This Thanksgiving I have a suggestion for you that will completely change the way you think about being grateful.
If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, you know how much I encourage recognizing the abundance in your life and focusing on what is positive. I'm so excited that we have a whole day to celebrate and practice that concept!

And I do mean practice. As humans, we tend to troubleshoot. We zero in on what's not perfect and devote our attentions to what we think should be fixed - whether it's the drywall we put up ourselves, the wording of a proposal, or the shape of our bodies. In doing this, many of us downplay our accomplishments and forget to appreciate the beauty of ourselves and our surroundings.

This Thanksgiving, you will never again forget how enveloped you are by abundance when you try the following simple exercise. You may feel grateful for your family, your home, your food, but for this example, I am only going to focus on one item that will probably end up on your plate this Thursday: your potato.

When you look down at this simple tuber on Thanksgiving day, whether it has been baked, or boiled and mashed, I want you to imagine (or even better, discuss with your family) everything that has conspired to bring this food to your plate.

Let's start with the plant. Your potato nestled in the earth for months, drawing minerals and nutrients from dirt - that earth is in your potato. Your potato rooted a whole plant whose leaves absorbed the rays of the sun to metabolize those nutrients - that sunlight is in your potato. The molecules of water from rain that pelted the dirt are also in your potato.

When you eat and digest your potato, these elements will become part of every cell of your body - your skin, your hair, your brain cells. But that's not all. Imagine all the human hands that worked to bring you your potato: the person who planted it, the person who picked it, the person who ran the machine to clean it, bag it, transport it. Of course, don't forget the person who prepared your potato. Now imagine all the minds that engineered the tractors, the trucks, the refrigeration systems, the stove; and imagine all the materials that create these things and where they come from - the metal, the glass, the plastic, the gasoline.

Are you amazed at the orchestration that has culminated on your plate? Good! When you take that first smooth bite into your mouth, I encourage you to feel connected to each particle of sun and rain, to every molecule of the earth, to each and every heartbeat and nerve pulsation that played a part.

That, to me, is gratitude.

All the best in life and health, Jen