How To Feel Gratitude At Work When Everything Feels Bleak

Synergee via Getty Images Giving thanks and learning how to find moments to be grateful for can help you stay positive during these tough times. If you want a model of a person who knows how to be grateful, look to Fred Rogers, the Presbyterian minister who taught children and adults how to identify and regulate their emotions on his TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” In a commencement address at Middlebury College in 2001, Rogers gave a master class on giving thanks. He asked the audience to take a minute of silence to think of the extra special people who “cared about you beyond measure and have encouraged you to be true to the best within you.” After the minute of reflection passed, Rogers told the crowd, “Whomever you’ve been thinking about, just imagine how grateful they must be that you remember them when you think of your own becoming.” To go a step further than being grateful in your head, express it out loud. If you think too much time has passed to express thanks to that person, think again, said feminist career coach Cynthia Pong, author of “Don’t Stay in Your Lane: The Career Change Guide for Women of Color.” “It makes it even more meaningful that time has passed,” Pong said. “Think about it from the recipient’s end: ‘Wow, this person still, number one, remembers that this happened and has still thought of me after all this time away.’ It could totally make that person’s day to receive that.” A pro tip for what to say and what NOT to say in your thank-you note: Don’t just mention how much you have personally benefited; take the time to note how integral this person was to your success.