Rev. Melinda Giese, Minister of Discipleship & Pastoral Care
I’ve tried several spiritual practices in my life, but only one practice has stuck with me year after year. It’s the simple practice of keeping a gratitude journal. I often recommend this practice because there are no special tools or training necessary, and it only takes a few minutes a day. All it requires is to write down three things each day for which you are grateful. The real challenge of the practice is not the technique, it’s simply committing to do it. On days when all the news is bad. On days you struggle to feel grateful for anything. On days when this simple practice feels like real work.
Most people think of gratitude as a response to good things happening to us. For instance, we might feel grateful for a pay raise or a good test result, a vacation or a visit with a friend. But over time, the practice of gratitude can deepen and become a tool that helps us endure hardships and struggles. The practice assumes that there is always *something* for which we can give thanks. But whereas our complaints come to mind effortlessly, most of the time we have to work at gratitude.
In fact, there’s a scientific reason for this. Our human brains have been wired over time to focus on negatives as a way of helping us to survive. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors needed to remember to avoid predators and other dangers. Unfortunately, this “negativity bias” explains why we often have an easier time remembering the “one bad thing” that happened in a day compared to the multitude of good things we barely noticed. Given the sheer number of negatives we have experienced over the past months – a global pandemic, incidents of racism and violence, economic stress and job losses, a fraught election season, and last week’s invasion of the Capitol building – it makes sense that at times we would feel overwhelmed.
Many of us have heard the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Even though I sincerely doubt my ability to rejoice always or give thanks in every situation, I also know that I can improve. I use a gratitude journal as a way of re-training my brain to find reasons to give thanks, especially in the case of blessings I would normally overlook.
At this point in the pandemic, gratitude can help us continue to endure. Even though focusing on the negatives helped our ancestors survive, we also need reasons to get up in the morning! It can be the small things – a hot cup of coffee, a warm shower, a good book – or the big things – family members and friends, food and shelter, safety, love. Our sense of gratitude can extend to the people around the world working for justice, kindness, peace, and healing and to our earth that offers food and resources, water and sunlight. We can give thanks for the people who nurtured us, our faith and life experiences, our ability to keep hoping for our future, and our trust in God’s care for us. A gratitude practice doesn’t invent these things; it simply prompts us to discover what is already there. Even though our brains are wired to notice the negatives, these are only part of the picture. A gratitude practice restores our sense of balance, helping us to ground ourselves in God’s goodness and in the blessings that continue to flow, particularly in the times when it’s harder to see them.