Thanksgiving Mindfulness: A New Look at this US Holiday

Happy Thanksgiving, to you, my friends! Let’s talk about Thanksgiving Mindfulness…

This morning as I plan for the day ahead, I reflect on what it means to be thankful. Over the last few years, I have done what I call #ThankfulThursday and this is the first time that I see the connection with this holiday as I did it all year and really just did it as a way to add a positive spin to #ThrowbackThursday and to plant the seed of gratitude. You may recall, in a previous article, Gratitude… for Gratitude, that I kind of like being grateful.

 

 

It is only this morning that I also tie the holiday to mindfulness. Mindfulness for those of you unaware is the act of awareness. Jon Kabat-Zinn has defined mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”.

 

 

So how does mindfulness tie in with the holiday of Thanksgiving?

The scientific perspective

 

Mindfulness as a practice has many different exercises you can do. Many think of meditation first, and it is a great tool, but gratitude and being thankful is really powerful as well. I just read an article titled – What Science Reveals About Gratitude’s Impact on the Brain. 

 

In this article, they share many scientific ways the brain responds to gratitude and so please read the article if you like scientific data as proof, but you’ll also find practicing gratitude actually is beneficial to your health. 

 

In the article the author found “scientific studies suggesting that gratitude can improve your sleep, enhance your romantic relationships, protect you from illness, motivate you to exercise, and boost your happiness, among many other benefits.” 

 

 

That list alone should get us all trying to add thanks giving to our regular daily routine. He goes on to discuss How Gratitude Strengthens the Mind-Body Connection. This certainly is related to mindfulness as that is what mindfulness is all about creating a mind and body connection in the present moment.

 

 

Historic Perspetive

 

Back in the day, I am sure the holiday was started as a way to be a continual reminder of how we should find gratitude for the things we have in life. Now you may or may not like the traditional American Thanksgiving story of the Native Americans offer food to the Pilgrims, but this holiday has stuck around and become a tradition that isn’t going anywhere.

 

Somewhere along the way though, it became a routine of feasting and parades and less about taking time to actually reflect on all we have that blesses us.

 

 

Personal Perspective

 

Well, as I age, I find that ideas on things change. You see in my youth, Thanksgiving was about getting out of school and spending quality time with family and eating like crazy. These are fine things, but these days, I anticipate Thanksgiving a bit differently. 

 

For the last few years, I start thinking about what I have to be truly thankful for a week or so before the holiday itself. It’s just something I ponder a bit each day leading up to that Thankful Thursday.

 

 

And what I realize this morning is that this is a mindfulness practice, the act of reflecting on what is good in our life is actually a very helpful practice to break free of consumerism, mass media, social media, politics, pandemic, and so many other things that keep us distracted in our daily lives.

 

 

Can a Black Friday Sale Actually Be Good?

 

Two days ago, I decided that I would try to finalize the course I was working on building, related to mindfulness. This course is called SELFCARE and it is an 8-Week online mindfulness course. I am very thankful I was able to pull things together and get this out to the public. 

 

Yes, I sadly jumped on the Black Friday Sale to offer a wonderful price and boost sales for the launch, but more importantly I created this course, and this site actually, to try to help people. 

 

 

One area I want to help people is with working on gratitude. You see, by being more grateful more often, you can truly boost your health. I am very thankful that I am able to create such a tool to help others. I am thankful, I was able to start pushing it out to the world on the king of all #ThankfulThursdays, Thanksgiving 2020, the dreadful year of the global pandemic.

 

 

So what am I thankful for today?

In all honesty, I am thankful for my roughly 8 years of mindfulness training as it made the pandemic much easier to tolerate than if I had gone through it a decade ago. With that, because I have gotten so much out of mindfulness and meditation, I felt obligated to help others try this stuff out. 

 

That is why I created the course. I also leaned on scientific research to create a course that was not based on feelings so much as on science and there is a lot of research out there proving this stuff really improves your life. That is something to be thankful for.

 

 

I am thankful for the pandemic. Yes, I know that may sound crazy, but the pandemic has actually been a blessing to me in many ways. It certainly was a big push to offer my skills to more people around the world, because even pre-pandemic we were in rough shape, I know because I was leading the pack with unhealthy practices and lifestyles. 

 

I broke down long before the pandemic as a way to build my skills to be able to offer them to others. I look at offering mindfulness as not only an obligation or debt I must pay to the ancient masters that saved my butt, but also as a way to give back and make a positive change in society.

 

 

• Obviously the skills to get this course out, but the thought of how many I may be able to start helping.
• Right now I am thankful for seeing the sun come through the pine trees in Kingwood, Texas where I am right now.
• I’m thankful for waking up beside my lovely family. Both boys are in the room with us this morning and I love them and my wife so much, it is hard to put into words the joy they bring me.
• I am thankful for the family I am spending Thanksgiving with. I pray we will all be healthy and avoid catching or spreading the virus. I wish the same for all of you. Be safe.
• I am thankful that the weather has been beautiful the last week or so. Texas is a bit hot for me and fall is where I truly enjoy being outside.
• I am thankful for my friends and family that I cannot be with personally, but can be connected to on Facebook and see how their day is going on this great holiday.
• I am thankful for my Sangha and the members that help me push my mindfulness practices. and have found a way to connect twice a week via zoom.
• I’m thankful for the members of the Hope & Inspiration Book Club that meets weekly on Thursdays but will be taking today off. We’ve read some great race relations books and we are becoming less racist and working towards being anti-racist. The world could use more of this.
• I’m thankful for my FCC family even though I do not get to see many of them as much.
• I guess I am thankful for love as the more I learn about it and practice it, the more I am able to give. Mindfulness has helped here in big ways.
• I’m thankful for the vehicle that can get us around from here to there.
• I am thankful for all the books I have read this year. I’ve read 91 so far and my goal is 100 by year’s end so this should be possible. The knowledge I’ve gained this year from my reading is so wonderful. This is such a powerful medium – the written word.
• I’m thankful that my family is starting to rustle and I will be grabbing a warm cup of coffee and enjoying my family.
• I’m thankful for my eyes to see the beauty and colors of the day and my ears to hear family and music.

Peace, Love, and Respect to you my friends.

 

 

So what are you thankful for?

Share some thoughts in the comments below.

 

If you’d like to learn more about our new online 8-week mindfulness course to grow yourself and live a more healthy life and something to be very thankful for next Thanksgiving, you can check out the details here and grab this wonderful deal for the next few days – SELFCARE Mindfulness Course.