Give Thanks to Your Past Self

Many of us have traditions for expressing our gratitude for our blessings, and as a nation we decided to do this together on the same day. There is a lot of activity and preparation for feasting and celebration.

Thanking your past self is a quieter and more personal part of gratitude. You will experience a more profound general outlook of gratitude if you can thank not only the greater benevolent forces in your life, but if you can also thank yourself. 

If you do this, your future self will thank you, too. But only if you actually do this-- to consciously say thank you to your past self. It turns out, as many psychological studies have shown, that when we do things that require us to use the left part of our brain, we benefit from them more emotionally in terms of satisfaction. The right brain is a bit more impulsive, reactive and chaotic, which is great for creativity. But we need the balance of the left brain's witness to what we do with those impulses.

A young Charles Schulz, already looking uncertain about his chances
from the Charles Schulz museum

For example, we might have a moment of panic that we have misplaced our keys. We thought we had them in our hands or pockets just a moment ago. We look around for a while with our heart beating, only to find that they are hanging on the hook that we installed for this purpose. Automatically, we hung the keys there without thinking. We feel relieved and might say "Thank God" and go about our day. It is no bad thing to feel that we have been granted minor reprieves and beneficence from a deity, a positively organized universe, a natural bent toward luck, or any number of belief systems that we cherish. But in cases like this, it is not as psychologically healthy to feel that we found our keys because we were at the mercy of random good days and bad days.

When the left brain intervenes and recognizes that the past self set up a system to prevent the loss of keys on a regular basis and is recognized in turn for having done that, the psyche responds with a greater feeling of confidence. It believes that we are looking out for ourselves, and not sabotaging ourselves. The right brain is different. It's the one that sends up thoughts of every kind, including new and inventive ways to scold, berate, and recall every mistake and lapse of judgment and lay it before you like a storyboard.

Charlie Brown days come to everyone-- flying at kite-eating trees, and persistently being duped by Lucy into running at the football, thinking, "This time will be different!" So when we're lying on our backs in the dust with Lucy looking down at us, we tend to say those self- negating thoughts out loud with our left brain, along with AAUGH! from our right. When we do this, we layer on more cement that says we are consistently foolish, or uniquely cursed, or singled out for failure. That may feel grander and an easier belief to commit to. Successes can then feel accidental and flukey, and the psyche remains persistently wobbly, expecting the worst. It is harder to commit to wobbly.

If modesty or self-deprecation is a hallmark of our character, it can be difficult to change to a pattern of self-recognition without feeling like a bragging ass. This style of grateful recognition is not the same as invented affirmations that might feel unprovable such as "I'm lovable just the way I am!" If you simply say to yourself, "thank you, past self" for having paid a bill on time, for having left the house early enough, for feeling rested by going to bed earlier, and everything else that is proverbially prudent, it adds up to a sense of well-being for your present self, and is based on actual evidence. If it's a conscious statement, this also weeds out unconscious pridefulness, which is just another send-up from the right brain that is overcorrecting for all of the times it yelled at you.

As you cultivate a grateful spirit in the coming year, include the simple acknowledgement of yourself and your own kind and helpful deeds into that practice. The future will hold much gratitude that you know will be there.