Gratitude Changes Everything: Part one
Gratitude Changes Everything. Practicing gratitude helps you maintain a positive mood, achieve greater emotional well-being, and results in higher overall life satisfaction. Expressing Gratitude is the most important change you can make with immediate impact and minimal effort. Brother David Steindl-Rast is a monk and an interfaith scholar whose TEDtalk teaches us how happiness is the result of gratitude.
I began gratitude practice about 8 years ago. If beginning gratitude practice sounds like something that would take too much time, I can assure you that it does not at all. My gratitude practice consists of two things… thinking of things I am grateful for when I brush my teeth and thinking about things I am grateful for when I am in a bad mood. That is it- simple, huh? Practice just means that you try to do it routinely. In part one of this blog post, you will learn two ways to incorporate gratitude into your daily life. In part two, I will teach you two more ways and help you think about how to make this work for you.
Sharing Gratitude and Love
Happy people communicate gratitude to their friends and love to family in ways that strengthen bonds. This is a splendid video by SoulPancake called An Experiment in Gratitude. Does it make you feel awkward to think about doing it? Ask yourself these questions to start.
-Who is someone you can contact today to say thanks for something big or small?
-How will you get in touch (visit, phone, text, email, IM)?
-What are you thankful for?
-Did it make you feel good? How was it received?
Start a Gratitude Journal
Write down three good things that happened today (or just one). There are many ways you can record your gratitude and recording it is helpful so you can go back and read it. If you love writing, use paper or even sticky notes. If digital works better for you, use the “notes” function or an on-line journal.
Thnx4 is a gratitude journaling platform that teaches people how to strengthen habits of gratitude and in turn enjoy the science-backed benefits of feeling and expressing gratitude. Thnx4 was created by the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) at the University of California, Berkeley. It draws on decades of rigorous research showing that being more grateful predicts:
-better health, reduced risk of heart disease
-more restful sleep
-stronger feelings of social connection and relationship satisfaction
-more satisfaction with life
-more joy and optimism
-less anxiety
-increased motivation and productivity in school and at work
When thinking about things that you are grateful for, challenge yourself to go beyond the obvious things. For example, when your teenager tells you about a problem at school, the gift might not be as obvious, yet what a wonderful thing that your teen values your advice.
Will you share why you are grateful? I would particularly love to hear those subtle things that you challenged yourself to think of as gifts.