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I often ask if you take time to reflect and express your gratitude, but what's the point of being grateful anyway? There's no shortage of tips, advice, and informatics touting the best new health and wellness hacks to keep you healthier and younger for longer. It's overwhelming. Gratitude, however, is one of those practices that stands the test of time and allows you to get back to the basics.
It’s the little moments, the things that can feel mundane, things we don’t even think about that hold so much power over our perspective and how we feel.
Gratitude is a powerful tool we can use to shift our mindset. Think about a gratitude practice as something you can do every day to work on being the best version of yourself. Through gratitude, we can find appreciation and acceptance in our lives. Gratitude allows us to feel joy in the little things and create a mindset shift that affirms and acknowledges the goodness around us.
Cultivating gratitude is possible by reflecting on and expressing our gratitude, either verbally or in writing. Practicing gratitude has many proven benefits to our health and well-being. Gratitude has the power to:
Reduce stress and anxiety and makes you more resilient to deal with future stress and adversity
Increase happiness and life satisfaction as you spend time appreciating the good in your life
Improve physical health as it’s linked to healthier blood pressure and heart rate as well as a stronger immune system and fewer aches and pains
Boost energy and productivity
Strengthen relationships and allows you to be more empathetic, helpful, generous, and forgiving
Enhance sleep including better sleep quality and sleep duration
Help you to be mindful and rooted in the present
Elevate your mood as your hope and optimism are increased
Find gratitude not only in sunshine but also in the clouds. It’s not only the happy moments but also the negative events that push us to learn we can move forward and find value even in the most challenging of times.
Strengthen your gratitude muscle.
The more you use it, the stronger it grows. I encourage you to start a gratitude practice every day, either verbally or in writing to recognize and express all that is worth appreciating. I like to write 3 things I am grateful for every morning after I wake up in this gratitude journal.
Taking this time in the morning and evening has become an opportunity to slow down, increase my mindfulness, and care for myself. You can do this at any time of day in your head, aloud, or in writing wherever you prefer, like your daily planner or the Notes app on your phone.
Some prompts to inspire your gratitude practice:
What am I grateful for today?
What are some good things in my life that I’ve taken for granted?
What mistakes have I made and how can I learn from them?
Who in my life do I appreciate and why?
What went well today?
Who puts a smile on my face?
What do you admire about yourself?
Or start with this 5-minute guided meditation.
Cultivating gratitude is one of the ways that I work with clients to strengthen their sense of self, develop awareness for the things that feel good, and create positive mindset shifts. Reach out by sending me an email, DMing me on Instagram, or signing up for a free consultation if you’d like to learn more about how you can achieve your goals and improve your mindset with me as your guide.