Try LunaJoy’s Ten Tiny Things this Thanksgiving
It’s almost Thanksgiving and it seems like every advertisement and internet trend wants to know what you’re grateful for. We want to disrupt the narrative of glaringly loud gratitude with something small.
This November, return to the roots of our gratitude practice with us as we commit to making everyday moments count a little extra.
Before you begin, remember that our professionals are always here to help
Why gratitude matters
Gratitude is a little like confetti. You might be hesitant to deploy it in some situations, or feel that it’s just not appropriate for an already overwhelming situation. But if you take a chance on letting it fly, you’ll continue to find it in surprising places for long after you anticipate its impact to last.
Instead of looking ahead at what you still need or hope to do, gratitude brings you back into the present. It requires your presence and can create lasting impressions in the way you process information. If you’re prone to anxiety, depression or feelings of overwhelm, gratitude can help you get your mental health on the right track.
If you find yourself interested, or you're already feeling grateful but anxious and you want a new way to engage with gratitude, we’ve got just the thing.
Our challenge to you: Ten Tiny Things
We're not sweating the small stuff this year; instead, we're making sure it sparkles! From the shape of the clouds to hitting all green lights on the drive to work, the true challenge is a reminder to notice the small things in a meaningful way.
So whenever you’re reading this, we challenge you to notice the little things in life. For the next ten days, starting today, write down one tiny thing that makes you feel a little bit more humbled to exist in this moment.
We’re calling it Ten Tiny Things and we invite you to join us.
We believe that tiny gratitude in the face of stress, overwhelm or just a constant onslaught of expectation is a radical act of good. We want to see you being good, doing good and feeling radically good no matter what else is going on around you.
How do the small things make a difference?
While gratitude as a whole is a practice proven to benefit our mental health and general quality of life, there is something to be said for the little things. Shifting our perspective to a moment where we take notice instead of a flight of subjects and ideas can help you to find pleasure even when stress is high. You can create a space to take a breath and feel even a moment of reprieve for something soft and gentle in an often sharp and heavy world.
Noticing the small things breaks the high stakes pace of our daily lives. You can’t forget a loved one or be accused of being ungrateful for a favor you left off a list if you’re simply focused on the often-forgettable parts of the world around you. Choosing to challenge your gratitude lens by zooming in will help you to see what’s already there without much pressure to add on to it.
Little things gratitude amplifies the impact of a gratitude practice by lowering the risk and asking you to look at your current world in a new way without adding anything majorly ambitious to your packed schedule. When you write them down, you’re cementing the magic of the minutiae into something you can return to (but won’t punish you if you never do!).
Try journaling your way
The practice of journaling, much like gratitude, can take a near infinite number of forms and fashions. If you’ve tried it one way and it didn’t go well, you might feel a bit hesitant to try re-establishing this habit when you’re already overscheduled.
As a part of your Ten Tiny Things challenge, get creative with how you choose to journal. No one’s keeping tabs on you, and you can’t get it wrong. You might choose to try a different journaling method or space each day. Maybe it’s gum wraps, your phone’s note pad or on Instagram stories every day. Don’t stress too much about the how or why of journaling—just focus on getting your Tiny Thing down for the whole ten days.
Our Ten Tiny Things
We made our own list of Luna Joy’s little moments of joy- these are things we are grateful for.
No leftover socks on laundry day
Morning coffee at that just-right temperature
The snooze button on a Monday morning
A smile from a stranger
Checking things off a list
The scent of blooming things
Round number totals (of anything)
When something you really want goes on sale
A no-skips playlist on shuffle
Brand new, blank notebooks
The incredible thing about making this list is that once we started noticing these miniscule moments, we couldn’t stop. It’s easy to lose sight of the crunch of autumn leaves when the ground is littered in them or the magic of a sunset-streaked sky when we’re overwhelmed with the scale of big picture moments. But once you begin to dial in on those details, it comes into focus in a whole new way.
And one really big thing
We are grateful for a million little things but at the center of this practice here is YOU. We are so grateful to you for being here with us to explore existential intensity and magic mundane things. From providing support to creating community, Luna Joy is blooming because of you and others like you who show up here with us.
We loved making our Ten Tiny Things list and we absolutely cannot wait to see yours. We hope you’ll share them on your social media (tag us, or use the hashtag #TenTinyThings), write them on your post it notes and maybe, you’ll make it a regular part of the quiet moments in life.
