Thanksgiving Every Day

The essence of celebrating Thanksgiving Day is giving thanks for the blessings received and recognizing the source. It is an annual event in many countries to celebrate bountiful harvests and/or commemorate an important event. For a historical overview of the American celebration, this hub is a good read.

Although some have focused on football and day-after shopping (considered as the initial salvo for the long Christmas season shopping), and others emphasized the turkey and sumptuous family dinner (and the resulting wrecked diet, weight gain and then depression), the essence is not lost on most.

The essence of giving thanks together as a family, community or group can be a daily practice. With the intention of bringing about positive feelings and wellness in the household, our family started a nightly gratitude ritual about six months ago.

After dinner, every member of my family takes turn in telling everyone else what happened during the day that was good or made him/her feel good. The rounds continue until we ran out of answers to this question “What are you thankful for today?”

The answers may range from the usual “I am thankful for the delicious food on the table…” to the unexpected “…that my credit card company gave away a free meal in a favorite restaurant…”, and from the personal achievements kind “…that I won over my parents in our game of scrabble…” to the inexplicable ones “…that the rain suddenly stopped and we were able to play tag outside…” Our toddler, who has recently been joining the ritual more often than not, has this as his favorite answer “…for Mama (or Papa, brother, sister or baby)… loves me.”

So I strongly recommend this Daily Happiness Tip to everyone, which is to start a daily habit, a daily gratitude ritual that can be designed by anyone to suit their individual circumstances. It can be done alone by making a gratitude list or writing them down in a gratitude journal (target five items each day, but don’t despair if it’s less than that at the start) or as a group (i.e. family, friends, community, etc.) by setting up a similar daily conversation as what my family is doing.

If one finds it difficult to identify what it is to be thanking for, here’s a link to a hub containing an extensive list of things we ought to be grateful for but in all likelihood we take for granted.

Blogging about it or posting it in this Daily Thank You site might also appeal to some of us. By sharing our gratefulness to others, we are spreading positive energy in the blogosphere. And in difficult times when we ourselves need all the positive energies to drown negative ones, we can read about the good things happening to others in that site. Knowing about what others are thankful for might also open our eyes to things we might always have and thus we take for granted, but many others in the world had been deprived of and always longed for.

So start a habit now, a daily gratitude ritual…to be happier not just on Thanksgiving Day but everyday.