Congrats on making it through another week! While there have been ebbs and flows of the restrictions the past nine months, we’ve just gone back into a much stricter phase as case numbers spike where we live. My son and I counted and Nov. 20 marks 257 days since we entered lockdown. While taking in all the scary news about cases surging and exhausted healthcare workers, I found myself doing almost ALL the activities I sent you last week to serve as a distraction. The highlight? A ballet class with live accompaniment with a teacher from the American Ballet Theater.
With a radically different Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought I would curate some articles that show how a gratitude practice actually enhances our wellbeing and our creativity. The contrast is sharp this year - trying to be grateful during a holiday tainted by a pandemic may seem counterintuitive, but finding a way to give thanks will help brighten these very challenging days.
Be safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
Suzanne
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- Read how a gratitude practice can enhance creativity
- This article that explains how simple ways of expressing gratitude (journaling, paying it forward, etc.) can have long term positive impacts on your brain
- Two simple mindful gratitude exercises you can do anywhere you go, and they’re practices worth incorporating into your everyday
- A reflection on using creativity and gratitude as a force for positivity in your life in times of isolation
- A group of elementary students in Minnesota led a gratitude campaign at their school, creating videos and artwork to share with their classmates and spread a positive mindset
- Six ideas for cultivating gratitude through everyday acts
- Suggestions for how to start a gratitude journal- and what those entries might look like
Things to Do Around the World
- An online exhibition from Amy Sherald called ‘Womanist is to Feminist as Purple is to Lavender’
- Check out this review of Zanele Muholi’s latest exhibit at the Tate (and click here for a preview of more of their work and their inspirations)
- Information for how to stream this year’s National Dog Show, anticipated to have 20 million virtual viewers this year
- Six suggestions for holiday activities you can do with friends and family virtually (and here’s 11 more Thanksgiving specific ideas)
- The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will look different this year but it still promises to entertain!
- The National Art Gallery’s “Degas At the Opera” is available to view online