A Gratitude Challenge: What’s Not Cancelled

Most recent events have caused a significant uproar in humans. We are naturally social people, and have inherently had our social abilities taken away from us. Some of us have been thrust into unheard of situations, taking on multiple hats to try to keep everyone but themselves happy. And for most of us, it is far easier to see everything we are not doing, everything that is going wrong, all the appreciation we are not getting, rather than the positive alternatives. As a result, whether due to job loss and troubling finances, remote work while caring for kids, cabin fever and the desire to do something, anything, with others away from our homes, depression and anxiety is setting in for a large number of people right now. We could all use a little help in creating some positivity surrounding this pandemic.

Anxiety and panic are rooted in fear, and we are in a very scary situation. Most people are in very trying times, and the current news is not reassuring any way you look at it. However, we must realize our brains are incredibly obedient to our thoughts. If we feed it anxiety and fear, around how difficult and frustrating our situation is, it will take that and start giving you reasons to validate that fear, further increasing anxiety. On the other hand, if we feed our brains self-compassion, empathy and gratitude, positive thoughts despite these unheard-of events, it will start to list off all the ways we are blessed.

What I’m mainly talking about here is mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a natural way to increase our self-compassion, empathy, and gratitude with ourselves and our surroundings. The more self-compassion, empathy and gratitude we have, the happier and more content we are, and our stress and anxiety naturally start to decrease. Mindfulness is the practice of being aware and paying attention to the present moment with kindness and curiosity and without judgement. Formal meditation is only one way to achieve mindfulness. Journaling is another popular mindful activity. But mindful practice doesn’t have to be a big event. Simply stopping on a walk to notice and enjoy the sunshine or smell a flower, or putting down your fork and closing your eyes when eating to really taste and enjoy a meal are also forms of mindfulness.

With that said, I think it is really important, especially lately, to practice mindfulness in order to shift our mindset to one seeded in positivity. I was recently listening to a mindfulness talk and the instructor did a gratitude meditation. In that meditation she challenged us to think about our current situation, and urged us to focus on one thing, just one thing, that has not been canceled as a result of this pandemic. Focus on that one thing, and really bring gratitude to it. How does it make you feel? What can you do to utilize or expand on it? Why is it important to you that this thing is not canceled?

Here’s a couple examples:

Despite everything going on, summer is still here. The seasons have not been canceled. Birds are chirping, the sun rises earlier and sets later. We’ve transitioned from winter to spring, and spring to summer. If you have a job, maybe you are grateful your job has not been canceled and you are still receiving an income. Maybe you have been going for more walks to get out of the house, and you are grateful that walking and fitness have not been canceled.

My one thing was real estate. Real estate has not been canceled, and that is something that has helped my family out immensely throughout this event. During the middle of it all, my husband and I sold our house and purchased a new house, moving the family to a space that has worked out so much better for us. Our old house was very small, and while it worked most of the time, being home all the time made it very clear that it was not working for us anymore. The fact that real estate, while it has suffered, has been able to adapt to the new rules and regulations to more socially distant practices so that we could still complete our transactions and transition to a bigger house, has made coping with this pandemic a thousand times easier for my family.

Here, today, I am going to challenge you…

Come up with more than one thing in your life that has not been canceled, but even if you can only think of one, stop and reflect on why that thing is important to you, and how you can show gratitude towards it. Ponder it while you go for a walk, use it as a journal prompt to inspire your writing, or simply talk it out with a loved one. How it happens isn’t of importance, what is important is that we hide the dark and fear for even just a sliver of time to let light and positivity shine into our hearts and lift us up.