Be Thankful

Feelings of gratitude and thankfulness are feelings that can easily be overlooked unless you are conscious with your mind. Unless you’re conscious when thinking about the blessings in your life, it’s very easy to overlook the privilege you have. Unless you think consciously about the sacrifice others have made so you can be where you are, it’s easy to overlook. Opening yourself up to the emotions of gratitude and thankfulness gives you new perspectives on life and also recenters your emotions when you start your day.

A practice of expressing thankfulness is a necessary habit for living in the present moment and accepting the blessings you have. By starting your day by consciously spending a couple of minutes thinking about a handful of blessings, or reasons to be thankful for, you have started your day in a positive way. Sit down and consciously think about the relationships in your life that you are thankful for. Sit down and consciously think about the blessings you have in your life. This conscious and deliberate time spent thinking and appreciating will transmit positivity throughout the rest of your day. These feelings of gratitude and thankfulness will serve as anchors when you experience hardship.

Moving beyond the deliberate practice of being thankful there are many stark realities you can factually point to in order to make you realize the blessings you have in your life. If you’re reading this perspective, chances are you are in one of the top percentiles of the human population in the world. You have the Internet or the means to read this. You have a roof over your head and do not fear for your general safety on a daily basis.

There is a YouTube video that talks of a pencil-making company in Kenya. Their goal is to repurpose old newspapers that would typically be thrown into landfills or burned and create pencils with them. While they sell pencils for profit they also donate thousands of pencils to children in schools. These children in schools are often left behind compared to their counterparts because they lack the financial means to have simple school supplies such as a pencil. The gift of a singular pencil prompts facial expressions of joy we can barely comprehend because we do not live the lives they live. To us, a pencil is a pencil. To them, a pencil is an opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families. This pencil is a gateway to opportunity.

If you aren’t conscious of the blessings and reasons to be thankful in your own life you can get distracted by everything you don’t have. You can get distracted by what your neighbors and those around you have. Instead of falling trap to the emotion of envy find ways to trap the feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. Zoom out and assess your life. Realize where you are and what you have. After appreciating what you have, doorways of positivity are opened that would have otherwise remained locked.

Be thankful.

Give thanks.

Emit gratitude.