Are you feeling the swift current of holiday madness? It’s rushing earlier and faster than ever. Hallmark Christmas movies began in October. Christmas wreaths and lights are in the same aisles next to the Halloween ghouls and witches. Mail flyers are already promising that if you “buy this, your holiday will be perfect.” And if we’re not careful, we’ll believe the flimflam and flit away our precious resources, only to realize we’ve been seduced by commercialism, again.

 Fortunately for us, the antidote to holiday craziness is gratitude, celebrated by Thanksgiving Day, which is minimally marketed with turkey sales and pumpkin pies. The first Thanksgiving dinner began with Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans after a devastatingly harsh winter. Forty-eight of the original 102 Pilgrims had died of scurvy or exposure. The Native American populations had just suffered a lethal plague, with some villages suffering a 90% death rate. The Patuxet village where the Pilgrims first colonized was completely wiped out. And yet amidst these extreme challenges and sufferings, the 1621 Thanksgiving party joined together to pray, share their harvest, have fun, and express gratitude.

We know from experience that gratitude feels good. It’s a wonderful mix of emotions – tenderness, contentment, relief, fullness, satisfaction, and presence. As a bonus, science proves grateful people experience more positive emotions, feel more alive, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and even have stronger immune systems. 

 Robert Emmons, a researcher on gratitude, explains that gratitude has two key components. 

“First,” he writes, “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.”

 In the second part of gratitude, he explains, “we recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. … We acknowledge that other people—or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset—gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.”

 An interesting quiz that measures your level of gratitude can be found here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition. Answering the questions was thought provoking for me and worth taking a few minutes to check out. 

 There are fun ways to practice the skill of gratitude. List three good things that happened during the day in a journal before bed or with your bed partner. At the dinner table, share highs and lows. Have a gratitude jar where everyone jots a note and then the notes are read in a celebration. Write a letter to someone with details and examples of why you’re grateful for them. The best practice is the one that you will do. 

 Gratitude isn’t optional if you want to be happy and content and there are few excuses to not do it other than we simply forget. It could be just the source of peace you’re looking for to help you savor what’s really important during the holidays and the year to come. It’s a wonderful gift to give yourself and others because the gift of gratitude is a timeless, priceless contributor to our well-being and happiness.

“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season – like all other seasons – is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them.” 

-Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal