Gratitude Is a Goal

With Thanksgiving coming up while the virus is surging, we are all facing a very different kind of holiday this year.  Hopes of being together--just physically being together--are now flattened because of covid.  

Plan B--what will you do now?  How will you make this time feel worthwhile and important, positive and full of thanks?  Maybe it will be the traditional foods that make the holiday feel, smell and taste like you want it to?  Maybe it will be a new tradition to explore?  Maybe it will be a zoom connection with people you might not normally gather with?  However you plan to do it, it has to be meaningful to you. 

This does not have to be the best Thanksgiving of your life.  It doesn't have to be the worst either.  It is the Thanksgiving that just is.  It will be memorable in its own way, I am pretty sure.  

So this brings me to my focus on gratitude as an attitude to cultivate in daily life no matter what is going on around you.  First, make it a goal of yours to focus on what you are grateful for so that you always have more.  Second, set aside time in the day to note what you are grateful for so that you can appreciate and re-appreciate what those things are.  Third, consider writing those things down in a notebook and keeping track of all that you are taking the time to notice.  Fourth, let it be enough.  REPEAT.  

I have been giving this a lot of thought.  I usually have quieter Thanksgivings.  I usually teach yoga at the YMCA in a gym full of happy people.  I usually workout at Orangetheory Fitness afterwards.  I have attended interfaith Thanksgiving services.  This year, it will be quieter than before.  This year, the yoga will be online.  This year, I am not going to any gym or service.  This year, I will be counting my blessings.  

I will tell you about my worst Thanksgiving next week...