Be Grateful for What You Have This Holiday Season
Starting the holiday season with a Month of Gratitude is a great way to show appreciation to others and get into the spirit of things. But gratitude is more than just a feel-good emotion; it’s a powerful way to enhance our health and uplift our overall well-being. In this post, we’ll explore how practicing gratitude benefits the mind and body and share some easy ways to bring more gratitude into everyday life!
I will share my examples of gratitude in the 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge. I have also created a gratitude worksheet that you can download at the end of this post to help you start your unique gratitude journey. It will provide a good start for some Thanksgiving Gratitude!
Let’s get started!
First, Let’s Define Gratitude and Thankfulness
We need to know what gratitude is to fully experience its power. Many people use these two words interchangeably, but I would like to highlight some subtle differences between them.
Thankfulness is the warm or happy feeling because of something, i.e., Thanksgiving dinner. Where gratefulness and showing gratitude is more action-oriented or an emotion of showing appreciation of kindness or benefits received.
This article from Wiki How does a great job explaining the difference between gratitude and thankfulness.
Being grateful is so important for our health and wellbeing along with that of others in our life!
What Are the Health Benefits of Gratitude?
The power of gratitude is a fantastic thing! There are physical and mental health benefits to gratitude; here are just a few from a great article from Very Well Mind:
Health Benefits of Gratitude
- Better able to stick to health behaviors like exercise.
- Reduced levels of stress and stress hormones like cortisol.
- Able to Form Deeper Relationships
- Increased Levels of Optimism and Life Satisfaction
- Lower Levels of Anxiety and Stress
- Elevated Levels of Self-Esteem
- Provides an Immunity Boost
- Improved Sleep Levels
Easy Gratitude Practices to Start Today
Here are some daily gratitude activities you will enjoy, helping to make thankfulness an essential part of your life!
Keeping a Gratitude Journal
A gratitude journal is a simple but effective way to bring gratitude into your routine with some grateful words. Spend a few minutes each day writing down three things you’re grateful for. Over time, this practice can help cultivate a grateful mindset and promote lasting happiness. Think of this journal as a diary of gratitude.
The journal would be a great place to include some gratitude poems along with some attitude and gratitude quotes.
You can purchase these already-made journals, or you can even personalize your own by creating your own.
If you are not into journaling, try a gratitude jar where you write down the things you are thankful for on slips of paper and put them in a jar. Take out one of these “happy thanks” each day.
Another fun way to count blessings is to put colorful sticky notes on a bulletin board. For some gratitude, note examples check out my pictures of gratitude ideas below. It can even happen at the dinner table when we share something that we are grateful for having or experiencing.
Practicing Mindful Appreciation
Take a moment each day to consciously appreciate something that brings you joy, like a warm cup of tea, a beautiful sunset, or a meaningful conversation. By mindfully acknowledging these moments, you can make gratitude a natural part of your day.
This mindful activity can be a morning gratitude moment, a day-end gratitude meditation, or even a lunchtime thankfulness meditation.
Expressing Gratitude to Others
Expressing words of gratitude doesn’t just make others feel good—it also enhances our sense of connection. Whether thanking a friend or acknowledging a loved one’s support, practicing gratitude in relationships strengthens our bonds and promotes positive emotions.
Some expressing gratitude examples to others might be: “Thank you for everything you do,” “I appreciate your help with helping me in the yard,” or “I am so grateful to have you in my life.”
Think of the appreciation and gratitude messages that you can share with others.
Here Are My 30 Days of Examples of Gratitude
To help you kick off your month of gratitude, I thought some things that make me grateful might be helpful. Some of them are tangible which we can see and touch but others are thoughts, feelings and concepts so are intangible.
Don’t forget to download your gratitude worksheet for your daily gratitude practice at the end of this post!
Here, they are not precisely in this order:
1. I am Grateful for A Safe Home
Being a recent hurricane survival victim, I am grateful for a safe place to live because there are so many people who have lost their homes and lives. This has made me so much more appreciative of my place!
2. I am Grateful for a Warm Beverage, Especially on a Cold Day
There is nothing like a warm beverage to warm you up on a cold day. I love that I can fix a warm beverage; it makes me warm and cozy! What is your favorite warm beverage? I think mine is hot chocolate!
3. I am Grateful for Sunshine
Nothing feels better than sunshine coming down on me while I walk my dog, Hilda. I always wear sunscreen on my face before going out in the sunshine.
4. I am Grateful for Plants
Whether I can eat or adore looking at a plant, I love it and am grateful for it! What plants do you love?
5. I am grateful to be able to Move My Body
Exercise and movement are essential for our health. I love to go hiking with my husband and our dog. Someday, I may not be able to take my hikes, but I will be grateful to do chair exercises, too!
What is your favorite exercise?
6. I am grateful for Hobbies
Hobbies bring so much joy and learning into our lives. Whether it is an outside hobby like gardening or an indoor like embroidery, I like to have different ones depending on the season and where I am. They provide me with stress relief and help me feel productive when I watch television or travel.
What is your favorite hobby?
7. I am Grateful for Healthy Food
Healthy food helps me be grateful for its health benefits because the healthy food that I prepare is delightful for me and my family.
Since we are coming upon the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share some of my favorite Thanksgiving menu ideas that I hope you will enjoy:
Gluten Free Low Fodmap Thanksgiving Recipes and Menus
Thanksgiving Recipes for One or Two People
Vegan and Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu Ideas
8. I am Grateful for Happy Music
The joy of seeing a child happy playing instruments that they find in their family’s kitchen brings not only joy but gratitude. There are many songs of gratitude that we can play to bring us joy, too. These are just a few:
Billboard’s List of Songs About Gratitude
Brandon Lake’s Song of Gratitude
And it does not have to be about gratitude. Any song that makes me feel happy inside makes me be grateful!
9. I am Grateful for Good Smelling Scents
I am grateful for my sense of smell, whether it is fresh or dried flowers, essential oils, candles made from natural ingredients, or delicious food being prepared. What is one of your favorite good-smelling scents? A good scent can bring you back to your grandmother’s holiday dinners!
10. I am Grateful for a Good Book
It is one of my best places to be when I get lost inside a good book! What kind of books do you like to read?
11. I am Grateful for Tears
When I cry, it is a reminder of how I feel. We shed tears when we are happy, sad, stressed, angry, and even grateful—this article by a physician shares additional health benefits of tears.
12. I am Grateful for Talents and Skills
Talents and skills can be work-related or more related to our free time. For example, recipe creation and my training as a dietitian helped me with my job, but my painting and sewing skills are more related to what I like to do during my time off. Consider your talents and skills to make a list to remind you of these things to be grateful!
13. I am Grateful for Problem Solving
One of the things that I learned in school is the problem-solving process. As a college student, this cracked me up, but my problems were minor. As an adult, the problem-solving skill I use in my nutrition practice can be used to make decisions in my own life.
The great thing is that if one solution doesn’t work, try another.
14. I am Grateful for Knowledge
Many of us are lifetime learners with a thirst for knowledge. And this is something to be very grateful for having! We are fortunate to have almost all information at our finger tips and we are reponsible to use it wisely.
15. I am Grateful for Kindness
If everyone were kind to one another, the world would be a better place. But exactly what is meant by kindness? The definition suggests the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. But this website called Inspired Kindness suggests it can mean much more!
16. I am Grateful for Fun
Fun may differ for each person, but the importance of play and fun can be healing! Find where you can add it to your daily routine. This article from Life Hacks has some tips for incorporating fun into your day, although making your list of things you love to do would be even better!
17. I am Grateful for Flexibility
Flexibility is our ability to compromise in situations—sort of a “give and take” or “go with the flow.” The gift of flexibility helps us work and get along with others. Adaptability is similar but different because it is more about changing the tools/behavior to better meet the situation. Both are important to getting along and succeeding, and I am grateful for both.
This article on the Indeed website compares the two skills and how we can develop them.
18. I am Grateful for a Diverse Community
In our country, some of us fear people who are different from us. But we are blessed to have a melting pot with people who are different from us. And we can celebrate our uniqueness. As a former college professor, I was fortunate to teach a course called “Food and Culture,” where we learned about other countries with an extra emphasis on the foods they ate. But I love learning about their clothing, buildings, holidays, and language (even though I am not skilled at learning other languages).
Our world is so much more enjoyable because we are all different. I used this picture of this diverse group of dogs to show that these dogs do not mind if they all look different; they are still part of a pack. And if they can do it, people can also!
19. I am Grateful for Clean Drinking Water
I have been blessed with clean drinking water for most of my life. I grew up in a rural community with a well, and I lived in towns and cities where the water was tested and treated.
For about five years, as young married people, we rented a place with a questionable well. The water was full of iron and orange. We bought water for our cooking and drinking. I even bought water to wash some clothes I did not want destroyed. It even rusted our washer tub. I was glad to move away from there.
Fast forward 20 years later, I live in a community with some of the best water in the country; however, in late September, we were hit by historic Hurricane Helene and were without clean running water for almost 3 weeks. It is running now, but we have a water boil alert. It is coming, but meanwhile, I am back to drinking bottled water, and I am reminded that many people in our country and worldwide struggle with clean water, which is essential to life.
20. I am Grateful for Positive Thoughts
I am grateful that I can practice positive thinking and lessen the amount of negative thinking that pops into my head. This can help me lead a more worthwhile life. One way we can do this is to see the world differently and in a different light.
Here is a great article on minimizing negative thinking and adding more positive thinking to help improve our outlook on life!
21. I am Grateful for Justice and Fairness
Fairness means that we each receive the same treatment or behaviro without someone receiving favortism or being discrimminated.
Justice is when we are treated in an equal and fair manner.
It is important for everyone to be treated with justice and fairness.
22. I am Grateful for Family and Friends
I love this picture of my husband and son together. I am so grateful for all the people that I love. They are so important to me.
23. I am Grateful for Flavors and Tastes
I feel gratefulness for different flavors and tastes. They keep life interesting and enjoyable. If food and beverages had not flavor, they would be difficult to consume for many of us!
24. I am Grateful for Healthy Ways to Relax
Many of us feel stressed and are need for relaxation in a healthy way. Here are two good articles on this by Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinc.
25. I am Grateful for Faith and Freedom
Not only am I grateful for faith and freedom, but also the freedom to practice our faith.
Freedom is being free to act, speak or think without external constraints or limitations.
Faith is the belief or trust in someone or something. For some people faith is religion, spirituality or a movement. And freedom is their right to do it.
26. I am Grateful for Eyesight and a Colorful World
For many of us, sight is the most important sense to us. So keeping our eyes healthy is so important so we can continue to see the things that we love.
And it is important that many of the the things that we see are beautiful!
27. I am grateful for Compassionate Laughter
Compassionate laughter is not laughing at the expense of others but laughing with them or at ourselves in a happy, loving way. Laughter is good for our health! Here are some of the benefits of laughter.
Ways to laugh more include compassionate laugher videos/movies, quotes, jokes, cartoons and memes. This article also shares additional ways to stimulate compassionate laughter.
28. I am Grateful for Beautiful Places
Whether it is beautiful landscapes like mountains, beaches, forests, or prairies, architecture, towns and homes, there are a lot of beautiful places.
If you cannot travel to see them as much as you like, create your own beautiful place corner with a place to sit, a comfy pillow, throw and house plant along with a good book or craft project. That is truly a beautiful place just for you!
29. I am Grateful for Family Traditions and Memories
I am so grateful for memories of my parents, grandparents and other family members and my husband’s family for all the memories we shared together. Our tradtions were part of the glue that help us all together. Every family has different traditions. What are some of your favorite traditions that your family has and some of your memories?
30. I am Grateful for a Good Night’s Sleep
Last but not least, I celebrate everyday for a good night’s sleep. After years, of having sleep issues, I have worked hard on my sleep hygeine. Sleep is an important piece of our health. Check out these tips to get more of it!
Making Gratitude a Part of Your Wellness Journey
Being grateful in your daily life can transform your wellness journey. Some of the benefits include physical, mental, and emotional health, gratitude offers a holistic approach to well-being. So why not take a moment today to count your blessings and experience the powerful effects of gratitude?
I have so many things to be grateful for and this gratitude exercise has been helpful to get me thinking about it and doing it!
I am grateful for you and wish you the very best this holiday season! Please use this Month of Gratitude handout/ 30 Days of Gratitude Worksheet!
