Gratitude: The Essential Seasoning for Thanksgiving and Everyday!

We are quickly approaching the day we collectively pause and give thanks here in the United States. Weeks before Thanksgiving, the topic of gratitude begins permeating our awareness along with the seasonally favorite pumpkin spice latte that arrives around the same time.  Oh yes, the smells and feels of the season that prepare us to stuff all our gratitude into one destined to be very full day! 

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite as it is a wonderful opportunity to share the gift of gratitude with others! I glommed on to the joy of sharing gratitude as a kid intuitively recognizing it as the life preserver it is. 

I have early memories of trying to get my family of origin to offer gratitude around the table.  They didn't share my desire and truth be told, were uncomfortable with the idea and often just made jokes instead. I would relentlessly try to get some deep, heartfelt sharing flowing around the holiday table. It often fell flat and left me disheartened.  

Year after year I tried to connect my family to this joyful practice to no avail until one bittersweet, heart-wrenching Thanksgiving when God found a way to deliver gratitude to the table. I believe on that day my family got the significance of giving thanks and it carried them and me through one of the hardest times of our lives.

That Thanksgiving, my sweet and brave niece was in the final stages of her life after battling a very rare and painful cancer.  I had hopes and great intentions of making a special, memorable Thanksgiving for her, but on that day,  I woke up sick. So sick that I had no energy to do what I would have normally done; to step forward in an attempt to generate a family-sized serving of gratitude.  All I could do was pray and surrender. It was definitely one of those moments in which one feels so powerless that the only choice is to surrender. And surrender I did.

All I could muster the energy for was to place a bowl that contained the individual names of each family member present that day.  I simply placed the bowl on the table next to me and didn’t say a word.  I just sat in prayer and in uncharacteristic silence. Dinner was almost finished and seemed to unfold as it always had with full bellies but a missed opportunity to fill our hearts. My heart sunk feeling like I had let my niece down and then a miracle occurred. 

My sister noticed the bowl and asked, “what’s that?”  I gently and without any attempt to persuade said, “Oh I thought it might be nice to share gratitude for one another.”  To my surprise, everyone embraced the idea and one by one each family member willingly with tears in their eyes pulled a name and shared the most beautiful, soul reaching gratitude for one another. 

Tears are streaming down my face right now as I recall those precious few moments around that table experiencing what I had longed to experience with my family my entire life arriving in the 11^th hour.  

Out of the depth of our despair in preparing to let our sweet girl go, gratitude rose up to hold us all.  It was more miraculous than words can convey, or what I can share now, but it forever made me a believer in the power of God and in the power of Gratitude!

Gratitude has been one of my lifelong allies. Partnered with hope, faith, resiliency,  gratitude supported me and got me through a traumatic childhood and many challenging life episodes.

I wouldn't have survived if I waited for only one day of the year to be lifted by gratitude. It supported me and provided so much. I relied on it long before I had any clue as to why.

Gratitude is a powerful healer, a state of mind shifter and expander of possibilities.  There is plenty of research now that reinforces that gratitude is essential to our wellbeing and provides us with many powerful benefits due to the release of "feel good" hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin when we express gratitude. We feel happier, sleep better, have better social connections and experience increased motivation when we practice giving thanks.

Personally, I believe that gratitude is the glue that creates beautiful mosaics out of all we live through. It serves as a salve for our woundedness, opens the door for deeper soul communication and expands our awareness to see the many blessings happening within and all around us, even in the direst of circumstances. It seasons all we experience and makes it all more palatable. 

So why oh why would we schedule only one day of the year to experience the profound effects of this powerful, healing, life-supporting practice?  Gratitude is too important to just be the  "seasoning" at Thanksgiving dinner. It more beneficial when it is sprinkled at every meal, and every day!  

For me, gratitude is an essential part of life. When going too long without offering up gratitude, my spirit can feel weighed down with regret, sorrow or feeling disappointed by how life is going.  

Gratitude provides soul medicine that allows our human brains, specifically the reticular activating system, to focus on what is meaningful and restorative.  Truly I believe it is one of the practices that help us not only survive but to thrive.  It turns our ordinary lives into extraordinary lives!

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving and gathering around a bountiful table with gratitude in my heart. But mostly I am inspired by the thought of expanding into what I like to call “Thanks Living”, living with thanks and gratitude every day for everything!

Give thanks for the journey of life, to all those you share your life with, for the blessings, the challenges, all of it. Most of all give thanks for one of our greatest life enhancers, GRATITUDE!

What is your relationship to gratitude?

What is your favorite gratitude practice?

Soul Musings are just that, “musings”.  Not advice, just an exploration of my own journey with some transformational concepts sprinkled in to support others along the way!

To learn about Transformational Hypnotherapy or to schedule a session of support with Victoria Jazwic, please visit:

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