I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.
– Will Arnett
I’m writing this on a rainy Thanksgiving Day. Though I know we’ll be well past Thanksgiving by the time you read this, I decided to write about gratitude because it is such an important attitude on any given day.
I’ve come to realize that gratitude can be almost like a weapon because we can use it to attack dark thoughts and feelings. When we start to feel our mood going down (or we start off down!), we can lift ourselves up simply by looking around for something to be grateful for.
Choosing to be grateful not only lifts our mood, but it also strengthens and energizes us to tackle the everyday challenges of life as well as the more serious situations we encounter on our life’s journeys.
Purposely practicing gratitude by consciously choosing to be thankful for big and little things, reliving happy memories, and expressing thanks to others makes us more resilient, more joyful, and a lot nicer to be around than someone who complains and criticizes, which is such an easy trap to walk into.
As Doris Day said, “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” Complaining robs us of our joy and makes life feel so much darker and heavier.
I woke up this morning from a bad dream with a backache. The day could very easily have gone downhill from there, especially since it was very dreary outside and rainy enough to make walking, which usually improves my state, quite unpleasant. I was also missing being with our family, who were going to be gathering together that day.
I realized I needed to take a little time to override gravity and start to choose to be thankful instead, as I know from experience what happens when I don’t!
When I started to think about everyone and everything that I have to be grateful for it wasn’t long before the lights turned on inside me and I began to feel joy. Gratitude is a gift to us, as well as a gift from us.
Though I wasn’t with our family, I was able to feel joy just thinking about them. My Dad just successfully powered his way through a second hip replacement surgery. My baby granddaughter has recently captivated the entire family with her skills in the jolly jumper. (As a consolation, I got to have a meaningful conversation about a national issue with my son on his speakerphone while he skinned a skunk. Yes, you read that right.)
Though I didn’t get a chance to walk in the fall foliage, I could still look at it. We got invited to share a meal with a house full of people from other countries, which included curry turkey. In the evening, I got to stand in a circle of federal inmates holding hands and listen to them giving prayers of thanks.
And as I sign off for today, I’m grateful to those of you who take the time to read this column. Thanks for listening!
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.”
– Melody Beattie
