It’s a Wonderful Life!

Dec 5

All through November there are many reminders to be grateful, often people are posting things they are grateful for on social media and commercials and movies all have the Thanksgiving theme. All this gratitude often culminates for many around a nice Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. For others, the holidays in general are stressful and for many grief and other struggles can feel even more pronounced as everyone else announces their many blessings. Perhaps for you it is a combination of both. Wherever you land on the gratitude continuum I’m here to give you a few tips and tricks to keep the gratitude flowing and to experience some of the peace and joy that is available to everyone with a grateful heart.

If you are one of the people in a hard season of life, gratitude can seem like an impossible ask but hear me out, there are so many benefits that a quick google search will impress you with the power of this practice. Gratitude is also a skill you can learn and harness for improving everything in your life. Some of the many benefits include improved mood, sleep, and immunity. You can also expect to experience reduced anxiety and reduced chronic pain. Many with regular gratitude practice experience more positive emotions, improve their relationships, develop optimism, and generally have a better sense of well-being. The best payoff though, is that your brain starts to change when you practice gratitude and scientists can track the different, healthy, brain activity in brains that are grateful on fMRI’s. You also get a burst of dopamine when you are grateful! It’s so good!

So, how do you develop a gratitude practice that can give you those benefits?

1. Be intentional. There are many inexpensive gratitude journals available online or, if you have a phone, you can open up a “note” and start. Try to find at least three to five things each day that you are grateful for. Write them down and commit to doing it daily!

2. Share your gratitude. Tell someone that you are grateful for them or some of the things you are grateful for. Saying things out loud is so powerful. The brain will believe what you tell it and a lot of people have a negative inner voice that is loud. If you voice your gratitude, it becomes more “real” to the brain.

3. Be on the lookout! All through the day, when something good happens pause in that moment and give thanks. Again, if you can say it out loud even better, then your brain not only thinks it, but it also hears it as well. Using your senses is always powerful.

4. Counterbalance. When you are struggling with something or an unexpected problem arises, that is often when people are quickly overwhelmed or lose momentum with the positive changes they are working on in their lives. In those difficult moments in life, accept that you are in a tough spot but counterbalance with a grateful moment. Otherwise known as finding a silver lining.

5. Be grateful for the things you don’t have…. If you have your health be grateful you aren’t struggling with a medical issue. If you are struggling with your finances, be grateful for people in your life that are loving. This is a skill that really must be practiced, it can be so difficult in hard moments to remember the blessing you do have.

6. Catch yourself when you are comparing and stop it as soon as you can. Comparing is the thief of gratitude. It focuses on scarcity instead of the abundant things in your life. As soon as you recognize that it is happening, accept that it is a natural human trait to compare but that you are going to focus on gratitude instead. You will immediately start to feel so much better!

7. Especially at this time of year, Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” an old movie but with a timeless lesson on being grateful for what you have and how truly the world needs you in it. You are here for a purpose and when you remember that it becomes so much easier to be grateful for what you have in life.

Wishing you abundant gratitude in your life!