Thanksgiving is coming! This means big dinners, heartfelt moments with family, board games, expressions of thanks and moments of pure bliss. Though this marks a special and unique time of the year, the general ideas and actions that it promotes don’t have to end in November. There are many ways to celebrate Thanksgiving everyday, and here are a few ways how:
- Bring People Together
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Thanksgiving is a time to bring people together. It emphasizes family, both related and adopted. It can even carry distant family from over thousands of miles away to your front door. Though this creates special moments, you can bring people together anytime. Some ways you can do this involve planning dinner parties, extending invitations to simply spend time with people, introducing different groups of friends to each other to expand everyone’s circle of friends and planning excursions with friends. Personally, I like to take it upon myself to invite people out who I typically don’t see outside of the classroom or work environment. It allows newer and deeper relationships to form, and makes those who may otherwise not know it feel appreciated.
- Share Your Abundance
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Charity and giving are key elements behind the holiday, so it is no surprise that they’re key elements behind celebrating it everyday. Some obvious ways you can do this are by getting involved with a non-profit organization dedicated to helping others. In this way, you would be sharing one of the most valuable things you can offer: time. It is something people rarely give and so often waste. Now, when I say “get involved”, I don’t mean to go and dedicate your time just once or twice a year. To “get involved” means to spend real and meaningful time with the organization to the point of truly embracing and understanding their mission statement. It means getting to know the cause you are helping, the people involved and the work it takes to make things happen.
- Enjoy Nature’s Bounty
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Nature provides us with a range of beautiful and fantastic gifts that, believe it or not, are actually free to enjoy! So, there is absolutely no reason to take advantage of it. Take a moment to walk outside and not just see nature, but to NOTICE it. Take notice of the details in trees, the aroma of flowers, the feeling of grass under your bare feet and the chill of the brisk wind as it gives rise to tiny goosebumps that remind you of just how impactful your surroundings are. It is both humbling and refreshing.
- Slow Down
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Take it slowwwww. Nowadays, everything moves so fast. Cars rush on the freeway, people push past each other to get to their destinations and special moments only last for as long as people are willing to stick around. This makes taking it slow all the more important. Maybe wake up a little early for class so you can take the time to take the long way there or enjoy a nice sit-down breakfast. To take it slow means to take time to be thankful for time, for being alive and for the little things that could make a bad day good. It allows you to savor simple things like eating your favorite meals. Most importantly, savor your free time and allow it to be “free”. Don’t jam all of your days full of time-consuming things when you don’t have to!
- Reflect
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Reflect on your days. Don’t let them go to waste and forget them. It is the bad days that you can actually learn and gain the most from. Even if you don’t want to reflect on it much, you might find comfort in reflecting on older days to remind yourself that the good days usually outnumber the bad. One way you can easily do this is by keeping a gratitude journal where you share lessons learned and highlights of each day.
- Make Positivity A Habit
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Having a positive attitude is not a difficult thing to do. One way to do this is to have a gratitude jar that you make an attempt, each day, to fill. It makes you try to turn bad moments into good and make the most out of any situation. It also creates a visual representation of how many positive things there are in each day. Not only that, but it can remind others about how easy it is to be positive.
- Write Thank You Notes
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Thank you notes make all the difference. They allow you to reflect on how many reasons there are to be thankful by putting it on paper. Also, by giving them to others, it allows others to realize how appreciated they are. Even making thank you notes for small things can make all the difference. Sending a thank you note to someone who treated you to dinner may seem ridiculous, but it invites a warm feeling and is very humbling. It promotes giving behaviour as well because it shows that everything is appreciated and giving really does make an impact.
Thanksgiving is amazing, I’m not saying that it and the moments it creates are not. Nonetheless, to encourage the basics of Thanksgiving everyday is just as amazing and all the more impactful. Try it for a few days after Thanksgiving, and I can promise that you will see memorable results in yourself and the world around you.