As we’ve been on the topic of goals lately and it’s Thanksgiving week, this week’s goal is expressing gratitude. What’s one simple thing that you are grateful for, that maybe you have sometimes taken for granted? And what’s one small thing you could do for someone this week to share and express your gratitude?

With this pandemic, I have more appreciation for restaurants because I can’t go to them right now. And anyone who knows me knows how much I love restaurants! I have felt more grateful than ever to have a beautiful house that is warm and to be spending time inside it with people that I love and truly enjoy being around.

Before this year, we all took so many things for granted, am I right?!

While 2020 has been a year of chaos and has shaken everybody up, its disruption has not all been bad…

It broke everybody’s habits. And that’s something many of us needed in order to take a better look around us. Sometimes it’s not until something is disrupted that we can stop, actually take a step back and look at it with new appreciation. If everything’s going along smoothly, you just think it’s always like that. We take it for granted.

As we are closing out this year, with more inside quiet time than any other year, it’s the perfect time to look inward and reflect. What unwavering things can you be grateful for — from family and friends to work or food or general security? I really do believe that people all over the world have been discovering something about themselves and their lives that they didn’t previously appreciate enough and that new awareness is positive.

When you take a moment and reflect on what you do have and show appreciation for the food that is on your table or the shelter that you have, you then realize that not everyone has that and that there are many people in the world that don’t have that comfort and would love to have those simple things you maybe took for granted, and it is not something that everyone automatically has.

I’ve really been into my garden lately since spending so much time at home. And I never thought that I would be like that crazy garden lady, but I totally am becoming one!  Some people might think our garden is small or not care so much about gardens, but we lived in condos for so long that we are so grateful for this little backyard. And we’ve really made it into an Oasis now. John’s growing a lot of food and herbs and a flower garden. Every morning in the Spring and Summer, I really look forward to going out there and watering the plants, appreciating what’s growing, and thinking about the delicious creations John will be able to make from them that will also be nourishing our bodies. Being grateful for things, even the simplest of things is so important. Now it’s cold in Chicago and everything in my garden is taking a break from growing and instead they are going inward too. They focus their energy at the root level building, growing, and getting ready for Spring time when they will bloom again. And perhaps, that’s what we should do.

Looking at your life and having gratitude for everything you do have, that’s really powerful. And even if you don’t have a lot, even during these strange times when so much around us has changed, can you look around and find something worthy of expressing gratitude? I’m sure you can!

Overall, I’m so grateful for the food I enjoy in my life, from my amazing chef husband to our growing garden but I know food is not something to take for granted.  So, I thought a great way to do something for those who have less would be to throw a food drive at my last Elite Youth Tour event. 

I don’t think people realize how really small acts can make such a huge impact on a really large scale. I announced online that the Elite Youth Tour was having a food drive and said to bring canned food. I incentivized them and mentioned they could be entered into a raffle to win a Storm bowling ball. I was so shocked at how many people actually donated. I had so much food! It took nothing for me to create a social media image, to put it on my Facebook and to say, “bring a bag of food for people because Thanksgiving is coming and not everybody has food on their table!” It took no effort on my end. And I think it took no effort for people to look in their pantry either before they could realize, “Oh, I’ve got all this food. I’m gonna just put it in this bag and bring it for the food drive.” And that simple drive made a big difference. I know it did. We were able to provide food for so many families because of this small little thing that we did.

And imagine if everyone did it! The point is that gratitude and awareness can be so impactful, not just to you but to those around you too. So many little things we do can really truly make a difference on a really large scale.

I think so much of the time, we just live our lives and we don’t even like to look around or pay attention. I’ve always tried to live intentionally and be grateful but this year has reminded us to not take anything for granted. Gratitude is something you can practice throughout the day, everyday though, not just during a Covid year and not just on Thanksgiving. At night, I take the time to reflect and acknowledge the things that I’m appreciative of, that I’m grateful for. Sometimes I meditate on them for a moment and sometimes I write them down in a journal.

I don’t think people realize that the more they are grateful for things, the more they will draw that thing into their life too. And the more they feel like they’re lacking, the more they’re going to create more of that feeling of lack. I sort of always knew this instinctively and always focused on appreciating what I had instead of obsessing over what I didn’t have. And the more I was grateful for what I had, the more I kept attracting even though I didn’t know that relationship at all yet. Call it karma, or whatever. But, it’s real. Now I know based on reading that’s actually how the universe works. The things in my life were coming to me because I already had that gratitude, that heart acknowledgment of it.

A funny example is my true appreciation of food. I’m always so grateful for it. And great food has always been around me in abundance. In college, my friends would actually joke that if we went out to a restaurant together, our table would always get something extra like a complimentary dessert. “Of course we got a free dessert, Diandra is with us” they would say. That was before I had any special connections or a fabulous chef for a husband! Look at what happened at this month’s food drive- piles and piles of food all around!

Maybe I have a magic touch?

Or, maybe it’s just gratitude.

It’s the way the world works. What you offer to the world, you will get back. What you appreciate, you’ll receive. I feel like everything has a cause and effect. So it’s not really magic, it’s just energy. When we give energy to the universe, it answers back so we might as well express that energy as positively as we can. And showing up intentional and grateful in our everyday lives is such a powerful way to do that.

So your homework from this post? Practice gratitude. See how you can express it more in your life this week, and then every week after. 

Today is the perfect day to show gratitude for all areas in your life. I have created a Gratitude Worksheet to help kick-start this effort. Click below andlessgoo!