“‘Enough’ is a feast” — On Cultivating Gratitude

November 30, 2015
by Ariel

Classes Life Hacks

Seeing as Thanksgiving just passed, I feel this is the perfect opportunity to talk about gratitude. A lot of us have been hearing about gratitude since we were kids. It’s the kind of thing our parents always reminded us to have when we didn’t want to eat our vegetables: “You should be grateful for these vegetables — there are starving children in _(fill in third world country here)_ who have nothing at all!”

Parental chiding aside, it’s amazing how the concept of being grateful — and our relationship to it — can change so much over time. My family participates in the common Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and reflecting on what we are grateful for. As a kid, I usually said something along the lines of being happy I had finally gotten a Tamagotchi (’90s kids, remember those?) or maybe that I had earned an “A-” on my (dreaded) algebra test.

But this year, as I sat at my grandmother’s dining table full of food, friends, and family, I realized that as the years have churned on, the things I’ve found myself truly thankful for have become simpler and simpler: the ability to breathe, to see, to hear, to read . . . the capacity to love deeply, fail astoundingly, and the ability to let myself lean into vulnerability in the truest sense.

And while I am happy that I get to pursue my chosen career at one of the finest institutions in the country (Fight On!), and wake up every morning in a comfortable bed knowing I have food in my refrigerator for breakfast, I realized something a little more “meta” this year: I am most grateful for our ability as humans to cultivate gratitude itself (grateful for gratitude, if you will). If we couldn’t, where would we be?

In our course this semester entitled “Health Promotion and Wellness,” we’ve been talking a lot about gratitude and its role in happiness and mental well-being. Cultivating gratitude is a scientifically-backed concept that we as occupational therapists can use with our patients. We learned how doing so has been proven time and again to enhance subjective and psychological well-being.

. . . Speaking of which, have I mentioned how lucky I feel to have stumbled upon occupational therapy? Finding a career that will allow me to go home every single day knowing I’ve made some kind of an impact, whether large or small, is one of the coolest things I could possibly have imagined doing with my life.

And with that, I will leave you with a quote, written by Helen Keller, which my professors included in their final lecture.

I wondered how it was possible to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing of note. I who cannot see find hundreds of things: the delicate symmetry of a leaf, the smooth skin of a silver birch, the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: use your eyes as if tomorrow you will have been stricken blind. Hear the music of voices, the songs of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never taste or smell again. Make the most of every sense. Glory in all the facets and pleasures and beauty which the world reveals to you.
— Helen Keller

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