The Power of Thanksgiving

You might be looking forward to the turkey and stuffing, and all the traditional eats we serve up every fourth Thursday of November. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love tradition, and well prepared food, but even more than that, I look forward to the pause to reflect on my blessings. There is power in thanksgiving. And no, I’m not talking about “Turkey-Day,” I’m referring to the underlying principle of gratitude that we often tie into this special day.

So, What makes thanksgiving so powerful? Let’s talk about the 3 main factors of this practice that can really change your life.

Recognizing The Good

Busy-ness is often our excuse for not seeing what is right in front of us. When we slow down long enough, we can see the blessings of life.

“What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

But we still have to be looking for the good. Like this Emerson quote points out, we are going to find whatever we are looking for. Why not look for what is positive in our lives?

I love that around this time of year, people are more apt to take stock of what is going well for them. This actually has a growing affect. Being positive about your life actually makes your life more positive. When you start to take notice of little beautiful things around you, you start to notice MORE little wonderful things around you.

Taking time to recognize the good, is a definite key point in the power of thanksgiving.

Sometimes it is simply seeing what you already have is all that you need. Thanksgiving might just be the key to satisfaction.

Sharing The Good

Noticing good in your own life is fantastic, but when you share it with others, it tends to double. We know it takes a community to thrive (read more about that topic here) and being part of a community includes sharing victories, hope, and gratefulness.

Sharing not only personal thankfulness for things that are going well with you, but sharing the ways those in your community have blessed your life truly enriches the community as a whole. It’s important to speak these feelings of gratefulness aloud. People often don’t realize how powerful a simple kindness of saying how someone else has impacted your life can be.

This is a great time to think about those people in your life. Who has made a difference for you personally? Have you told them? Have you looked in their eyes and said a loud, “you make my life better?“

These are the moments that make a lasting and powerful difference. What people need most, is to feel seen and heard, and that they matter. Speaking these truths of gratefulness binds communities and families together like nothing else. It increases the feeling of belonging. Did you know thanksgiving could be so powerful?

Taking the Good Forward

The power of thanksgiving moves us forward. When we have thanked others, and others have shown gratitude towards us, it becomes a light inside that we take with us wherever we go. That sense of belonging, and love stay with us and begin to spread in other areas of our lives. Because we feel full emotionally on the inside, we can then begin to fill others who need it out in the world.

Thanksgiving grows. That light shines on people at work, or the grocery store, or waiting in line for whatever thing it is. That kindness of gratitude is passed on to the people around you. It continues the ripple affect… on, and on.

If everyone was intentional about gratitude, the world would feel lighter. It’s a simple thing, that costs us nothing. Why wouldn’t we practice gratitude every day?

Start with noticing the little things.

Add speaking them aloud to loved ones.

Continue simple kindness of thanksgiving in your outward community.

I hope you enjoyed this post. As always thanks for reading. I hope you are inspired and that your positivity will spread in your own community and bless others.

• I had to share this awesome picture of my Grandma with my kids, nephew, and niece. She passed away almost 2 years ago. I have many memories of her around this time of year. She loved to be festive, and join in on whatever was going on. We all miss her dearly. She was a key part of our community, sharing positivity and supporting everyone in every situation. I am so thankful that I got to be in her life for so long, and learned many things from her.