Gratitude: The many ways it helps us shine brighter and love deeper




I recently came across the acceptance speech of Laszlo Krasznahorkai who won the 2025 Nobel Prize for literature.  Here is a sample of that sweet speech:

“I give my thanks to the first thirty-one girls with whom I fell fatally in love, but especially to Marti Klinkovics,...


I give my thanks to the artists of Classical Greece,


To the Italian Renaissance,


To Attila Jozesf, the Hungarian poet who showed the magical power of words.


To Fyodor Mihailovitch Dostoyevskij,


To my older brother, who often carried me home from kindergarten, because of which I became infinitely grateful to him, as he showed me that there could be another way of looking at the world, not just that which is given.”


His entire speech was a poem of gratitude to the many people, experiences, places, and influences that shaped him into the man he had become.  It made me smile the kind of smile that spreads across your face when you spy an elderly couple sharing an ice cream or a kiss.  There was something so intimate and tender about it.   It made me reflect on all the beautiful people, and artists, and experiences that have shaped me.  As these memories came to mind, I felt my shoulders drop, releasing the tension they had been holding.  I looked over to my loving husband and forgot about the dirty clothes he left on the bathroom floor that morning.  I looked at my perfect little boy and forgot that he cried for an hour, needing to be held, which stopped me from writing this blog a little sooner. All the little irritations of the day and the week melted away as I filled my mind with gratitude.


I encourage you as a practice to think of 3 things you are grateful for each day, and to write them down in a journal.  And in the spirit of honoring this beautiful acceptance speech, I invite you to write your own poem of gratitude.  Put your phone down and spend some time recalling that which has made you who you are.  


My writing tends to include science and statistics about how certain practices improve your health, but I don’t think I need to defend or explain how gratitude helps us and makes us better.  It's common sense, but so easily forgotten.  


Cultivate gratitude in your mind.  Choose to look for the good.  Take charge of your wandering, negative mind.  I think you will be surprised at just how powerful of a positive impact it can have.


Your health is worth fighting for.

Never give up.

With love,

-Sarah

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