Both words come from the same old Proto-Germanic root thankō, which meant something like thought, feeling, or gratitude. In other words, a thousand years ago, if you thanked someone you were literally thinking well of them. Gratitude was basically good thinking.
Somewhere along the way we split the family. Thinking became something you do with your brain. Thanking became something you do with your manners. But originally, they were part of the same mental-emotional ecosystem.
The philosopher Martin Heidegger loved this connection and wrote about it in What Is Called Thinking?, noting that thinking and thanking are deeply related. Leave it to a German philosopher to turn gratitude into a philosophical seminar.
But the insight is pretty delightful: Gratitude is just thoughtful awareness.
When you slow down long enough to actually think about your life—your friends, your health, the random miracle that coffee exists—you almost can’t help but say thanks.
Which means the shortest spiritual practice in the English language might be this: Think. Then thank.
Or better yet, think so well that thanking becomes inevitable.
-Chip