There is no doubt that 2020 will long be remembered as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. A crazy, sad and transformative year filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Many, if not all, of us are already mentally preparing for the new year or have been imagining ourselves there for some time.
And yet, before we erase all thought and memory of this strange year forever, is there anything from it that we could take with us into 2021? Was there anything good in 2020 that we might be grateful for? What blessings are we able to recount, if we took the time to name them?
Giving ourselves this gift of gratitude is both important and effective. A positive, appreciative attitude contributes to greater health, greater success in work, better performance in sports and business, a higher sense of well-being, and a faster rate of recovery from surgery.
But instead, so many of us are more inclined to notice what is broken, lacking or undone in our lives. We have to learn a new way of looking at things, a new habit. We need to allow gratitude to become a practice, a way of life, rather than just a word we use when we want to say thanks.
It bears pointing out that practicing gratitude doesn't mean blindly ignoring or whitewashing the bad things in life. Sadness and pain and injustice do exist in this world. But when we choose to focus on the goodness and gifts of this life, we gain a sense of well-being. It is gratitude that balances us and gives us hope and the ability to cope with all that is not right. As Rhonda Byrne puts it, "gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things."
When we practice being grateful for all we have, instead of complaining about what we lost or what we didn't get, we give ourselves the chance to see all of life - even a global pandemic - as an opportunity and a blessing.
And so I ask the questions again. What is on your gratitude list from 2020? What hidden blessings did you find during this very challenging year? Who comes to your mind when you think of people you are grateful for, especially now as the year comes to a close?
I challenge you in the coming days and into the new year, as I challenge myself,
1. to make a list of all the things/people you are grateful for
2. to forward this blog post to as many people as you can think of so they too can experience the benefits from the power of gratitude
The more you practice gratitude, the more it will impact your life. An inner shift will begin to occur, and you may be delighted to discover how content and hopeful you are feeling. That sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work. I urge you to discover it for yourself. "Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty." - Doris Day
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