At the dawn of this Thanksgiving week, our news feeds are no doubt filling up with an unending parade of perfect family photos and quotes urging us to be thankful for “the little things.” And while it can be easy to condemn these posts as overly airbrushed moments meant to project a false sense of perfection into the world, I’m going to quiet my inner-cynic and focus on the message rather than the method.

Because here is my Thanksgiving reflection. Gratitude is easy when things are good, essential when times are tough, and tricky to maintain.

Spiritual leaders, psychologists and gurus alike believe that our ability to practice gratitude has a direct impact on how we see and experience the world. Studies have shown that people who choose to focus on moments of gratitude over moments of annoyance reap the benefit of improved mood, mental and physical health.

And before that inner-cynic starts piping up again, it isn’t just that people who have more to be happy about are naturally more grateful. As Brother David Steindl-Rast explains in his TED Talk, it is just the opposite. Happiness is downstream from gratitude, not the other way around.

So, if you’re in a time of struggle and gratitude can bring you happiness, just post one of those Thanksgiving quotes on Instagram, and you should be good to go. Right?

Well, obviously not. There is a reason gratitude is referred to as a “practice,” because it takes just that. Waiting to practice gratitude until you are in the midst of a struggle is a bit like picking up a football for the first time as you're running into the Super Bowl as the starting quarterback. It’s likely going to hurt.

So don’t wait until you desperately need the effects of gratitude to start practicing it. Start today. And if you’re already in a time of struggle, start anyway. Gratitude is difficult to maintain no matter who you are, but it won’t get easier until you start. So here are three practical tips to keep in mind when it comes to practicing gratitude.

PICK A PRACTICE

Focusing on moments to be grateful for can take many different forms, and none of them are right or wrong. You could keep a journal, take photos, write thank you notes, tell your family, spend time in prayer. The key is to find the thing that is most meaningful to you. And if you try something and it doesn’t work, try something else!

MAKE IT SUSTAINABLE

Whatever practice you pick, do yourself a favor and make it sustainable. If you are someone who is falling into bed late at night barely awake, don’t commit to an evening gratitude journal. Trust me, the last thing you want is to be ungrateful about having to do your gratitude practice. If for you sustainable means mentally listing out three things on your drive to work every morning, then do that!

FAKE IT UNTIL YOU FEEL IT

As humans, we are hardwired to focus on negatives and threats. So this whole gratitude thing doesn’t exactly come naturally to many of us. We need to give ourselves some grace, and fake it until we feel it. The very practice of forcing ourselves to focus on these things will help us to find more moments to be grateful for. Some days it will come easier than others, and that is okay.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now, I’ll spare you the cheesy quote on thankfulness, but I will say, happy Thanksgiving -- today, this week, and everyday thereafter.