Gratitude Creates Abundance
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” — Anonymous
November is a month that lends itself to gratitude, and I am particularly reminded of this as we anticipate celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. This year feels different, though. Many of us are skipping holiday travel and/or foregoing the typical extended family and friends celebrations because of the pandemic. Some will be alone for this holiday, some will be just with immediate family, and most of us will feel some sense of loss of “what could have been” this year.
Given this, it is particularly important this year to remind ourselves that it is not having or doing more that creates gratitude, but rather it is the reverse. It is recognizing the abundance we already have in our lives that creates gratitude. And yes, even this year, even if we are alone for Thanksgiving, we do have things for which we can feel grateful.
It just may be harder to remember that this year. This is precisely the reason that gratitude is a practice.
Almost every day I write down 3 things for which I feel grateful and 3 about which I feel excited. Sometimes it’s an easy task. I very happily come up with more than 3 for each category and go on with my great day. Other days, I sit for what feels like forever trying to come up with something—anything—and what I finally come up with feels trivial, mundane, or even fake. Sometimes I end up writing the same things day after day because I can’t think of anything else. Some days I finally come up with something and it doesn’t change anything, I still feel lousy.
I do it regardless, however, because the process of searching for it matters. The practice of gratitude leads to greater happiness.
Like most things, changes do not happen overnight, or even quickly. We don’t identify something for which to be grateful and suddenly feel grateful and happy if we just aren’t there. That is ok. We aren’t expecting immediate change or situational happiness. Those are fleeting. We want the true, internal transformation, and that takes both time and consistent work.
Changes do happen. In small increments our brains change and with that change comes a change in perspective. It becomes easier to see the beauty when it is obvious, and easier to find it when it is not. The lens through which we view the world becomes less clouded by negativity and more clear to possibility. We become more positive, find joy more easily, and experience happiness more pervasively.
Today let’s begin a practice of gratitude and begin the process of learning that we really do have enough. Find 3 things, however small and seemingly trivial, for which you can feel grateful. It matters not what they are, nor how easy or hard it is to find them. The practice alone holds the power.