What comes to mind when you think of summer? For many, it’s sunshine, BBQs, and time to relax. For others, it may be the feeling of reprieve when you walk into an air-conditioned building or take a sip of ice-cold lemonade. Summer has become a quintessential icon for easy living and enjoyment. It’s a season romanticized by movies everywhere as a time when life is good, and people are happy. While life isn’t always as carefree as depicted in the movies, summer is still a season for being intentional and taking it all in. Whether your life slows down in the summer or not, it’s hard not to notice the signs urging us to make time for enjoyment – the store displays, kids riding around town on bicycles, and the sun staying out later into the evening. Together, these things add up to create an uplifting environment, one that is the perfect setting for starting a new habit of gratitude.
The focus on giving thanks comes for many, only once a year, shortly before consuming copious amounts of turkey and then retiring for a long nap. While historically relevant, Thanksgiving occurs at a time of year when it is most needed (before the busy holiday season), but also at a time when nature itself seems to challenge you to find the good in a stormy day, dead leaves, or cool air. For some, this is a favorite time of year, but for others, it’s the beginning of a dark, cold winter. If you’ve experienced difficulty starting a habit of gratitude as the year around you is dying, try the opposite and use the warm spell of summer to ease into a routine of thankfulness.
In his best-selling book Atomic Habits, renowned author James Clear outlines four laws perfect for starting your summer gratitude season. He explains how to create a good habit – first, “make it obvious;” second, “make it attractive;” third, “make it easy;” and fourth, “make it satisfying.” While all these components work together, here we will focus on the third law: “make it easy.” Many times, when we want to start a new habit, we envision a grandiose change that will make us infinitely better, something along the lines of: “I’m going to write a full page of things I’m grateful for every day;” or “I’ll work out an hour a day, 6 days a week.” While both are great goals, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with making big plans, it’s difficult for most people to go from zero to habit-keeping in a single go. By making your gratitude habit something small and easy, research has shown that adherence is better than trying to jump right into a more extensive gratitude practice. With the season of summer upon us, it is a naturally easy time to begin your new habit.
Start with the Sun
There are few things that warm the body as well as the summer sun. Exposure to the sun stimulates the release of serotonin, helping us feel happy and content. Feelings of happiness often give way to gratitude and appreciation. Stepping outdoors during the summer (while wearing appropriate sun protection) can help us foster a sense of appreciation for the good weather, the beauty of the outdoors, and the place in which we live. As the sun lifts our moods and energy, it helps us naturally find things to be grateful for.
Opportunities in the Outdoors
As we spend time recreating outside, we interact with nature and become more engaged in the present moment. We have time to stop and appreciate the world around us. Try a new activity – hiking, picnicking, or stargazing, to open your eyes to things you wouldn’t see every day as you go from home to work and back. Setting aside time to be outdoors each week can help you get out of your head and into the world, where you can see the bigger picture with more ease.
Savor the Social Time
People are inherently more social during the summer. We’re more likely to leave our houses, strike up a conversation with someone on the street, and give a smile to a stranger in the store. There are countless activities for socializing from festivals to family gatherings, farmers markets to dates with friends. In their article “How Gratitude Helps Your Friendships Grow,” Eric Pedersen and Debra Lieberman comment on the importance of social connection and gratitude:
“Gratitude may make our romantic relationships closer and more satisfying, encourage us to feel more invested in friendships, and even cause us to be more helpful coworkers.”
Who doesn’t want to be a better partner, friend, or colleague? As we develop stronger social relationships, we become more thankful for the people in our lives, and as we give thanks for those people, connections strengthen even further. If you lack a quality or quantity of connection, try starting with strangers. A simple “thank you” to someone who holds the door can brighten both your days.
Time to Reflect and Relax
Many people choose to vacation during the summer, whether it’s an overnight camping trip or a weekend getaway in the city. Vacations don’t always need to be an elaborate event; they can be as simple as setting a day aside to enjoy your own space at home without focusing on chores or to-do lists. Vacations in any form are an opportunity to step back from daily stressors and reflect on life. They provide a break from our daily routine, helping us find joy in doing something out of the ordinary, or perhaps giving us a greater appreciation for routines we do enjoy. Use downtime during your summer vacation to start a gratitude journal or mindfulness practice and enjoy being in the present moment.
Fresh Food and New Experiences
One of the things that embodies summer is the smell and taste of fresh food. It could be the fruits and vegetables you’ve grown in your own garden. It might be the smell of bread baking early in the morning as you walk a local bakery or the open-air taco carts lining city streets. Summer is the perfect time to put away packaged food and eat locally when possible. Seeking out foods that are in season gives you new things to experience and helps you appreciate local produce as it evolves throughout the summer. If there are farmers' markets or roadside stands in your area, it can be an eye-opening experience to interact with the people who grow the food you eat. Taking the opportunity to thank them and learn more about where your food comes from helps you gain an appreciation for your food alongside your enjoyment of it. Let your food become an opportunity for social interaction and thanksgiving year-round.
Putting Gratitude into Action
As the summer season begins, choose to make it a season of gratitude. Make time to be outdoors, feel the sun on your face, and let it lift your spirits. Take a moment to appreciate nature in whatever form is around you, whether a tree outside your apartment or open fields near your house. Involve your family and friends in your gratitude journey, socializing with those for whom you are grateful. For more social support in your gratitude journey, join a community, like the one here at Thankable, to be inspired by others on the same path. Slow down and notice life around you by taking a vacation within your own home or booking a trip to somewhere new. Enjoy involving yourself in your local community as you eat seasonally and interact with those who grow the food that fuels you each day. Find the good in others and in yourself and notice how your gratitude grows.
Start your practice with something easy like eating a meal more mindfully or noting one thing that brings a smile to your face in the morning. Make your habit something that easily fits into your day. It is up to you whether you keep your gratitude practice simple or add to it. Building a habit of giving thanks will help you find more enjoyment in what you have and see the world around you in a softer, warmer light, one that will continue far beyond the end of summer. The words of David Steindl-Rast, known as the “grandfather of gratitude,” remind us of this in his 2013 TED talk as he says:
“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.”
Both gratitude and happiness are a choice, ones that we make each day. Use the gift of summer as a diving board to jump into the waters of gratitude.
REFERENCES:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. Avery.
Pedersen, E., & Lieberman, D. (2017, December 6). How Gratitude Helps Your Friendships Grow. Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_helps_your_friendships_grow
Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2013). Sunshine, Serotonin, and Skin: A Partial Explanation for Seasonal Patterns in Psychopathology? Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 10(7-8), 20–24. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779905/
TED. (2013, November 27). Want to be happy? Be grateful | David Steindl-Rast. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBsl3j0YRQ&t=12s
Wang, J., Wei, Z., Yao, N., Li, C., & Sun, L. (2023). Association Between Sunlight Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence from a Special Population Without Sunlight in Work. Association between Sunlight Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence from a Special Population without Sunlight in Work, Volume 16, 1049–1057. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s420018