#sparkchamber 112023 — Giving Thanks

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” So said musician and activist Willie Nelson, and so inspires #sparkchamber today. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S. this Thursday, and no matter how hard the times may seem, there’s always something to be thankful for.

The Greek philosopher Epictetus knows a thing or two about that. Born into slavery, obtaining his freedom, and becoming a teacher of philosophy in Rome, from which he [in fact, all philosophers] was banished, eventually founding a philosophy school in Greece. That guy, with his topsy-turvy, roller-coaster-ride of a life, he said, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

That’s an attitude of gratitude — which shouldn’t be just a platitude! Not just something that comes up on Thanksgiving day, but rather an awareness brought to mind every day. As the saying goes, “It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy.”

And the road to happiness — true fact — is gratitude. Grateful people experience more joy, feel and express more love, and move through life with more optimism and enthusiasm than the envious, bitter, hard-hearted ones. They cope better with stress, sleep better, have more patience and resiliency, and enjoy overall better health. It’s crazy.

And it’s so simple. It’s taking a moment to notice, and maybe even contemplate, a good thing in your life. It doesn’t have to be some big giant thing. It’s really more about the smallest little things, the ever present, overlooked backdrop to your hustle-bustle life — puffy clouds in a blue sky, the dollop of foam on your cappuccino, a kid on a swing, no line at check-out. It grounds you in the moment, connects you to a larger story, reminds you that life is beautiful, magical, … and far too short.

Gratitude isn’t automatic, though. It needs to be cultivated. As another saying goes, “Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.” Cultivating gratitude is a conscious choice — kind of like changing the channel on the chatter inside your head. Choose to see and hear all the good there is, vs. concentrating on all that is bad, or all that is missing.

Like anything, it gets easier and easier the more you practice. [Some people find that keeping a gratitude journal helps them stay focused on all that is good.] Expressing gratitude takes it to the next level, and for that we recommend gratitudegrams, an offering by #sparkchamber alumna Asal Dean.

But back to Thanksgiving. Here’s a little prayer courtesy of the Buddha: “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”

Wishing a happy Thanksgiving to each and every, with this final thought, the Buddhist Proverb, ”enough” is a feast.

1.] Where do ideas come from?

If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough — Eckhart Tolle, spiritual teacher

2.] What is the itch you are scratching?

What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude — Brené Brown, research professor

3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can be grateful that thorn bushes have roses — Tom Wilson, author

4.] How do you know when you are done?

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things — Robert Brault, author