Gratitude in the Moment: A Thanksgiving reflection

I can feel my stomach pushing against my belt as I think about Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn’t always that way.
In my life, I’ve experienced so many extremes, both highs and lows, that I often felt like I was on a stomach-churning roller coaster that would never reach the gate.

What I’ve learned in the ups and downs will sound contrary to how we are taught to live.

Learn from the moment you are in.

The messaging I hear around me is different. My socials keep telling me:

• Reach for something different, better.
• If it doesn’t make you happy, find a new one.
• You’re never enough, but if you just buy this, you will be.

I’ve noticed that when you try to live a life that is always pushing for the next, better thing, you end up in a constant state of anxiety and stress. That kind of life is never truly happy, always putting on a fake front, and never really living in the moment.
What about the hard times filled with loss, fear, and grief?

We don’t want to live in these moments, but none of us can avoid them. Just like every other moment we live within, you don’t usually get to choose if it happens to you, but you do get to choose what you do with it and how you live through it. In the worst of times, we often have a choice, indeed, sometimes the only choice, of how we live within and through the hardship. Even in those times, we can learn from the moment we are in.

I don’t know what my tomorrow, your tomorrow, or our November or December holidays will bring. But we do have a choice in how we live in and through whatever comes our way.

We can just keep hoping for what comes next.

Never be content with where we are in life and miss out on the moment.

We can live a life filled with anxiety and stress because we are trying to live up to the hype on our socials.
Or we can be different. We can be calmer. We can live a life that many don’t and miss out on the benefits of.

A life that learns from the moment you are in.

• Take this moment right now and smell nature; learn a new scent.
• Take this moment and write, not type, what you are learning about yourself right now.
• Take this moment and say thank you for the moment.
• Take this moment and breathe a deep belly breath, and learn about your body.
• Take this moment and learn from the moment you are in.