My year of Gratitude is coming to a close. I started this year recoiling from the word “gratitude.” It made me feel selfish, ashamed, and annoyed. It felt like the people who focused on it were holier-than-thou, naïve, or, at best, insincere. But I chose the word because I felt like if I didn’t learn to become more grateful, I’d continue feeling empty and unworthy, no matter how much success I achieved or things I got.
Over this year, I’ve discovered that gratitude is about attention. To experience gratitude is simply to bring my open attention to the myriad things that are happening each day, (each moment!) that are going well, bringing pleasure, and supporting me—rather than always focusing my attention on problems and out-of-reach solutions.
This does not mean I ignore the problems. It simply means that I put them into right balance. I have a truer sense of the whole.
Surprisingly, doing so has given me more joy, more energy, and more capacity to stay with the difficult things, rather than feeling overwhelmed and rundown by them.
Looking over my many gratitude lists from this year, I find myself most grateful for simple things: sunlight, strawberries, snuggles. When I notice and connect with myself, with others, and with the natural world, I feel nourished. I feel rich.
So, I end 2022 by expressing my gratitude for you all. I am so profoundly lucky to have the life and the work that I do, and I thank you for being a part of it.
Stay tuned in January, where I’ll announce my word for 2023, and I gotta tell ya, this one is very different from gratitude, and it’s a doozy.
What was your word of 2022 (or what word would you give it now) and why? What did you learn this year about it? Share your answer in Mother Den.
Danielle LaSusa Ph.D. is a Philosophical Coach, helping new moms grapple with what it means to make a person. She is the creator of The Meaning of Motherhood course, and co-creator and co-host of Think Hard podcast, which brings fun, accessible, philosophical thinking to the real world. To join her mailing list, subscribe here.
© Copyright Danielle LaSusa PhD, LCC, 2021. All rights reserved.
