A Culture Of Thankfulness 

There are probably a million and one different ways to make life work better for us. There are themes, quick fixes, long fixes, self-taught, expensive and some are free fixes.  Some work and some don’t. Some might work for everyone, some for no one and every almost every degree in between.  

Considering all of that information, I want to take some time to tell you about one that I’ve found that makes me a better person and makes my life a better life to live.  I call it creating a“Culture Of Thankfulness.” 

Whenever someone mentions creating a “Culture of (Fill in the blank)” then there are bound to be questions that come to mind.

Among them…

—What is it?

—How do I do it?

—What do I get out of it?

—Is this shareable?

There are obviously more questions than just these but because of the scope I’m going to stop with these. Also, how to calm down and refocus on the life around us is intensely individual. So, I’ll be using the word ‘I’ much more than “we” or ‘you” so I can share my thoughts and my experiences and then leave it up to you to determine if it’s something that would fit inside of your life. 

What Is It?

What was I talking about when I decided to develop this Culture of Thankfulness around me? I guess first was simply a way to be happier in the midst of all of life’s challenges. In order to do that,  I kept hearing the words of my dad.  “Gregg, you can’t just be grateful for the things you want to be grateful for, you’ve got to find gratitude in everything!” So, if I wanted to find a way to be thankful for all of the things in my life, I needed to pay special attention to those things that I never realized I could find thankfulness or gratitude in, in the first place. 

[NOTE: Thankful and Grateful are the same to me.  I’m sure there is a difference but to me, they’re interchangeable.]

How Do I Do It?

I made the conscious decision to employ this “Culture of Thankfulness” in every area of my life as opposed to gradually phasing it in. To be fair though, since doing  this for some time now, I’ve realized how thankfulness has found its way into different areas of my life and times of my life that I never would have dreamt it could have. As a result, I do my best to surround myself with thankfulnessfrom the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep at night. 

When I wake up I lay there and start saying thank you. Sometimes it’s out loud, sometimes it’s just to myself. I keep saying my thank you’s, sometimes about specific things, sometimes to specific people but most of the time…I just start saying thank you and let it roll wherever it wants to on it’s own. (I also have to admit that sometimes I forget as soon as I wake up and I get up and move on with my day! So as soon as the realization comes into my head that I forgot to say my thanks earlier, I immediately spend the next few seconds “Thanking!”) How long does it last? Well, when I find myself smiling, I feel comfortable moving on. Feeling grateful as opposed to thinking about feeling grateful is the key. 

Throughout the day whenever an event of some sort happens or I even find myself thinking about the words gratitude or thankfulness, back to the “Thanking” I go. The cool part is it can take as long as you want to spend on it. Meaning, sometimes it’s a few seconds at a red light for instance or several minutes during a mediation. I find myself meditating and/or praying at various times of the day and night. Before I enter into any kind of sacred space, I always begin by “Thanking.” Once I’m convinced I’m surrounded by thankfulness and gratitude then I move forward with my meditation or prayer. (Whether I am simply noticing it more or it is actually an improvement, I find that I am in a better and more receptive mood when I wake up too.)

What Do I Get Out Of It?

I’m more Thankful! (duh) Seriously, I do find that I’m more consistently calm and thankful. Since starting this (and that’s been a long time now) I’ve noticed that I am much more able to react to the unknowns in life that are thrown my way. I also notice more of what’s going on around me, presumably because I’m not stuck spending so much time freaking out about me!

Is It Sharable?

You bet! To be fair though, most of this Culture of Thankfulness is shared through the new me that I’ve become or the new “essence” that surrounds me as I interact with others. If I try and share it directly, I just see a lot of eye rolling and see people checking their watches. (Please tell me you haven’t been checking your watch and rolling your eyes through this whole thing!)

That’s what’s behind the development of my “Culture Of Thankfulness” in a nutshell. It’s done so many things for me including being part of making me a much better Gregg Masters than I was before it found me. I feel better about myself, more confident, more willing to try something new, more forgiving if things don’t go right and more empathetic towards other people, other situations and more able to understand myself. 

I hope you might be able to include some or all of the things we touched on here, in your life. If you have any questions, please ask away in the comment section and I’ll help if I can. As a matter of fact, I’d love to hear your input on this or any of my other One Minute Blogs or A Common Man’s Wisdom Podcasts. 

Thanks for taking some of your incredibly valuable time out of your life to spend with me here. It means a great deal to me…

Peace

     ……Gregg

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