Gratitude Reset

Turning Busy Times Into Chances to Say "Thanks"

Welcome to November! This is really the BEST time of year if you ask me! The weather is at peak comfort level (for the most part, at least in Taipei!), and one of the most delicious holidays, Thanksgiving, is on the menu!

Besides just the food, I love how Thanksgiving gives me a focused moment to be mindful of gratitude. This year I will have even more chances to really contemplate how thankful I am because so many loved ones are traveling to Taipei for my marriage celebration. How amazing is that?

I'm feeling ALL the excitement and also some real responsibility to do justice to this place I have called home for twenty years for all the first time Taiwan visitors. With so many wedding to do lists, it can feel like trying to do salsa at double time! It takes a conscious effort to not get lost in trying to make things "perfect" just to keep up appearances or get lost in details that are not important and could suck a lot of the joy out of what should be fun!

With all the things vying for attention in my mind, how can I make sure I remember the parts that are important to me?

This is where gratitude practices come in. It's not just a vague concept but a real tool that acts like a quick reset button during extra busy times.

For me, it can be taking an actual pause, such as taking breaks for things unrelated to planning like dancing with you, or slowing down to see how friends are doing to stop focusing on just my own thoughts.

It also means stopping in the moment when the stress starts to rise to ask myself if anything is actually wrong or if I'm just fearing something will go wrong. I usually find that when I really think about it, we all do a lot better than we had feared or imagined when things go wrong anyway, don't we?

It looks like saying thank you through messages, hand written notes, and extra politeness to those who mean the most to me and those staff and workers who are helping with tasks.

And finally, it's reevaluating the to do list with a gratitude twist. For example, something like researching the "perfect" places to take people can shed its pressure when I think of how fortunate I am to have so many things I love about my life in Taiwan that I'm able to share them with people who care enough to travel across the world for me.

All of these are like little gratitude muscle exercises. Sometimes they take more effort to remind myself to stop and do them, but the muscle grows stronger and becomes more automatic with more practice!

What are your own gratitude practices that you find most helpful? What are you feeling extra thankful for this month?

As a reminder, I will be taking a couple of weeks off from classes and the newsletters to celebrate and be present with my loved ones. I am looking forward to connecting with you again later in the month. Wishing you a November filled with gratitude until then!

Keep moving!

xx,

Katie