Gratitude is a practice.
Being thankful is an art. It is something that we tend, cultivate and grow. Practice is something that you intentionally repeat and engage in, to do often, or habitually. Practicing gratitude is life changing and can be performed in many ways all day long.
Next week is Thanksgiving. It is a time to gather with friends and family and celebrate what we are thankful for, the blessings from large to small in our daily lives. This is my favorite holiday – there is nothing else to do but meet and eat!
This year has been so different and gathering to be thankful is a challenge for so many and is ill-advised by many. Finding things to be grateful for also seems to be un-popular.
However you decide to celebrate next week, I do hope that you will join me in swimming upstream by practicing gratitude early. There is always so much to be thankful for, even more so in challenging times.
I am reading an excellent little book at the moment, The Little Book of Hygge, by Meik Wiking. It is an excellent, quick read about the Danish art of happy living, aka Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga). It seems an ironic or kismet choice during this time in our calendar and in our world, but I’ve found it richly satisfying and inspiring.
Chapter Three is titled “Togetherness: Like a Hug Without Touching.” Mic Drop! Hello.
If this doesn’t speak to the current times, I don’t know what does. This, along with National Kindness Day, which fell ludicrously or serendipitously on Friday the 13th last week, seem to fit hand-in-hand with preparing for Thanksgiving.
This all got me to start thinking about ways to grow and create hygge alongside practicing gratitude in my own personal life and family and how to share it with others. I’m a big believer in having an abundance mindset and am actively catching myself when I drift into the scarcity mindset.
As a result of these kismet and serendipitous happenings in my life as I search for ways to beat overwhelm this holidaze season, here are three things we will be exercising this week in our homeschool are as follows:
- Journaling prompts for our writing pathway on practicing gratitude
- Random act of kindness
- The art of hygge (hoo-ga)
I’ll be posting these moments this week on Instagram if you care to check a few out. Join with me, will you? I believe focusing on these areas each day are part of a healthy mental, emotional and spiritual practice that also feed our physical bodies. We all need a little more health these days too.
Photography @rodnae.prod
