Thanks & Giving

Fall Brings about such beauty as Nature Lets Go

First off, I want to express my gratitude to all of you who support this newsletter and my work. I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you and wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving!

In the United States, November is often identified as the month of gratitude due to the holiday of Thanksgiving occurring in it. Studies show that gratitude helps to counter the feelings of wanting something different or more than what we have, and it brings you into the present moment. Expressing gratitude also improves psychological and physical health, enhances empathy, improves relationships and supports resiliency. Gratitude may be one of the easiest and healthiest ways to help you experience more joy in your life.

I have shared my daily practice of listing three things I am grateful for and adding why I am grateful for it as a way to increase its potency. During a wonderful program called Uncharted Joy that I took earlier this fall from Molly Mahar of Stratejoy, someone brought up adding to your practice three ways you can share your own gifts with others.

From this idea, I revamped my November gratitude practice and now not only list the things I am grateful for but also list three ways I can give to someone else. These do not have to be big things nor should they feel like another item on your to-do list. Examples include texting or calling someone to check on them, smiling at a stranger, liking, commenting on or sharing someone’s social media post, sending a note or card, making a favorite dinner for your family or even sending light and/or prayers to someone in need. Of course, they could be bigger if you wanted them to be, but the point is to share yourself with someone else in a way that gifts them something to be grateful for. After all, the holiday is called Thanksgiving so including ‘giving’ with our ‘thanks’ seems like the perfect combination. What can you give to others this season? Let me know if you try the practice and how it turned out .