Positivity: Thanks Giving

This week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving (at least in the United States).

I want to ignore both the moral issues of the Colonists and Native Americans, as well as the modern-day commercialization of the holidays overall, and focus on the words and the intent. Thanks. Giving. Giving Thanks.

I have said that Thank You are the two most powerful words in the English language after I AM. While the specifics of this particular day may not be to everyone’s satisfaction, I think the concept is something we can and should get behind.

Life is imperfect. We all have people with whom we do not get along, we all have issues and things that cause us displeasure and worse. The issue that comes of this is that we should not allow ourselves to get so focused on all the negative – we need to focus on the positive. Thanks giving is about creating gratitude, and gratitude is a conduit of Positivity.

As we watch the atrocious political landscape of the nation deteriorate, and we are inundated with endless negative news about economies and terrorist organizations and pandemics and other scary things, we have to change our focus and instead look at what we have. What do we have to be thankful for?

It may be as simple as being here, awake, alive and breathing. It might be your family, your friends, your job. It might be the things you own or the travels you undertake. It might be something tremendous and impressive, it might be something small and only meaningful to you.   Whatever we have, we should give thanks for it. Giving thanks should not be a once-a-year idea, it should be a daily action.

I am not saying we should ignore those awful things out there. We have to be aware of them if we are going to change them. But we do not need to let them be dominant in our lives, we can take our focus away from negative happenings, and instead find positive. Do you know anyone who wants to live an awful life afraid and unhappy? Of course you don’t.

Let’s turn this coming American holiday into an international Day of Giving Thanks. Let’s stop allowing our differences divide us further, and instead work on being thankful for all the great things this world has to offer us ALL. Let’s focus on the meaning of the words thanks and giving, and work together to build something greater for us all from here.

Finding positivity is not hard, it just requires action. Knowing that we can ignore the less salient qualities of this event and instead focus on the importance and the words Thanks and Giving, we have powerful tools at our disposal. When we know that we can employ those tools to express gratitude, and expressing gratitude creates positive feelings, we can help to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the forty third entry of my Positivity series.  It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone.  Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.