Over the past few months, I’ve noticed the speed of daily life seems to be increasing to a frantic pace. It is almost as if time is flying by on fast forward, and we are racing day-to-day to keep up. After years of uncertainty and a different pace of pandemic life, we are making up for lost time, cramming in as much as possible to avoid missing anything along the way.

This frantic-ness is never more noticeable than during the final months of the year. Numerous holidays loom on the horizon and many of us feel pressure to create our “best year-end yet.” We plan celebrations and traditions; we pack every event possible into our busy schedules (even stacking multiple events into one day!). Our emotions are frequently scrambled with everything going on, and the pace often feels frenetic in our attempts to experience it all.

Yet, despite known issues with keeping such a frantic pace, we can be honest and admit - it’s really hard to slow down! When caught up in the whirlwind, it is hard enough to stay grounded let alone know how to decelerate as the merry-go-round speeds up. However, it is exactly this frantic-ness that creates the need for our wellness practices more than ever, specifically those that draw us mindfully into the present and facilitate our ability to thrive during the final days of the year.  

The practice of gratitude is one component of a wellness toolkit that can facilitate a slowing-down in times of frantic-ness; it’s also the perfect strategy to revisit this time of the year! In a gratitude practice, time is deliberately taken to pause and reflect on the gratitude we feel in our lives. Whether recalling past events we are grateful to have experienced, current people we are grateful to know, or expressing gratitude for a hopeful next step into the future, it is through the expression of gratefulness that we both ground ourselves in the present moment and slow a frantic pace to a reasonable speed.

As one of my favorite ways to boost wellness, what I love most about the practice of gratitude is its simplicity and flexibility – it is perhaps one of the most approachable practices to weave into the everyday. Able to be shaped to suit our individual needs, only a few moments of time are required to create ripples of positive effects, and the crafting of a practice is only limited by our imagination. While maintaining a journal may be a common method of practice, personal expressions of gratitude can truly take whatever form best fits our own personal style. From random acts of kindness to making a phone call to express appreciation – from sincerely thanking a colleague to sharing a social media gratitude post – the possibilities are limitless when it comes to expressing gratitude and instilling our own unique, meaningful practice into everyday life.

For me, my own personal style of expressing gratitude comes in a daily reflection of see, savor, and share. With a reminder in my calendar, I make certain to take a deliberate pause daily to notice the world all around. As I pause, I am “seeing” what I am grateful for in that moment and then I am “savoring” and absorbing the gratefulness felt. Once seen and savored, “sharing” then takes many forms – sometimes I reach out to someone to express my gratitude, other times I write or share gratefulness in another way. Regardless of the ultimate shape it takes, though, in the “sharing” I root the gratitude felt and bring closure to a moment taken to practice gratitude every day.

So, with the year-end ramping up and a frantic pace taking hold, I invite you this month to take a moment to consider how you might tap into your own wellness toolkit to weave a practice that helps slow the pace….

• What are ways in which you might pause, reflect, and take notice of gratefulness to be more present to the moment at hand?

• How might the practice of gratitude help you slow down just enough to be able to savor each moment spent?

In these reflections, we can all orient a practice of gratitude as a way to both slow the frantic-ness as well as have more clarity to the things we appreciate most. We are certain to also find boosts to our wellness and wellbeing with focused attention on deeply enjoying these final moments of the year.

What steps will you take to build a practice of gratitude into your everyday?