PRACTICE GRATITUDE
“Gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Practicing gratitude actually has many health benefits and is a great way to feel more calm, fulfilled and positive.
By choosing to live with gratitude it means that you are always recognising the good things in your life. Noticing and being thankful for anything which lights you up and makes you happy. You know that feeling you get when you go out to eat at your favourite restaurant, get your favourite take out coffee, hit a personal best at the gym, or see your favourite sports team play live and they win. The feeling of pure joy and happiness in this moment - Gratitude!
Remember though to always include being thankful for even the smallest of things that make you happy. Sometimes it’s those simple things that bring us the most joy. Such as, having running water, food on the table, the beauty in nature around you, good weather, or a relaxing bath.
Practicing gratitude can also help us to deal with the challenges we are facing in our lives, and it can help us to understand the challenges we have faced in the past. Maybe a challenge in the past has helped you to become the person you are today, having more empathy and compassion for others. You can be grateful and show thanks for that.
Spread the gratitude;
Studies have shown that you can even increase your feelings of gratitude and happiness by showing others how thankful you are of them. You can do this by paying someone a compliment, or write a letter to someone to tell them why you are grateful of them. (Enjoy the energy you get from this!)
“Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.”
How long before I feel the benefits of this practice?
Studies have shown that it only takes you eight weeks of gratitude practice to start showing changes to the pattens in your brain. Giving you results of having much greater happiness and empathy in your life.
You are literally training your greatest tool…the brain!
“Gratitude is the state of mind of thankfulness. As it is cultivated, we experience an increase in our sympathetic joy, our happiness at another’s happiness.”
What are the best ways to practice gratitude?
Start by writing down in a journal or notebook at least 5 or 10 things you are grateful for that day. Really notice how you feel in both your mind and your body when you are doing this practice. By writing these things down it is helping you to consciously think about your words of gratefulness. Helping prevent you from distractions or ungrateful thoughts.
As you further your practice you are then able to go back over and read the things that bring you happiness and sparked gratefulness in your life.
Here are just some of the benefits of practicing gratitude:
Strengthens your immune system
Lowers blood pressure
Better mood
Better sleep
Increases resilience
Increases energy
Improves relationships
Enhances our empathy and compassion
Higher cognitive function
Greater emotional stability
Feel calmer
Helps challenge negative thought patterns in anxiety
Increases self-esteem
Feel happier
Start practicing gratitude today - you can fill in the gaps in the main image I have provided, or start putting pen to paper today!
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“Having gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.”