On this Thanksgiving season, I would like to remind you that Gratitude is a simple and natural occurrence that happens in all of us. When people have been especially challenged for what seems to be long period of time; so much so that they start overthinking gratitude and having (what seemed as though) trouble finding gratitude. I would like to offer an epiphany....Yes one can feel profound gratitude many times in over their life, but the most profound gratitude is when you find it in the small stuff.....reeeaallly small stuff.

On the surface, many of us are told that we are not grateful enough, that we should be grateful for the things that we have--from our materialistic possessions to our health. Yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah!  Yes, all these are noble things that we are grateful for and that we should NEVER take for granted, but we should not chastise ourselves for forgetting to count those in our blessings when our lives feel like they are falling apart. If you are feeling overwhelmed and finding it hard to be grateful or being told that you are, I want you to know that I do not find this to be the case. You ARE a grateful person. What most of us are lacking is not gratitude--we are lacking mindfulness.

Usually we are not mindful enough to recognize that gratitude is as simply (and sometimes as superficial) as acknowledging a feeling of "yes!" when we didn't catch any red lights while in a rush or finding that surprise money in your jean pocket. In the 'business' of being spiritually enlightenment people tend to assume a profoundness about being grateful-- like about our breath. While being grateful for our breath is definitely a worthwhile thing to find gratitude in; we should not beat ourselves up over forgetting to do that. Perhaps, with enough mindfulness practice we will all get there, but for now keep it simple smarty-- and be mindful about all the, 'Yes!' feelings that come over us....PAY ATTENTION...this is gratitude in its simplest and most natural form. The bonus to this is we do this without trying! We sometimes for get to be thankful for these more trivial things in life.

If you start to count your 'Yes!'-es in a day, your will find you are counting your blessings and you will begin the process of mindfulness and gratitude that leads to the more profound and bigger things.

Blessings to you all,

Robin Zenczak