Receiving Thanks on ThanksGiving
Thanksgiving (n.) the expression of gratitude.
Now is the time of year when we give thanks as we celebrate our lives with our family and friends in the holiday spirit of Thanksgiving. Indeed, our culture teaches us to give thanks on this special holiday, but did you ever realize the importance of receiving thanks? Let’s look at both the giving and receiving of thanks, which arrive from a naturally kind spirit.
When you give thanks, you are acknowledging a gift that you have received in your life. This is the most commonly known form of gratitude.
When you receive thanks humbly from someone for what you have given them, you are acknowledging their gratitude for your gift. When done mindfully, you are actually performing an act of gratitude yourself by receiving their thanks—gratitude for their acknowledgment of your gift and for the connection you are experiencing with them. Receiving thanks this way activates a pleasing bodily response from a “rush” of endorphins.
The endorphins are the body’s pleasure system being activated. You may have learned through your life experience not to activate this system, based on trauma and mistrust of people from your past. Such a manifestation of trauma/mistrust would be keeping your arms crossed over your body to protect from possible hurt, or by saying “it was nothing,” which invalidates the giver’s acknowledgment to you. Either of these responses fails to further the connection between the giver and receiver of thanks, while simultaneously reinforcing the trauma.
Those types of responses may have worked in the past when people have hurt you; however, now is the time to live a life of freedom and fulfillment. The way to receive freely and fulfillingly is by maintaining an open heart.
Click here to read more about my Open Heart Method™
One simple way to keep your heart open when given thanks, or a “gift of gratitude”, is to open your arms out from your body with your palms facing upward and your heart center (chest) opened up toward the person conveying their thanks. Then, say the simple response, “You’re welcome.”
Even if it feels uncomfortable at first, the person giving the thanks will feel that you have heard and accepted their gratitude. This develops a moment of genuine connection between yourself and that person, which results in a sense of wellbeing (also known as true happiness) for both the giver and receiver of the thanks.
To remind yourself to give and receive thanks openly on this holiday and beyond, think of the acronym THANKS: True Happiness Arrives (from a) Naturally Kind Spirit. Being naturally kind is an organic innocent response that we are all born with. It is from there, in the kind spirit of our hearts, that gratitude is born.
The time is now to be open to giving and receiving the gratitude of thanks today and every day, and your true happiness will begin to arrive the moment you do.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours with Much Love!