“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” G.B. Stern

Be in the moment.

Last week on Thankful Thursday, we touched upon overtly, purposefully, and joyfully
sharing your gratitude about something in your life with a good friend – someone who is going to listen to your gratitude story and give you positive vibes back for sharing. Hopefully you’ve been crowing a bit this week about the things that are going your way, and you’ve been a good listener when your friends are doing the same.

This week, we’re going to focus our attention on what you might call a variation on a
theme. Yes, we’re still going to be sharing our gratitude with those around us, but it’s
going to more of an “in the moment’ kind of sharing. And the people, places, things, events and actions we’ll be noticing that deserve our gratitude will be small, almost unnoticeable blips on our radar screens.

Right this moment I have gratitude for the person who grew the tea I’m enjoying. I don’t know the person, will very likely never meet him or her, but at the same time I can be thankful and grateful and vocal for the positive impact this tea has had on my life at this
moment.

Of course it would be easy to take that idea to the extreme and, using my tea example, show gratitude to all the people who harvested, processed, packaged, transported and stocked my tea on the grocer’s shelf. The point is, and this goes for gratitude on any and every level, the first step is to actively notice something that pleases you, no matter how small.

Are you keeping up with a daily Gratitude Journal? A lot of people find beginning a Gratitude Journal to be a daunting task. How could one possibly find three things to be thankful for every day? Then after a while it becomes second nature. You can see opportunities to be grateful in everything you do.

This leads us to this week’s gratitude challenge.

Instead of finding three things in a day to be thankful for, let’s sharpen our focus, think small, and find three things that we can show our gratitude for in the next 30 seconds! And since silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone, say what you find to be grateful for
out loud.

I’m grateful for the sound the wind chime on my front porch is making – I remember who I got it from as a gift. I’m thankful for having a clean office, and grateful for the person responsible for it. I’m thankful that the furnace is working and keeping me toasty-warm.

Grateful for a furnace? Yes I am.

It’s that easy. And this in-the-moment gratitude thing works really well when other people are involved. Try to take the time to show a little gratitude to those people who pass through your day. Thank the mail carrier, the check-out person at the grocery store,
your co-workers, including your boss. Thank your neighbors for keeping their yard tidy, thank the driver who let you merge into traffic, and thank the day care people who are taking care of your kids. Find something to be grateful for in every person you interact
with today. Take a few random thirty-second breaks during the day and challenge yourself to find the things you are grateful for in the moment.

And don’t be silent about any of it.

Let’s make 2013 a special year – filled with friends and gratitude. Sounds like the winning combination for a wonderful new year!