Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
Photo by Junior Moran on Unsplash
Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Dinner, Thanksgiving gatherings is really important.
Following the turkey every 4th Thursday of November for the past several years, I’ve been conscious that I don’t want to stop concentrating on being thankful. I’ve tried to be committed to that, too.
The reasons are several. One is that we have so much for which to be thankful. Of course, this time of year we automatically think of all that is dear and big and meaningful, and we express thanks for that. If we are lucky and mindful, we allow ourselves to be aware of the many, many things that we can be thankful for and that we can easily overlook because we take them for granted. I know that is true for me.
So today, three days after Thanksgiving, as the weekend winds down, my mind begins to think of all that will occur work-wise and other-wise next week. And the week after. Now is when I press hard inside my head to pay attention to my heart. I am certain it’s in my heart where all my true thanks really reside. I remind and reinforce my commitment to express my thanks 24/7/365.
Plenty of reasons, the first mentioned above, make me want to do that. If you’ve been reading Prayerfullife.com for any length of time, you know I love the Greater Good Magazine published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. An article in 2010, Why Gratitude is Good points out Physical, Social, and Psychological benefits from feeling, expressing and sharing gratitude. Here are just three benefits that you may experience.
- Stronger immune system
- More alert, alive, awake
- More outgoing
The article lists quite a few more. It’s an easy read. And though it’s 9 years old, it’s still valid. It was written by Robert Emmons, “the worlds leading authority on gratitude.”
An article, What Is Gratitude?, offered 3 years later in 2013 by Daily Good gives a great deal more exploration to Robert Emmons and his findings. There’s a beautiful cadence
- Gratitude brings us happiness….
- Grateful people sleep better….
- Gratitude is good for kids…
Followed by several more. Plus a 4-minute video from Emmons himself offers psychological (yet understandable!) explanations of why gratitude is good.
There is more. Another two brief videos by Emmons offer the benefits and the how-to of cultivating gratitude. Then, the 4th video (6 minutes) by Rick Hanson, author of The Buddha’s Brain, explores the benefits and powers of “taking in the good”…which is very akin to expressing gratitude.
I have kept my Prayer Conversations journal–yes, my own conversations with God–for more than 20 years. For all of those years, I’ve savored the habit of remembering, feeling, and writing down at least 10 thanksgivings every morning. These are thanksgivings from the previous day and thanksgivings I am feeling at the very moment, and thanksgivings that I anticipate for the coming day. This is for me the simplest way to give thanksgiving after thanksgiving. A number of other practices are cited in the Greater Good and the Daily Good articles.
Offering Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
Sharer of Limitless Blessings,
I am happy to say limitless ‘thank yous’.
Thankful for the special holiday and the following holiday season
that lets me focus on my reasons for thanks,
I am also thankful to remember
tomorrow, next week, 3 months from now
that I have even more for which to express my gratitude.
Thanks after the thanksgiving.
Thanks for the mindfulness that brings thanksgiving.
And so it is. And so we thank you, God!
Amen.
December 2, 2019
In: Gratitude, Happiness, Prayer, Praying, Thanksgiving · Tagged with: Prayer, praying, thanksgiving
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