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Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation,

but also reading a passage from the book, The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Steve Enhancelman.

And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics from Epititus Markis Relius, Seneca, then some analysis for me, and then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works.

Every day is a day of thanks. The Stoics are gratitude as a kind of medicine that's saying thank you for every experience.

It was the key to mental health. Convince yourself that everything is a gift of the gods.

It's how Markis Relius put it. The things are good, always will be.

And they didn't just mean you should do this on special days like Thanksgiving, which the U.S. is celebrating today, but on all days.

Yes, it's great to be thankful for the usual candidates, for our families, for our health, for living in a time of peace.

This being the first Thanksgiving that America is not at war in 21 years.

To be thankful for the food that is laid out in front of us.

But we should also find a way to say thank you for the less obvious things, for the setbacks, for the people who wronged us, for having our life disrupted by the pandemic, for the loss of a job or whatever difficulties we might be experiencing.

That nagging pain in your leg, thank you. It's making me take things slow. That troublesome client, thank you.

It's helping me develop better boundaries. That mistake you made, thank you for reminding me to be more careful for teaching me a lesson.

That damage from the storm, thank you. The damage exposed to more serious problem that I'm now solving.

The pandemic, thank you for all that time at home for my family. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to restructure my life, to rethink how I do things.

Thank you for showing me what is and isn't essential and on and on and on.

When Epictetus talks about how every situation has two handles, this is what he means.

You can decide to grab on to anger or appreciation. You can pick the handle of resentment or of gratitude. You can look at the obstacle, get a little closer and see the opportunity.

So as you gather around your family and friends, this Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other celebration you might partake in, of course, appreciate it and give thanks for all the obvious and bountiful gifts that this moment presents.

Just make sure that when the moment passes, as you go back to your everyday ordinary life, that you make gratitude and thanks a regular part of it.

Again, not simply for what is easy and immediately pleasing, but for all of it. For every day and everything.

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