Author: Jace
With Christmas coming up, are you feeling that stress of finding the perfect gift for the people you love? I know I am! Presents are a big deal for some people and they can mean a lot. Lucky for you I’ve come with a solution: gratitude.
I know what you’re thinking, how can gratitude be a gift? People want things not feelings! Well what I’m trying to say is that sometimes when buying a gift for someone we love or appreciate, we make it a chore, an expectation or an obligation. Or else we really want to get someone a gift for all the right reasons but we forget what we’re truly doing and why. If you’re Christmas shopping is starting to lose meaning, I’ll try and give a few pointers I’ve learned about gratitude.
Gratitude is a way we express thankfulness and show appreciation. It’s a demonstration of love to yourself or others.
Lately, we hear it as a buzzword in the mental health world: appearing in topics such as meditation, positive self-talk, efficiency and general mental well being. I think gratitude extremely important, especially during Christmas time which really is all about gratitude in the first place.
So let’s get into what you really want: “What do I buy!?”
Start by taking the time to think of what this person means to you. Ask yourself what makes them special to you, how they make you happy and ultimately why you’re buying them a gift.
Taking the time to see the meaning will make it meaningful!
I sometimes forget what the gift I’m giving really means to me and this makes the task and result super dry and lacking emotion. That’s why this year I want to make each gift full of thought, to make it better for myself and for those I care about.
Once you have that motivation from yourself and the idea of gratitude in mind, the “But what do I get them?” is smoothly replaced with thoughtful and meaningful gifts ideas.
Because it won’t be about stress or expectation, it’ll be about showing you care.
And if you still feel so much gratitude and not much inspiration don’t worry because there’s tons of free yet inexpensive ways to show you care. Here are a few ideas:
Try writing a letter to a loved one about what they mean to you (I like handwritten but that might just be me). We don’t get much of chance like that to say everything we want to say, and a letter can do just that! You might try creating your own card to leave on the gift. This shows just how much care was put into the gift and with a little internet research can be extremely simple but look so good.
You could make them a gift yourself or maybe arrange a special outing. Most importantly, make it personal! Something you know they’d like that would be a total surprise. Or something they really want but wouldn’t expect from you. No matter what it is, if you can express what they mean to you then you’ve done the right thing.
Because in the end it’s not about what you got a person, it’s about why.
