How often do you feel thankful for the good things in your life?
We can be subjected to so much stress and negativity in our daily lives that we can be consumed by it which leads to stress on all levels and has a huge impact on our physical, mental and emotional well-being. Whether it’s being in a stressful work environment, being surrounded by negative or even toxic people, going through traumatic events, suffering an injury or illness or being overwhelmed by the outside events that we have no control of, like the horrors we see in the news all the time. The impact of these events and situations can have serious detrimental effects that we don’t even realise.
These situations can take all of our focus so that it is difficult to switch off from them and lead to anxiety, anger, fear and depression. We are unable to feel positive or notice the good things in life.
Hopefully we are not always in this state but even going through short periods of this can lead to feeling out of control and in despair. It can affect our performance, physical fitness and our relationships.
What is ‘Practicing Gratitude’?
It is taking the time to reflect on the good things that have happened in your life and being truly thankful for them. These can be big or little things. It can be as simple as appreciating the beauty of nature, having a roof above your head, something going smoothly that day or enjoying a good meal. Or, feeling grateful for having a loving family or the support of a close friend.
The Benefits of Practicing Gratitude
Making a habit of noticing what’s going well in your life could have health benefits.
Taking the time to feel gratitude may improve your emotional well-being by helping you cope with stress.
Stress is the biggest cause of disease and feeling grateful results in a more positive mindset enabling you to focus on the good things in life and reducing the impact of negativity around you. In turn the body is more able to recover from illnesses or resist impacting the immune system with stress hormones.
- You will feel more content with your world.
- Relate with others in a more harmonious way.
- Be able to focus and concentrate on the things you can control.
- Find it easier to switch off and relax.
- Be able to detach from negative influences.
- Feel joy and happiness because there is so much goodness in your world.
HOW TO START PRACTICING GRATITUDE
Try to find a little time each day to practice gratitude so that it becomes a habit. It could be first thing in the morning, last thing at night or during a break in the daytime.
Write down anything positive you can think of (you may want to buy a notebook specially for this purpose). Even if you are in the midst of extremely stressful times you can be grateful for being alive, your eyesight, mobility, the water you drink, the air you breath. There is always something.
Allow yourself a moment to enjoy that you had the positive experience, no matter what negatives may exist in your life. Let positive feelings of gratitude bubble up.
Practicing gratitude on a daily basis will help you cope better with any situation. You don’t have to be going through major life stresses to benefit from this, it can work and improve your life even if you don’t have a very stressful life.
When you make gratitude a regular habit, it can help you learn to recognize good things in your life despite the bad things that might be happening.
Practicing gratitude can also help you become more compassionate to others and the world around you.
Realising that you are also in a better position than others can make you feel stronger and more in control of your life.
It can allow you to discover other things in life that you wouldn’t have noticed before and lead you in other directions because the opportunities and potentials will become clearer.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT YOU EITHER
The more you practice gratitude the more natural it will become and you will find yourself noticing the good things in life too, other people’s kindness, the innocence of children and animals, the beauty of nature and so much more.
The more grateful you become the more you will enjoy and seek out the wonderful fulfilling feelings of bliss. It can change your world and this will also have an impact on the world around you. Imagine the ripple effect, a smile of a stranger can light up someone’s day and they may pass on that feeling to the next person they meet.
Spread the Love
A kind word, a genuine complement or showing an interest for someone else can help them to feel more positive too. Being aware that other people have problems too can help you to feel more compassionate towards them and reduce any negative feelings they have invoked in you. A personal example of this is:
‘I was waiting in line at the supermarket one day and I noticed the checkout woman was behaving in a very stroppy manner. She was shoving the items through the till in a couldn’t care less manner with a very dark expression on her face. Just watching the way she served others was winding me up. I don’t know why but when it was my turn, instead of telling her to cheer up etc. I just asked her if she was having a bad day. Instantly, she lit up and smiled saying it was near the end of her shift and she was tired. It was as though she was surprised anyone had noticed or cared about her’.
It doesn’t take much but don’t be patronising. Saying ‘cheer up, it may never happen’ is infuriating to the person hearing it because you have no idea what they are coping with, it may have already happened for all you know! Telling someone what to do or how to solve their problems is not helpful unless they have asked for your advice. Complements and observations make them feel noticed and cared enough about to be acknowledged. When I was younger and working in an office full of engineers, as an experiment, I would pay the occasional complement, nothing over the top or anything that could be perceived as flirtatious but a casual remark about a new shirt or appreciation for the way they work etc. I noticed the look of surprise on their face and their whole posture change as they would smile and thank me. It doesn’t take any effort if it’s genuine but it is a very powerful act that can change someone’s day around, if they practice gratitude your act of kindness will probably be on that list.
