#SimplyGiveThanks

The organization Gener.us has started a campaign called #SimplyGiveThanks in these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, challenging people to make a short video of themselves simply thanking someone in their lives and then posting that video online. Their hope is that the people who are being thanked this way will then be inspired to create their own video of thanks for someone else, and then onward it will spread. You can find more information about it here.

Pretty awesome, eh?

Of course I had to get in on that bandwagon, so here’s mine… although I may have stretched the rules a bit as I went on and on with my thanks. Anywhoo:

[wpvideo 9GO9HYfI]

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. More than looking forward to a great meal with friends or family, it is such an opportunity to reflect on the things in our life for which we are grateful. It’s a chance to simply say thank you, and to be mindful of the abundance within and around us.

It’s truly remarkable to me how much perspective I gain when I even take a few moments to look at my life through a lens of gratitude and abundance. Literally, right before I made my video I was stuck in Scarcity City, struggling with feelings of disconnect and disheartenment. But just spending two minutes thinking and talking about a few of the people in my life for whom I’m grateful changed my entire emotional makeup. If two minutes of gratitude can do that, imagine what a daily practice of gratitude could do for you.

So—if you’re not afraid of going online, if you’re okay with risking looking a bit foolish, and if you have someone to thank, get to work! And when you’re finished, post your video on your favorite social media sites using the hashtag  #SimplyGiveThanks.   (and post it in the comments section below, too!)

Now, maybe making a video and posting it online is not for you—that's okay!  You can still “simply give thanks”… what if you drew your person a picture and sent it to them? What if you left them a voicemail just telling them why you appreciate them? What if you wrote them a letter and put it in the mail for them to receive? What if the next time you saw them you said THANK YOU to them, just because? Having gratitude out loud takes courage… but it’s the quickest way to fill your own emotional tank, taking you from scarcity to abundance in minutes flat.  As writer G.K Chesterton said, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

How will you simply give thanks today?  

Interested in having Erika’s blog come directly to your e-mail each Tuesday? Have comments to share?  E-mail her at erika@tlpnyc.com.   Find all her previous blog posts at www.tlpnyc.com/author/erika