Gratitude
It’s the last week of November. This month flew by!
It’s the time of the year where the holiday season begins, kicking off with Thanksgiving. Our lives have been impacted for the past 8 months, shifting our routines from how we normally lived our lives and went about our day, to how we go about our days have changed our lives.
As we approach Thanksgiving day, our family gatherings this year might be a tad bit smaller, if any gatherings at all. Covid is going to have us all doing curb side pick up for to go dinners at family and friends! How ever you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, please just do your part and stay the distance! We’re already seeing spikes, and I don’t know about y’all, but I am so over the mask life and want to go back to the time when we didn’t have to wear one, so please, just be safe!
Change the Trajectory
Gratitude; “the quality of being thankful.”
Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks, and although the pandemic has had us all uncertain, pause for a second and reflect upon the past 8 months. Where we started at the onset of the pandemic to where we are. In my own reflection, Covid made me realize how much I have to be grateful for. The number one thing for me pre-pandemic was time. Feeling like I didn’t have enough of it working a 9-5, working on A Gill of all Trades after working the 9-5, and having other personal goals to accomplish. Then Covid happened and I was able to work remotely for the full time gig, which cut my commuting time, thus, giving be back time to focus on my business and on those other personal goals.
I’m equally grateful I created a business many moons ago, that was ahead of the time we’re in now, as A Gill of all Trades was designed and branded as an online/virtual business.
We may never go back to what we perceived as “normal.” As I wrote in my July blogpost, “We are surrounded by uncertainty. We are uncomfortable with this new way of living; being, and it’s okay to feel uncertain and uncomfortable; however, we should sit in the discomfort of our current situation to shift into a new paradigm.”
Having and showing gratitude for even the smallest of things going right in our lives, is a new paradigm; a shift in our mindset. Gratitude changes the trajectory.
Mental health experts agree. In an article written in Psychology Today, “Psychologists find that, over time, feeling grateful boosts happiness and fosters both physical and psychological health, even among those already struggling with mental health problems.”
Shift in Mindset
We have the ability to change our lives. The more we are grateful for what we have, the more things appear in our lives to be grateful for. As with all routines/shifts, you have to consciously make it an effort to count your blessings. Start with finding three things in your day to be grateful for; someone held the door open for you. You received a compliment. Someone was thinking about you enough to give you a call.
Small steps lead to big results. Watch how your life unfolds when you shift your mindset to focus more on what you are grateful for versus what you lack.
Make it a routine to have gratitude.
This Thanksgiving, even more so than past Thanksgivings, be thankful for your gifts, give thanks for your family and friends, be grateful for still having a job and having a roof over your head during this Covid era, because many people have lost theirs.
As always, be kind…now more than ever, the world truly needs more of that!
XXOO
-Gillian
