On a usual Thanksgiving, we plan what to buy, we cook lots of food, we eat a lot, drink some and see friends and are merry. But most importantly, it is a time to reflect on the past year or years and take stock of what makes our busy life worth living and cherishing.
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks: to the family, to friends, co-workers, strangers, Mother Nature, our food, our pets and other animals, the Creator, and the forces of life. This year, embracing the feeling of gratefulness might be a real lifesaver for so many.
But in 2021, gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness might also seem a task more daunting than usual. We are just slowly recovering from a year and more of the pandemic, lockdowns, zoom meetings, and unpredictable work schedules.
We might be able to finally see some extended family or friends after a year or two of fearing about infecting others or getting sick ourselves.
But some of us might have lost someone to Covid, others are still worried about losing the vulnerable ones.
Many are dealing with economic losses following layoffs and closures of so many businesses and workplaces.
So, how to find gratitude and appreciation?
What to be grateful for this particular year?
I’ve been writing a gratitude journal on and off and I find it a tremendously powerful tool to reconnect with my feelings and to reflect on all the big and little things that make my life special.
Especially for a cancer survivor, there is so much to be thankful for.
Everyone’s experience with an illness or a dramatic life event is different for sure. But we all share the initial shock, sometimes even a denial of what’s happening.
After many stages and emotions that come with an illness or loss, there comes a time when one needs to take stock and reflect on all that one has. This is, in fact, needed for survival. It is crucial to one’s sanity and the ability to move forward.
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
Robert Brault
I believe strongly that we are currently living a societal trauma due to the fear and uncertainty that comes with Covid-19. Tremendous losses of life and health, jobs and financial security, connection to others, and the dwindling sense of belonging to a community. All of this takes a huge toll.

Gratitude can help
We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
Cynthia Ozick
Did you know that gratitude is proven to be medically helpful to people in distress? In studies of gratitude writing, scientists discovered that gratitude can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns.
In fact, it seems, that practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief.
Compared with the participants who wrote about negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended.
How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain
Interestingly, the mental health benefits of practicing gratitude are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to another person.
No matter, whether we share our thankfulness with others or not, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.
Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
Giving thanks can make you happier
What to be grateful for right now
Here are some things I’m thankful for at this particular moment:
- My wonderful family and how we stick together through thick and thin.
- My husband who is always with me through good days and bad ones, and whose love is has been fueling my recovery and healing. His touch is electric, the spark in his eye when he looks at me is the same as twenty years ago. Love of my life forever and ever.
- My children and the joy and sometimes worry they provide. I love looking at them, being around them, hearing them talk, squabble, being stubborn, and asserting their way. They are mine and I’m proud of them and grateful for this gift of mothering them now and for as long as I can.
- My parents, who love me unconditionally and through whom I first learned to love and accept myself the way I am, healthy or sick, complete or scarred, happy or miserable.
- My work, the place that gives me structure, asks me to be my best, provides me with the best possible healthcare and a decent salary.
- My students energize me every day even if I’m tired after a sleepless night – even on Zoom!
- My co-workers are genuinely caring and loving people who I can rely on for help and advice when needed.
- My friend makes me a better person through her shining example. She is the most giving and loving person outside my immediate family that I’ve ever met.
- The beauty of nature, the changing colors of trees, the California sky at sunset, the fresh grass after the rain, and the bluest blue of the vast ocean that welcomes me every day as I go to work.
- The sun on my face when I’m in my hammock on weekend mornings. The warmth of the rays and how they seem to bring the healing energetic power straight into my body’s cells.
- The abundance of food that surrounds me in my kitchen garden and that I can get at farmers’ markets, and my ability to turn this food into healthy meals that fuel and sustain my family.
- My spinning instructors let me forget the ills of the world by letting me feel strong and motivating me to do my best.
- The relaxing bath and the aroma of lavender after a long day at work.
- My strength. Only now am I able to realize how frail and sick my body was a few years back. And on the emotional side, I can now look back on the past few years and see how far I’ve come.
- The time that I get to spend with my family. Five years ago I thought I got a death sentence but I’m here and every day is magical.
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
Buddha

Don’t wait till Thanksgiving to ask what to be grateful for
Being thankful for what we have in life should not be reserved only for the fourth Thursday in November. It makes sense to practice gratitude all year round. It is not difficult, but it takes practice.
It is in a way similar to practicing meditation. At first, it seems weird, almost silly, to be listing or writing down what you’re grateful for. But with time, it becomes a habit, and what a great habit it is!
For my part, I am almost contented just now, and very thankful. Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.
Charlotte Brontë
How to start a regular gratitude practice
- start small: list three or four things each weekend for which you were grateful during the past week.
- after a few weeks, you might feel a need to write your gratitude list more often, maybe move to do it every other day.
- at some point, you might start needing to invest in a gratitude journal and start writing daily.
- with time, you might want to list more than three or four things. Reflecting on the day, you’d be surprised how many things might have happened that are worthy of gratitude:
A bird song that woke you up.
The sunshine that warmed your face.
The cat giving you that fuzzy feeling by curling up next to you.
A cup of tea that made your tummy warm.
A pair of soft socks on your aching feet.
A smile on your child’s face after you brushed her hair.
A happy grunt from your kid after you gave him a little back rub.
A burst of laughter shared with your loved ones or friends.
A yummy meal that you or someone else prepared and shared with you.
Your partner touching your cheek with love in their eyes.
Your neighbor chatting with you over the driveway.
A helpful clerk in the grocery store.
A car that stopped to let you cross the road when you were in a hurry.
The teacher who took care of your kids for hours on zoom or in the classroom.
The co-worker who took on the extra work so that you could leave one hour early to run some important errand.
The nurse who cared for someone you love.
The doctor who told you there is hope despite everything.
A phone call from a friend asking how you’re doing.
The clothes on your back.
The house that gives you shelter from heat and cold.
The love that you get and the love that you give.
Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.
A. A. MIlne

I love that piglet quote so much 🙂 If we take a look there is so much to be grateful for.
There is so much wisdom in this book!
Such a valuable post. I have lots of things to be grateful for. A long list but my family would always be on top
I so agree! Nothing beats having a loving group of people around. Hugs!
Such a great list of how to appreciate gratefulness in everything. I like it also and grateful for the sun on my face when I run.
Yes to the sun on your face! I was moved when William Shattner recently mentioned how grateful for the Earth he felt when seeing it from the orbit. I try to be thankful for nature and Mother Earth every single day.
What a wonderful article! A gratitude journal is a great idea! I used to have a gratitude jar, and every year on Jan 1 we would read every note that went into the jar. This helped my kids to learn to be grateful and cherish even the small things.
I love the idea of a gratitude jar! I might steal the idea and start doing one for my 10-year old.
I think people just forget to be grateful. Every day I thank my lucky stars for my great family.
I do not close my eyes at night if I do not do my grateful prayer for all the blessings I received throughout the day. The abundance coming from that is exponential.
Yes! I agree 1000% and try to impart it to my kids as well. Never too early to teach them gratitude and appreciation for the beauty of nature and the greatness beyond what is known.
For the longest time I was in the whoa is me stage thanks to the pandemic. It took starting to remember what I am grateful for, to get me out of my funk. It makes such a big difference!
I think the lockdowns were really hard on all of us, only some have realized it already and others still did not. Appreciating little things in these times of adversity can put us on the way to healing from this collective trauma of sorts.
What a great reminder that we should be grateful each and every day! Thanks!
great reminder! Im really grateful for my mom being well and therefore I always try to practice gratitude to everyone who helped us along the way.
So happy to hear your mom is doing well. Thank you for sharing and I’m sending positive vibes for her continued healing.
Gratitude is so powerful and essential to good mental health, especially during times of uncertainly. Thank you fir taking the time to share from the heart. You inspired me to add a daily sentence of gratitude to my morning journal time.
Thank you Lisa! Any of these practices are so good for us as individuals but also a community: gratitude, meditation, prayer, journaling. I am very optimistic that as more and more people start realizing the power of these, we might move a little closer to a healthier society too.
You are so right about expressing your Thanksgiving every day- not just on Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for every day.
Yes, it is so helpful to start treating gratitude like a daily practice and after a while, it becomes a very healthy habit.
Bless you and your beautiful family! And yes, we should be thankful for every little thing 365 days a year!
Thank you dear!
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