Happy Thanksgiving! As I contemplate on what gratitude means I wanted to share a few thoughts with you hoping to give you something to meditate on. The feeling of thanks or gratitude is a universal feeling. We all feel that sense of gratitude when we are at a tail end of something challenging or when things are going great. We express it with the following terms: “Thank God” or “Thank Goodness” or whatever term you use, but we often verbally express it. The thing that has been brought up to my attention this week is that even though the terms above all are great and good, how well do we actually express our gratitude to the other people in our life? We have to remember that we are where we are in life because of others holding us up and supporting us and even challenging us.
Have we actually taken the time to express our gratitude? Is it easy for you to express your gratitude? You may think that they already know that you are grateful for them, but do they really? This person might be your spouse, your kids, your co-workers, or your friends.
A teacher that I follow says “unexpressed gratitude is actually experienced by the other person as ingratitude.” – Wow – Think about that. How often do we do something for a loved one and get criticism from them instead? or maybe we get the vibe that they feel entitled to our actions as if we owed them something? Or they don’t say anything but in reality, there is a good chance that they do feel grateful but they don’t express it to you verbally therefore making you feel that they are ungrateful. This whole Gratitude thing can be a bit tricky.
I often encourage people to start a gratitude journal. To write down at least 3 things that happened during their day that they are grateful for. It is scientifically proven that when we become more grateful that not only do we begin to raise our mood levels but we are also rewiring our mind to be happier. And although doing this practice is a great start we also need to remember that just as love is a skill in action, so is gratitude. It needs to come from a pure place, from your heart. You may want to start by working on gratitude towards yourself, but then I challenge you to express your gratitude directly to your loved ones. This practice will help us bond with each other even stronger.
With all this in mind and in my heart, I would like to extend my gratitude to each of you for all your love and support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. May you all have a great Thanksgiving and take time to count your blessings and may you find the freedom to express your gratitude.
P.S. Our Yin Yoga class for this week 11/24 is postponed until next week. I’m needing this time to help prep our Thanksgiving dinner for my family. If you would like to join our virtual Yin yoga class here are the details.
Yin Yoga
Wednesday’s 6:30-7:30pm
sliding scale $10-20 to join; please pay via Venmo @Alma-Dunnavant or visit my website: www.mindfulyogawithalma.com
Here is the link
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86787317321?pwd=NG40NURoMTRRWmFPS0xuM2JzY2FJUT09 Meeting ID: 867 8731 7321 Passcode: 382705
