Learn to Say Thank You

Even in my worst moments I feel like I should be thankful. 

And no, it’s not an externally imposed obligation, it’s a duty that I give myself: my emotional wellbeing passes through the filter of constant gratefulness for what I had and what I was, for what I have and what I am.

Cervantes said, in other words, that good people are grateful. I think it goes beyond that: when our lives are over, one of the sensations that we’ll have wanted to feel the most will be how it feels to say thank you .

Giving thanks helps us along our journey

Gratitude, if it’s understood as the capacity to recognize a benefit or advantage that you have, is an inner state that is radiated outward.

From the moment we come into this world until the moment we leave it, we are the product of a constant flow of experiences that make us feel a broad range of emotions. This is why our greatest duty should be giving thanks.

The things that make me happy comfort me and strengthen my hopes and dreams. What’s made me sad and caused me pain has taught me something.

I say thank you for the memories that have filled me, but I also say thank you for those that tried to escape me, because thanks to them, I am who I am, and I know that.

Our relationships with others are based, among other things, on this sentiment: when someone does something for us, even just giving us a shoulder to lay on, we get closer to them.

From sadness comes solidarity, and from wounds come scars and stories, stories that are real and ours.

Saying thank you improves our emotional wellbeing

Giving thanks means having a vital positive attitude, seeing the glass half empty, waking up on the right side of the bed, or opening up your lungs to breathe.

Some studies have demonstrated that giving thanks improves our health and helps to stabilize our emotions. 

The responsibility of maintaining emotional balance lies with a chemical substance called serotonin, a neurotransmitter.

To keep us from falling into depression, for example, serotonin needs to maintain a stable level, and one way to do that is by giving thanks. Choose a diet of joy and smiles every morning, and gratitude every evening.

I hope this article helps you to end today with gratitude and start tomorrow with joy and smiles. It doesn’t require any effort or sacrifice, but it gives us the nutrients we need to keep improving.

Our emotional relationships with those around us will strengthen with the energy that is produced by reciprocal gratitude, for both us and the people around us, in all different phases of life.

The littlest, simplest things are the most important, and they deserve gratitude the most. Bad moments offer big changes, mistakes offer lessons, toxic relationships offer chances at new relationships…but days? Days offer opportunities. One after another, without stopping.

And even if Walt Whitman was correct that life is a desert and an oasis, we have to take advantage of that and be thankful for it.