It used to be every night as I closed my eyes in bed, I would give thanks for the love in my life, the good home I have, and the beautiful area I live in. Thanks didn’t come because each day had been perfect or great – or even good. Thanks came because despite everything else, regardless of everything else, as I was falling asleep I still had so much to be grateful for. This wasn’t a “gratitude practice,” this was a habit. Many people talk about starting a gratitude practice. It’s often when it’s difficult to recognize the blessings in their lives because of the challenges they experience: the hardships, sorrows, and struggles. I grew up to be grateful for what I did have – often recognizing what I had despite great loss.
Celebrating the good things
I don’t know how my habit of gratitude was formed. I don’t know if it was something my mother instilled in me, or something I learned from my father, who tended to find the positive in things despite an often very painful life. It could have been from a grandparent, my church, or a book. But until recently, those words of gratitude did come no matter what else was going on.
A few months ago, I realized I was no longer doing this automatically. My head would hit the pillow, I’d close my eyes, and I’d experience racing thoughts. Though it wasn’t new for me to have racing thoughts, usually they’d still be joined by feelings of thanks. At some point, those racing thoughts or tired sighs became the habit. The words of gratitude despite the day’s difficulties were not immediately there as they had been. I don’t even know when it started happening, though I would guess it was probably around the time my dad died.
Pandemic and other crises
This signaled a big change for me. It wasn’t exactly surprising though. I’ve written about it all enough here, don’t need to rehash the details. But to summarize, my dad passed away after several strokes and several years of subsequent dementia. The year after he died I was diagnosed with a bunch of health issues that seemed to come out of the blue. And then following those diagnoses, as I was optimistic about moving forward with more energy this year, my mother-in-law got sick, and died in under two months. Also in the past year my husband and I have experienced a lot of housing insecurity, and we are still uncertain about our future. And finally, pandemic, and the year I could not see my dad in person, or meet regularly for family dinners with my kid and her partner. That was probably when I started to actually feel a bit defeated.
There is still so much to be grateful for. I mean that. But I can see why my mind stopped ending each day with a silent shout-out of thanks. The past few years (more like five or six, but who’s counting?) have sucked a lot of the time. Many, many days by the time I went to bed I was physically and emotionally exhausted. Some days I was in tears – as well as in pain. There were countless nights I slept on the couch so I wouldn’t wake up my husband due to tossing and turning, or I would wake in the middle of the night, and being unable to fall back asleep, would head downstairs to practice keyboard, make a cup of tea, or read.
Finding real gratitude again
Realizing I was no longer ending my days with a thank you for all the love and beauty still in my life, was kind of a soft punch in the gut. It made me realize maybe I did have a threshold, a breaking point, so to speak. Everything had finally become too much.
That’s how I decided to learn more about starting an actual gratitude practice. Will it be forcing it? Does that work? I don’t know. It’s not like the gratitude isn’t there, it is still there. It’s just not there all the time, or as automatically, and it’s harder to draw up when overshadowed by challenges, or when falling into bed feeling a bit trampled.
Thanksgiving – a natural time for gratitude
There seems to be no better time to start a gratitude practice than Thanksgiving time. This year will be quite different for me and my family as well, so it might be a challenge to start too!
Most years, we would gather at my mother-in-law’s for the holiday. Even my family, my dad and others, would come as well. Thanksgiving was of great importance to my mother-in-law. This year will be the first Thanksgiving without her. She used to have us all state what we were grateful for each Thanksgiving. As we sat at the Thanksgiving table in her apartment, the food all laid out before us, she would go around the table to each of us and have us state one thing we were thankful for. It sometimes felt corny, but there was value in that little family ritual. I think we each learned what we really valued in our lives by doing that, and we also learned what others valued – or what they feared to lose. I don’t expect we will carry on that tradition as we gather this year (who knows though, maybe?), but I can reflect on that myself. This can be the beginning of my so-called gratitude practice. I can start it with this one: I am grateful to have had my mother-in-law in my life, for who she was as a person, and for all that she taught me.
~ Nellie
p.s. If you are interested in beginning a gratitude practice, or are looking for ways to expand one, check out the mindful.org guide, How to Practice Gratitude, which has an abundance of insights and suggestions for an effective, fulfilling practice.