Why must we must be grateful

Why must we have a day to be thankful?

This week, the week before Thanksgiving I am writing a series of blogs about being grateful.

If you follow me you know I am not a believer in "days" to do certain things and this is definitely one of them.

Why can't we be grateful everyday? Why is there one specific day that we must do it on. It is way too much pressure to be perfect, to come together and for many to pretend we like each other. Come on let's be real here, we all have that one relative that just gets under your skin. That has asked you for years why you're still single or why you haven't lost weight and you're trying to swallow your turkey and keep that fake smile on your face while you're doing it.

Or that one cousin that always is bragging about what they have, always trying to make you feel like a loser. Yes, one day a year puts too much pressure on people to have to pretend that they are grateful.

I am grateful each and every day, but it hasn't always been this way. I had to teach myself this. I had to actually dig and find things to be grateful for as I was in such a miserable place in my life. I remember when Oprah had started her gratitude journal, and she wanted all her viewers to do this as well. I thought I'll try but there was nothing besides my girls that I was grateful for. Yes, it was that bad, so I started with the basics that most of us already have.

I was grateful that I woke up.

I was grateful for a home.

I was grateful for having food.

I was grateful for a car.

I was grateful for my and my girl's health.

I was grateful I could walk.

I was grateful I could see.

Look, I was really reaching here because there wasn't much else I was grateful for.

But each week I added something, being grateful for a walk on the ocean. Seeing birds in the sky, a warm cup of coffee on a chilly day and before I knew it, I started being grateful for everything. 

Every morning on the way to work I give thanks for the life I have now. I cry because I am so grateful. 

Being grateful opens you up to other blessings and it's not just me saying this. "In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships" says Harvard Health.

Even scientists know this is a real thing, having gratitude changes your life. So then why do we only have one day to be grateful? A day that is so stressful for so many to have everything perfect, to come together with relatives you don't like, with people that drink too much or never shut up and now you want us to be grateful? It seems so phony to me. I don't care about Thanksgiving in fact when the girls were young and I was divorced I did Thanksgiving on Friday so they could spend the actual day with their dad and didn't have to feel like they had to pick or be without the other parent. 

Did it matter that it wasn't on Thanksgiving for me? No, I was grateful for having dinner with my girls and my friends every single time we sat at my table. And so if it wasn't on Thanksgiving what did that mean? That I wasn't as grateful? No, because having to do something and wanting to do something are two very different things.

I chose to be thankful, not just on Thanksgiving when they tell us too, but every day. Sometimes every moment because I know how precious life truly is these last few years.

So today my friends remember we don't need a day to remind us to be grateful. We need a life to do that, a life that we are grateful for at all times, a life that we take nothing for granted and no matter what happens we can always find something to be grateful for.

"Be the change you want to see"

@TreadmillTreats