Being grateful as a daily practice.

I shared this a couple of years ago and it popped up in my “memories” this morning on social media. Rereading it struck a cord with me all over again, but this time on a deeper level. I wanted to share it with all of you as we approach this holiday season of, no doubt, one of the most challenging, if not THE most challenging time of our lives. Hopefully, you can take from it what I did, the idea that being grateful can, and should be, an unwavering daily practice in our lives. Even in the times and for the things that we don’t necessarily want to be thankful for.

The Stoics saw gratitude as a kind of medicine, that saying “Thank you” for every experience was the key to mental health. “Convince yourself that everything is the gift of the gods,” was how Marcus Aurelius put it, “that things are good and always will be.”

And they didn’t just mean this on special days like Thanksgiving. Yes, it’s great to be thankful for the usual candidates: For our families, for our health, that we live in a time of (mostly) peace, for the food laid out in front of us.

But we should also be grateful for the less obvious things: For the setbacks, for the squabbling habits of other people, for the stress they put on us and whatever other difficulties we might be experiencing. Why? Because we are only experiencing them because we are alive. Because they are a form of fuel for our philosophy. And as frustrating as they might be, it’s what Fortune chose for us and we might as well make the most of it.

Epictetus has said that every situation has two handles: Which are you going to decide to hold onto? The anger or the appreciation? The one of resentment or of thanks?

So as you gather (virtually or otherwise) around your family and friends this Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other celebration you might partake in, of course, appreciate it and give thanks for all the obvious and bountiful gifts that moment presents. Just make sure that when the moment passes, as you go back to your everyday, ordinary life that you make gratitude a regular part of it. Again—not simply for what is easy and immediately pleasing, but for all of it. -Ryan Holiday