Gratitude Practice for Wellbeing

Emotional Wellness Month: Gratitude Practice

This month, our Community celebrates Emotional Wellness Month.

There is much scientific research about the positive effects of practicing Gratitude on our emotional wellness (I give links at the bottom to scientific sources)

Moreover, most of this vast amount of research has found it the most powerful practice for improving our emotional well-being.

Gratitude is being aware and appreciating the good things we have, instead of wishing for things we lack.

We all have a tendency to think that only some things we lack will make us feel better, or that we can't feel well until we have all the things we feel we need.

Gratitude moves our focus from what we lack to what we have.

Practicing gratitude improves our emotional wellness in a number of ways:

- Feeling grateful directly improves our mood through well studied neurological pathways, releasing “feel good” neurotransmitters. This is a powerful effect that has been the focus of much research.

- Makes us feel more at home in the world. It develops the feeling that the world is a more benign, friendly, and welcoming place.

- Gives us a more balanced perspective on our life as a whole.

- Takes us away from unhelpful thinking patterns like “blame games” and “victim mentality”

Research has shown that Gratitude can be practiced and cultivated successfully, making it a more prevalent part of our attitudes, personality, and outlook on life. Many spiritual traditions have the cultivation of Gratitude at the heart of their spiritual practice. Many of the current, effective, scientifically proven ways to cultivate Gratitude comes in fact from those ancient traditions.

We can practice gratitude focused:

- on the past, retrieving positive memories and being thankful to people that were good to us, and for good things that happened to us in the past,

- on the present, not taking for granted the small and large good things we have

Practicing and intentionally cultivating Gratitude through exercises can feel at first contrived, fake or phony. Don’t be put off by these sensations, as they are typical at the beginning of the practice.

With time, practicing Gratitude becomes natural and feels genuine. This is a result of the practice itself: as we become more grateful, practicing Gratitude becomes more like a further exploration of an emotion we already feel to some degree.

These practices apply to small or large things. Present or past. A person, an event, or a thing. Don’t take anything for granted.

You might start developing gratitude by identifying someone or something you are ver grateful to. Stay some time focusing on that, until you feel the emotion of gratitude getting stronger and stronger in your body and mind.

Some ways of to practice Gratitude that have been proven effective:

- Thinking Thankfully: Establish the habit, in times of relative tranquility, of closing your eyes, and thinking “Thank you” to something good in your life. For example, you can open the window in the morning and thank the light that comes in. Drink a glass of water and give thanks for that water. Remember a person that supported you. A time or some activity that made you feel well.

- Keep a list. Also known as “Counting your Blessings”. In a notebook or on sheets of paper, try to add every day some things you are grateful for.

- Gratitude Journal. Keep a journal where write down every evening, all the good things you recall that happened to you that day. Like a good detective, try not to miss even the smallest ones.

- Try to notice the small good things in your life, all around you all the time.

- Thank people. Can be from the casual “Thank you!” to people you meet, to writing a handwritten thank-you note or paying a visit with this main purpose to someone you are grateful to. Might be even someone that helped you long ago, and you lost contact with.

- Reflect on the positive things in your life. Take some time during the day and devote it to that. Might be at lunchtime, if you are alone, in bed, as soon as you get up in the morning. Any time.

- Meditate or pray with a focus on gratitude. Sit comfortably and undisturbed, close your eyes, and repeat in your mind a phrase that feels right for you, expressing Gratitude. Could be as simple as repeating “Thanks” while sensing the emotions that resonate with that word. If you are a religious person, give thanks to your God.

- What is your experience with practicing Gratitude?

Links to Sources:

The Benefits of Gratitude and How to Get Started (healthline.com)

7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude | Psychology Today

Gratitude: The Benefits and How to Practice It - HelpGuide.org

Benefits of Gratitude: 28+ Surprising Research Findings (positivepsychology.com)

The Benefits of Gratitude and How to Foster More Gratitude in your Life (webmd.com)

31 Benefits of Gratitude: The Ultimate Science-Backed Guide (happierhuman.com)

16 Benefits Of Gratitude, According To Research (mindbodygreen.com)

This post is part of the “Emotional Wellness Month” Event by the Depression Support Subcommunity. Visit the Masterpost by clicking HERE

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Learn HERE how to join the Depression Support team. We welcome you with open arms!

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