The holiday season comes with so many reasons to be grateful, from spending time with your loved ones to celebrating the holly-jolly festivities. However, it’s also a time of year where stress and overwhelm often find us, especially after the last few years of constant stress, uncertainty, change and heaviness. Learning how to de-stress and unwind in these overwhelming times and to shift and focus on gratitude and the good is an important lesson you can take with you throughout the year and is especially helpful during the holidays.
Thanksgiving, in particular, is one of my favorite holidays — and a great lesson on the power of gratitude. Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been a celebration of a bountiful harvest season, togetherness, and gratitude. Many Americans practice this by taking a moment to say what he or she is thankful for before diving into their Thanksgiving feast. This is a beautiful tradition, but we don’t have to limit gratitude to a single day of the year.
When we shift from Thanksgiving as a once a year tradition to a reminder to practice giving thanks each and every day, we adopt what I call an attitude of ThanksLiving. This is when you transform your life into one that’s tuned into the power of mindful and intentional daily gratitude. Over time, this is even shown to boost your resilience, making it easier to handle life’s daily challenges. Whether you want to be a stronger leader at work or less stressed and happier in your personal life, ThanksLiving is the key. Because gratitude changes everything.
Leaders can apply ThanksLiving for themselves and with those they lead. Adaptable and resilient leaders know the value of what they already have. More importantly, they don’t take anything for granted. They also encourage those around them to practice ThanksLIVING every single day and remind others why they are grateful for them. This Thanksgiving, I challenge you to create your own daily gratitude practice – at work and at home.
What is ThanksLiving and How Does It Boost Resilience?
To begin, what is ThanksLiving? This is a term dedicated to practicing daily gratitude in all areas of your life. In other words, you don’t need a special holiday to recognize all of your blessings.
ThanksLiving is all-encompassing, honoring the big and little joys in your life. When you learn to see the world as a source of positivity and compassion, you open the door to abundance and inner joy.
Gratitude isn’t just some catchy buzzword. When you get into the habit of practicing daily thanks, it can actually make you happier, healthier and more resilient. In fact, a Harvard Health study discovered that gratitude is associated with feelings of positive emotions, higher self-esteem, increased mental strength and stronger relationships.
From a physical standpoint, ThanksLiving can lead to a healthier lifestyle. UC Davis reports gratitude is associated with a better immune system, higher levels of good cholesterol, lower diastolic blood pressure, and less inflammation in the heart. Even more striking, gratitude is related to 23% lower levels of stress.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30 over 20 years ago, I learned the importance of practicing ThanksLiving every single day. I am so thankful to be here, alive, and breathing. I know the value of making every day count because your tomorrow is never guaranteed. That’s what ThanksLiving means to me, and I hope my story inspires you to find your own definition of ThanksLiving for better mental, emotional and physical health.
What It Means to Live with Daily Gratitude
With that in mind, what does it really mean to live with daily gratitude? I’ve compiled a list of key things that I believe act as the foundation for any ThanksLiving practice. Which of these keys resonate with you? What else might you add to your own list of what it means to live with gratitude?
- Focus on the can and the now. Be present in the moment.
- Appreciate not just the big things, but the little everyday things too
- Difficult times teach powerful lessons of growth
- Recognize the need to say thank you for what you taught me, then let go and move on
- Practice self-acceptance and shut down my inner bully — love myself just the way I am and own my awesomeness
- Take more risks and challenges
- Shift. And Reframe change and challenges to find the good
I am grateful and thankful for LIVING — with the ups and downs. Taking the time to acknowledge the goodness in my life has led to greater connections to the world, people, and things around me and allowed me to show up as my best self.
How to Start a Practice of Daily Gratitude
Thinking about gratitude isn’t enough. We must be intentional and practice it every single day.
There is no single “right” way to cultivate a gratitude practice. The best path is the one you’ll stick with, even if you have to try a few ideas along the way.
Below, explore some of my personal favorite ways to keep gratitude at the heart of your journey at work and in life. These have been critical resilience boosters for me during my life. You can also incorporate these things as a leader to build a culture of gratitude and boost your team and organizational resilience.
Download the Three Good Things App.
For an easy option that only takes a few minutes a day, download the Three Good Things App on your phone. I discovered this app 3 years ago, and it has been such an important part of my daily gratitude practice. Described as a happiness journal, this is a digital app that prompts you to share three good things that happened each day.
Though it might seem small, this could inspire you to look at the world in a new way. Because no matter how hard of a day we have, we can always find three good things that went well today!
Keep a Gratitude Journal.
Another easy option if you prefer something hands-on is a gratitude journal. You can use this to write a few positives about your day in the morning or at the end of the day, share a letter to your future self, or respond to gratitude prompts. I’ve used a gratitude journal for years and it’s also an amazing exercise to go back and look at your past expressions of gratitude in your journal on the hard days!
Express Gratitude Towards Others.
Don’t wait for Thanksgiving, Birthdays or other special occasions to show appreciation and gratitude to those in your life. How often do you take the time to tell the people in your life “thank you?” It’s probably not enough.
Often, we think about saying “thank you” but in the busyness of work and life, we may not follow through. Take a few minutes and make the time to write thank you notes, emails, or texts for the people who make your life better. Pick up the phone and make that call. You never know how those expressions of thanks can brighten someone else’s day.
Play Text Roulette.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, every single day, I’ve gone to my texts on my phone and played text roulette. I scroll my texts and stop randomly on 3 people — friends, family members, clients and colleagues. I text those 3 people, and say thank you. I am grateful for you. I appreciate you. Thinking of you. It’s amazing how much of an impact this practice has had on me and those receiving the text. These little things can make such a difference.
Take a Gratitude Walk.
A gratitude walk is when you take the time to walk while experiencing the world for all of its sensations, noticing the little things all around you. To walk with a calm, grateful state of mind is a blessing we often take for granted. Plus spending time outside in nature has its own health benefits!
It’s as easy as walking for 15-20 minutes and focusing on your breathing and your surroundings. Notice the little things – the leaves crunching at your feet, the birds chirping. Soaking up the positive sights, smells, sounds, and feelings around you keeps you focused on being fully present and grateful.
Give Back to Your Community.
Finally, giving back is one of the most powerful ways to feel thankful for what you have. Whether you volunteer with a local charity or share a fundraiser on social media, this is a testament to what it means to practice ThanksLiving. How can you help others and be the good today?
When I travel, I like to carry gift cards. Handing them out to flight attendants, gate agents, maintenance workers, hotel front desk clerks, AV teams, and anyone else who lends a helping hand is one of my small ways to do good to people who may not hear thank you enough! There’s so much negativity in the world right now – and these little things can truly make someone’s day! Don’t be afraid to show others you recognize their contribution.
The Power of Intentional Gratitude in Action
This ThanksLiving, put your gratitude into action. It’s the season of giving, after all, so why not create a fresh start for yourself? Thanksgiving is a joyous holiday on its own, but it’s also an invitation to live life to the fullest and be truly grateful.
Gratitude isn’t just a way of thinking. It’s a way of living. It’s time to give yourself permission to conquer change, challenges and the ups and downs of life with compassion and most of all thanks. Life doesn’t have to be a spiral of overwhelm and stress. Find the good always. For more resilience boosters during change, challenges and hard, check out some of my proven resources on resilience.
What’s ONE thing you can start doing to cultivate a ThanksLiving way of life? I’d love to hear from you directly by emailing kim@kimbecking.com, or you can tag me on social media.
About Kim
Kim Becking is an engaging, high-energy, fun and impactful international keynote speaker, change and leadership expert, consultant and award-winning author who empowers and inspires leaders, teams and organizations to build a Momentum Mindset® so they can be more adaptable, resilient and ready for what’s next in this rapidly changing world.
