The holiday season is here again and it can feel like surfing on a tsunami of expectations while trying to balance parties, presents and other pressures. It’s easy to forget the spirit of the season while tapping and swiping your paycheque merrily away.
This time of year can be an important time to pause, take stock and give thanks for the people and environment that surround us. The therapeutic and healing power of gratitude can give strength and comfort during these festive, but sometimes challenging times.
So, why do we give thanks? How does gratitude benefit us as individuals and as a society?
The impulse to give thanks probably originates in ancient agricultural cultures where the bounty of the land was essential to surviving winter, so the power that gave sustenance deserved praise and thanks. All ancient civilizations developed rituals and myths that demonstrated thanks and reverence to the natural world.
With that similar spirit, most religions have gratitude as a central element in their beliefs. In Judaism and Christianity, worshippers are taught to be thankful for all the gifts surrounding them. Buddhists are guided to attain a state of gratitude that is without conditions and believe it is vital for integrity and civility. Islam prophet Muhammad said, “Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue.”
Everyone seems to be saying the same thing: be thankful, do not take things for granted or a greater power will kick butt and you will be eating a boiled potato for dinner in February.
Over recent years, neurologists have begun to establish a direct link between gratitude and mental health and wellness. In 2009, researchers at National Institutes of Health, an American institution based in Maryland, found patients who showed more gratitude have more activity in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls sleep, metabolism and stress levels, among other essential functions.
Being thankful creates the positive brain chemical scenario that leads to more exercise, alertness and fewer opportunities for depression to creep in. The latest television binge marathon will have to be paused while you speed walk around the track with your new thankfulness to be grateful for.
In our beautiful and abundant corner of the world, reasons to feel gratitude are everywhere and in everyone you meet. From the feeling you have driving off the Saltery Bay ferry after a long trip away to sitting on a mossy bluff in Lund watching the fiery orange sun set behind Savary Island, reasons to give thanks are too abundant to list.
Living in Powell River comes with a feeling of thanks and appreciation; the place just inspires that.
Gratitude and all its accompanying positive emotions, such as its opposite states of fear and anxiety, can be contagious and build when practised daily. Every day brings a new reason to give thanks.
Robert Skender is a local writer who is determined to survive another winter on the west coast.
