Special Edition Alchemy Advantage: Studying Gratitude

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us - a holiday that is supposed to be about gratitude and all things we are thankful for - I've recently been catching myself thinking and saying the exact opposite. It seems much easier these days to list all the people I am missing, the things I am lacking, and the activities that won't occur.  And it seems much harder to dig for and find what I am thankful for.

A typical Wik Family Thanksgiving consists of 28 people with 28 hugs and 28 jovial voices, all thrilled to reconnect; cousins running around; bottles of wine being poured (starting at 12pm); Black Friday shopping; annual Christmas ornament crafts and finally, the beloved annual Christmas family photo. But it is 2020, and we are in a pandemic, and none of those things are happening for the Wik family this year.  We will all be apart and that makes my heart feel terribly heavy. 

I share this struggle because my guess is that your holiday season may look a bit different this year too. Every day I seem to encounter another "sad story" about families that will be apart or traditions that will be postponed. Perhaps you are not encountering the same challenges, and yet you may be feeling some degree of impact. Same storm, different boats, right? We are all in this pandemic-filled storm, yet we are each navigating through it in our own boats, having our own unique challenges and experiences.  

Recently I began to wonder - is there a way for each and every one of us to find gratitude and joy in the pandemic-filled storm? How can we rewrite the script this Thanksgiving and shift how we relate to "gratitude"? 

So, I started researching the topic of "gratitude" and what it does for us, scientifically speaking. Turns out that expressing gratitude actually boosts the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin as well as the hormone oxytocin in the brain. This is all associated with well-being and having a positive outlook on life. 

I then went on to study the origin of the word. "Gratitude" comes from the Latin root gratus, meaning "pleasing, welcome, agreeable". Gratus is also the root of the related word grace.

Given that feeling and expressing gratitude is valuable "fuel" for the brain, I began to wonder - How might I be able to get into agreement with Thanksgiving 2020? What about this situation can I welcome in and find pleasing? What is one truth about this new situation that I can meet with ease and grace? 

The research is there and it is time for me to CHOOSE gratitude now. This week I am choosing to shift how I relate to this holiday season, and a whole new world of possibility is opening up for me. Last night all the Wik cousins gathered on Zoom for our annual Christmas photo. It took over 12 attempts and was at times painful, but we finally got a "Hollywood squares" image that will work! I am choosing to embrace the grace that comes with not traveling this year. I am choosing to agree to this situation and welcome in the time to decorate my house for the holidays much earlier than usual. Crazy? Perhaps, and I can feel the dopamine and serotonin flowing! 

So what are you going to choose? How can you choose to find and feel gratitude right now? 

Wishing you all a safe, healthy and grace filled Thanksgiving! 

Courage always,

 
 

 

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