With the American holiday of Thanksgiving on the horizon, I feel like it's a good time to talk about gratitude again - one of my favorite topics. It may seem pretty obvious to reflect on such things at this season, but 2020 is no typical year. I suspect that gratitude may be a challenging practice for people to get their heads around at the moment. In a time full of such turmoil and upheaval, with every day carrying a slate of horrible news and perpetual uncertainty, I wouldn't fault anyone for losing perspective on feeling grateful. That said, I think gratitude works a bit like staring at the horizon when you're feeling seasick - it plants you firmly in the present and gives you a stable point to focus on when you're feeling unstable.
I'm a big advocate for practicing what I call radical gratitude - when you look for glimmers of opportunities of growth and positive mindset during the most challenging stuff. This can be an incredibly difficult thing to do at first. It takes tons of mindfulness and practice before it ever becomes second nature. Still, I believe in the power of radical gratitude because it can be a great horizon when everything else in your life is swaying from side to side.
This practice is deeper than just feeling grateful for the gifts and blessings in your life - it's about looking for gratitude under the darkest clouds. In March, I wrote about how the early quarantine felt like a renewed adolescence and I hoped that it would inspire in me a more youthful mindset by the time it ended. The observation was an act of radical gratitude - looking for growth during a difficult situation.
With the way things have been in 2020, I think even the most basic attempts at gratitude - including gratitude for the gifts and blessings in your life - is radical enough. After this dumpster fire of a year, we've all earned the right to re-attach the training wheels, inflate the bowling alley bumpers, and break out the whiffle-ball set when it comes to expressing gratitude. We don't need to challenge ourselves to dig any deeper.
The key is not to get complacent with whatever you're thankful for under the haze of everything that's going on. Suppose there's any great lesson to take from 2020, and it may be the constant reminder that human life is fragile and susceptible to division. How much more so, then, is it essential to hold each other close and do everything in our power to keep everyone safe and sound? Not just as an act of responsibility and compassion but as an act of wholly un-radical gratitude.
Wishing you all a safe and meaningful holiday season. I am grateful for you.
Want to do something truly radical? Hit me up and tell me - what are you grateful for? I'd love to hear about it, and sharing it would be a wonderfully active way to embrace your gratitude.