What does gratitude have to do with retirement?

Thankfulness is in the air right now due to the Thanksgiving season – both in Canada and the United States, but the topic also comes up on a regular basis when things look bleak in many areas. Some days, it feels like bleakness is occurring daily. Sometimes it appears every once and awhile when you stop and look at the negativity in your life.

Whenever I research how to make myself feel better on those bleak days, that word ‘gratitude’ always comes up. I was exercising to relieve anxiety and the instructor mentioned that exercise is good for that but showing gratitude works well also. Not only her but other motivational speakers mention the same thing. Feeling down, start a gratitude journal, write a list of things you are grateful for to shift focus from fear to appreciation and calm your mind, feel like certain hopelessness or misery is surrounding you, stop and feel grateful for all the good in the world and in your personal sphere especially. When you do this, it’s true, you recall that there is much to be grateful for. Things could be much, much worse when you compare your situation to some others.

Why is Thanksgiving a celebration? Because ‘thank God we have food to eat (the crops came in) what would we do without that harvest to feed us through the winter. If grateful makes us feel better, how come we don’t do it more often?

So, what does gratitude have to do with retirement?

I’m thankful that I could afford to retire, thankful for the jobs I had that could bring me to retirement and grateful for my health that is reasonably ok so I can enjoy the benefits and joys of retirement. 

It’s hard to see the good when things look bleak but actually there is good in everything. You just need to be open and aware of the goodness and greatness that abounds and honestly it will make you feel better. Take the focus off your troubles and put it onto someone else’s troubles and again, it will make you feel better.  That’s where gratitude comes in and that’s what I’ve learnt since retiring. So, what does gratitude have to do with retirement - retirement is something to be grateful for and it’s on my gratitude list every day.