It’s Thanksgiving week 2020, and like so much else this year, it’s looking different than what we expected.

In a funk? Feeling sad? Missing your family and traditions? Secretly delighted not to have to travel and/or spend time with difficult family members, but feeling guilty?

Gratitude Reimagined

While the word gratitude is overused and has lost its luster, the energy it holds is still as powerful as the pundits promise.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, our family does several go-arounds with different gratitude prompts throughout Thanksgiving. They are fun, thought provoking, and definitely help us ground into the new meaning we’re creating for holiday.

But this is not the level of gratitude needed to truly create an energetic shift. It’s still too much of a thought experiment at this stage.

To Unleash the Power of Gratitude, Go Granular

The trick is that we must get grain-of-sand small with gratitude in order to create the energetic shift we sometimes need or want.

When we focus our attention at the nano second or the breath level, we generate both an energetic shift and a physiological change within our bodies. We can go from feeling depleted, depressed, or anxious to feeling calm, relaxed, even exuberant!

Our Breath Connects us to the Present

Our breath connects us to the present because our bodies don’t reside in the past or future, they exist in the now.

A mantra I often say when I start future tripping:

Right here, right now, I am safe.

It’s true! Right here, right now we are abundant and blessed because we have our breath. We have the capacity to not just survive, but thrive!

• Can you take a full, satiating breath?

• Can you stand up unassisted to get a cup of tea?

• Do you have a cup, tea, water?

• If you are reading this, you have eyes and enough education to decipher these letters into a meaningful message.

• You likely have a device in which to receive my musings, my gift to you.

Keep going as small as you can until you feel that sensation of relaxation and appreciation wash over your entire body as you realize the extent of your abundance. Your shoulders drop, your face softens. You may inadvertently smile or chuckle when you see what’s been right in front of you this whole time.

To Unleash the Power of Gratitude, Go Big

Just like going grain-of-sand granular, when we broaden the aperture of our world-view lens, we see that we are constantly supported by many forces and beings, many of which we have no conscious clue.

The Blessing Over Our Meal I released last week gives us a glimpse.

That apple becomes so much more when we remember that it is a gift from the sky, moon, our Earth, and numerous living beings.

We can appreciate the chair in which we sit as well as the people who built, transported, and purchased it—even for the tree whose parts were used to create it.

We can acknowledge our ancestors, the previous stewards of the land, and recognize the immense honor and responsibility it is that we are the future ancestors.

And so on and so on. These are just a few examples of the limitless blessings we take for granted. Both the little and large aspects of life hold the power to bring us immense joy and feelings of abundance when we remember to pay attention to them.

Gratitude is Not a Word. It’s an Energy

Listing out our blessings in a journal or saying them out loud around the dinner table are fantastic and worthwhile first steps, but they are still just thoughts at this stage.

Feeling grateful fills our hearts with awe. Gratitude energy creates a “Wow! Amazing! I Am Alive! Lucky Me!” and a sensation of wonder within us.

For me, this feeling of gratitude feels like the glue that connects my soul to my body. What does it feel like to you?