Hanukkah, Chanukah, Thanksgivvukah…

Today’s show is Hanukkah. It is for Thanksgiving. It is for feeling great. Happy holidays!

Hi, I’m Marcus J. Freed. Welcome to Marcus Recommends, where we share great ideas and celebrate life. This is unscripted, it is unbiased, it is unrehearsed and it is coming to you live from the studio in Los Angeles and today is really to mark the day which only comes something like once every 75,000 years or at least it is pretty rare. It is when Hanukkah and Thanksgiving actually fall on the same date. Now this is even going to be more rare in England because we don’t have Thanksgiving in England but I’m in Los Angeles so it is still pretty rare over here.

So let’s look at it. Everyone’s getting fairly excited. They’re giving Thanksgivukkah festivals, street parades and I’m actually going to be hoisting a street parade but the idea of actually things being separate is a little bit of a myth because Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights which is told cabalistically and post-biblically is really a festival of thanksgiving and here is what is said in the main prayer. It says in Hebrew ‘Shemonah ymei Chanukah eleh l’hodot u’l’hallel l’shimchah haGadol”. So basically for these eight days, it is about thanking, it is about praising, it is about really connecting with the Divine and really getting in touch with that consciously.

Thank you…

Now the word “L’hodot” in terms of praising is really actually is a form of thanks. And so Hanukkah is actually a festival of thanksgiving. So the idea of thanksgiving falling on Hanukkah is great and yes, a nice calendrical, calendricular, calencular—well, it is nice coincidence of dates but really it is actually what should happening the whole time. It is all about thanksgiving.

So the question is okay, you’ve got Hanukkah that is about thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is about thanksgiving but how do you really bring that into action? How do you really do that thanks? Well, I want to share with you one really clear tool. Here is what I do. I have a gratitude journal. Yes, I know it is not the most masculine of colors but usually no one sees it except the hopefully the millions of subscribers here on Marcus Recommends but it is a private journal and what I do is this: Every day before I meditate, I write down at least five different areas, things in my life that I’m grateful for. This could be relationships. It could be work.

Gratitude Journal…

I’ll pick something up in a random page and stick my finger in it. Ah, the gifts of my parents, the fact that my mother and father are in my life which I’m tremendously grateful for. I’ll pick something else – friends of mine, friends out here in Los Angeles, friends in London. So I’ll think of different things I’m grateful for. I become really present to this and actually cultivate this aspect of thanksgiving, contemplate this inner essence of Hanukkah, of really being thankful.

Cultivating gratitude…

So what’s the big deal? What’s the benefit of being grateful? The benefit is by being in those attitude of gratitude, we become really present to the wealth in our life, to the good things in our life. We’re able to enjoy our life that much better. We can become more present for friends, for partners, for clients, for anyone. We can really engage and be a part of life, and play full out.

So today, Marcus recommends, whether it is Hanukkah or Thanksgiving, Marcus recommends cultivating an attitude of gratitude and starting a gratitude journal
Be thankful, be present, be powerful. Happy holidays.