be seen as a minus at this time depending on what they are or you may see them as opportunities as well. However, thinking about the things that are going well for you, and being grateful for them will slowly reset your mind from focusing on the challenges and open you up to see opportunities.

ACTION: In the next 5 days, write a gratitude list consisting of at least 3 things you are grateful for each day. There’s no specific time of the day to do this – just whatever time works for you. For some people it’s in the morning when they wake up, some others prefer to do this before they go to bed. I personally, note things as the day goes. For example, today, I have already noted 3 things down in my list (before the day is done, this list will definitely grow. The beauty is that as I grow through the day and add things to my list, I have fewer instances of being hateful, complaining, or other negative actions). Here’s my list as an example. I am grateful for:

A) The gift of life today and the opportunity to spend time with my family this holiday

B) This awesome holiday where many people in the country are collectively being thankful. That is a lot of good vibes in the environment and I’m sure it has ripple effects which will positively impact those that don’t feel thankful for many reasons today

C) The beautiful fall colors. This natural transformation of the leaves during fall leaves (no pun intended ) me in awe and wonder of creation and the creator.

Write an account of this victory so that it will be remembered.

Exodus 17:14 GNT

2. Manifest your desires: Recently, I was pleased with my daughter and I said to her, “I’ll give you $5”. She was very happy and said thank you. Though she’s yet to receive this gift, she believed she will get the money and was thankful. What faith!. What are those genuine desires you have? Why not be thankful for them, believing you have received it by faith?

This may sound woo woo, however, there’s power in visualization and manifestation and just being grateful for things to come in faith opens your mind to see opportunities that will lead to manifest these desires and promises. When you are doubtful and skeptical, you remain closed to any opportunities that may present themselves to you because you do not see the connections with the desire or promise.

ACTION: What promises do you desire? This doesn’t have to be only big things. Write it down, keep it in a visible place. Be thankful as if you’ve already received this desire and lastly believe. I use a vision board to manifest God’s promises in my life. Importantly, I do not throw away anything that has manifested. This doubles up as another reminder to be thankful for all that has happened in my life and as reassurance that many good things will happen as well. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write an account of this victory so that it will be remembered.” – Exodus 17:14 Good News Translation

3. Be grateful for things you are discarding

Have gratitude for the things you’re discarding. By giving gratitude, you’re giving closure to the relationship with that object, and by doing so, it becomes a lot easier to let go

Marie Kondo

This is one of my favorite ways of showing gratitude. There might be negative experiences I am holding on to for a while. I may not like the emotions they evoke but for some strange reason, I hang on to these experiences. This quote reminds me to free myself by giving up those experiences while being thankful for any lessons I may have learned from them.

This summer, I did my first 5K run in support of suicide prevention. What was remarkable for me was that I have never run before. In fact, I do not recall participating in any sports. Even as a child (except for the marching band and dancing). Anytime running was mentioned around me, I would say out loud, “I do not run because nothing is chasing me and I am not chasing anyone”. And I actually believed this declaration for myself.

With the opportunity of working from home and cutting down my transit time, I started training for a run in the early mornings. I was grateful as I took up this challenge fighting my own words. Never say never, right?! I am more thankful to have participated in a worthy cause in promoting suicide prevention.

ACTION: What thoughts, things, or habits do you need to discard today? Be thankful for the role they have played so far in your life. Next give them up, replacing them with something you will be grateful for every day. Some people may choose to declutter their lives or closets; some people give up sugar; while others may give up speaking badly to themselves and rather start to affirm the gifts they’ve been blessed with. What about you?

4. Taking things for granted: Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy – Luke 17: 11 – 19. You may notice by now that I love to include scripture in my reflections. I love reading. I always note ideas and quotes from my readings. The scriptures are an excellent source of life principles. I love to include quotes that are divinely inspired as well as those of my fellow humans.

The story of the 10 men with leprosy that were healed by Jesus is one that reminds me of how we often take things for granted. Out of the 10 men that were healed, only one came back to thank Jesus after Jesus asked them to go present themselves to the high priests. Of course, Jesus asked about the other 9 and then he said to the man, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:19 NIV

Being grateful, helps us not to take things for granted. When we are appreciative, chances are the person who gave us the gift would be happy and very likely be open to giving us another gift when the opportunity arises. Better still, they will want to bless more people because when we give, we feel good.

 ACTION: reflect on small things around you that you may be taking for granted, A relationship; something a loved one does for you; your friends; the person that listens to you all the time; that gadget that saves you a lot of time and energy; etc. Pick one today and be thankful for it. Better still, include this as part of your gratitude list from action one above. If accountability works for you, make all of this a challenge. Track it for a couple of days or the rest of this month.

5. Celebration: “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed” – Maya Angelou

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed

Maya Angelou

We are of course celebrating the thanksgiving holiday today. Some families will have a big dinner  – socially distanced of course in the 2020 pandemic, others may find other ways to celebrate the holiday – maybe catch up on naps and Netflix.

However anyone chooses to celebrate, the holiday is a great opportunity to be thankful. The act of gratitude and showing appreciation helps us to celebrate the giver as we accept the gifts cheerfully. It also helps the giver celebrate their blessings and ability to be in a position to bless others.

ACTION: Celebrate you by being thankful for the gifts you have and use them to bless others. This could be a smile, a friendly phone call or text message, ordering food for a neighbor in need – whatever you can freely offer in gratitude as you celebrate you!

Remember, with a habit of gratitude, our senses become heightened to the roles of our creator and other people in our lives. Be grateful, now, and always.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share how you celebrate thanksgiving below.

Blessings.