Gratitude is a hot topic right now.

2020 has been a doozy for a lot of us. And now, we find ourselves in the holiday season after a year of loss, heartache, illness, change, transition, devastation, and grief.

Where do we go from here?

First, let’s define the word “holiday.” In old English, this literally translates to “holy day.”

How can we find our holiness again? How can we fill the spaces we have lost with the good stuff we want?

I bet if you look back to January 2020, you would be amazed at what you have survived, created, shaped, let go of, changed, and transformed. Start from here. Focus on how you showed up versus what you believe has been taken from you.

Here are Four Ways to be Thankful beyond the Holidays:

1. Start saying “thank you” more.

As I go through my day, I have a simple mantra: Thank you. If something goes well, I silently say, “Thank you.” If something goes not so well, I silently say, “Thank you.”

Saying, “Thank you” shifts our focus from discontent to curiosity. It toggles our internal landscape and changes the vibration we are attracting. And it’s so simple! As we say “Thank you” more, we start to attract more to be thankful for.

Try it! Say thank you when your kid acts up, thereby opening yourself up to a solution. Say thank you when the traffic is light and you arrive early. Say thank you when you’re not feeling great and watch how the energy of the words transforms your physical state of being—even just a little!

2. Offer more of yourself.

We all know the feeling of giving someone we love a gift and anticipating their reaction, joy, and excitement while they open it. Their experience is made better by the gift they just received.

When we offer more of ourselves, this is how the Universe responds. It delights in the fact that we are sharing our gifts and, in turn, it creates more ways for that to happen. And we always benefit from that—in ways we may not be aware of.

Offering more of ourselves can be anything: a compliment to someone who we know is having a bad day, a batch of cookies for the neighbor who just broke his arm, or a smile to a stranger who held the door open for us (and maybe a “thank you!”).

Offering more is a win-win situation. You feel awesome and the other person feels awesome—which is just a formula for more awesomeness.

3. Clear your energy at least twice a day.

We, as humans, are energetic beings. Because of this, we pick up other people’s energy as we go through our day.

Think about walking into a room where you know people have been talking badly about you—you can feel it. Conversely, think about walking into a room where people have been talking lovingly about you—again, you can feel it.

As we interact with other people, our energies mix. Because energy has no will of its own, we have to direct it away from us if we don’t like how it feels.

It’s simple. Sit, get present, and do a body scan. Maybe you feel sadness or anger that you know doesn’t belong to you in this moment. Identify it, name it, and say, “This isn’t mine, I release this back to Source (or whatever word helps you feel connected).” Really feel it leave your field. Energy must go where you tell it—it can’t just stick to you without your permission.

Knowing this will bring you a sense of personal empowerment unlike anything else. To realize you can direct energy around you is something most folks are completely unaware of—they just accept the vibration they’ve picked up as their own.

You are so much more powerful than you have been told.

4. Take an inventory.

Because of our innate survival instinct, we have been trained to focus on lack or what isn’t here.

This gets us in trouble every time.

Lack mentality is so pervasive and systemic that we don’t even know we are doing it. It is so ingrained in us to focus on what isn’t there versus what we want to create beyond it.

The best way to combat lack is to take an inventory.

Do you have a roof and walls around you? You’re rich.
Did you eat today? You’re rich.
Do you have access to clean water? You’re rich.
Do you have even one person who loves you? You’re rich.
Are you physically healthy? You’re rich.
Are you a parent or a caregiver? You’re rich.
Do you provide a home for animals? You’re rich.
Can you walk? Eat? Breathe? You’re rich.
Do you have a bank account no matter what the value? You’re rich.
Do you have things that others take for granted? You’re rich.
Do you realize you are an energetic being with the power to create anything you want in this life, regardless of how much you think you’ve screwed it up so far (you haven’t by the way)? You’re rich.
Are you reading this with eyes that can see and experience this world? You’re rich.

I bet you are richer than you realized before reading this article. Wishing all my readers a peaceful and rich holiday season.