It's the season of gratitude, and many of us are reflecting on the people and things we're thankful for.

• But we rarely practice self-gratitude.

Why it matters: Psychologists say taking the time to thank ourselves for the qualities that have carried us through life can be healthy and important, even if doing it feels awkward or arouses fears of appearing egotistical, AP's Cathy Bussewitz writes.

🧠 Between the lines: We've evolved to not be kind to ourselves. Our ancestors who kicked back and relaxed were more likely to be eaten by lions, while the ones who dwelled on where the lions might be tomorrow were more likely to survive.

• "It's not that it's hard to do, but we have to overcome the natural tendency of the brain to always be looking for problems as a way of staying safe," Kristin Neff, a psychologist at UT Austin, told AP.

🔎 Zoom in: Learning to appreciate ourselves can boost confidence, ease anxiety and make us more resilient when challenges hit.

• Teaching kids this skill early matters. Research links low self-esteem in children and teens to risky behaviors — including alcohol use, drunk driving and self-harm.

The bottom line: As Maryanna Klatt, director of the Center for Integrative Health at Ohio State University, put it to AP: If people spent five minutes a day looking at themselves with compassion, their days would be different.

📬 We want to hear from you! Last week we reprised our annual gratitude series and heard from readers all over the country.

• People thanked their spouses, their doctors, their pets and more.

Now tell us what you want to thank yourself for: Send your 1-2 sentences of self-gratitude — plus your name and hometown — to [email protected] to be featured in a future newsletter.

A stunning shot of the Grey Glacier in South America's Southern Patagonian Ice Field — captured by reader Tom Freeberg of Gainesville, Fla., while hiking in Patagonia, Chile, last week.