Practicing Gratitude

GRATITUDE

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kindness that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude." -- Albert Schweitzer

The relationship between our thoughts, moods, brain chemistry, and the functioning of all other systems in our bodies is complex. Our thoughts can  and actually do trigger changes in our body that affect our mental and physical well being. What we think affects how we feel (both emotionally and physically). By increasing our positive thoughts, like gratitude, we can increase our over all well-being.

It is very simple for us to increase our experience and expression of gratitude, it just takes a little bit of practice. Albert Schweitzer notes in his above quotation about gratitude, that increasing our conscious awareness of gratitude may require that we train ourselves to think differently. We can do this by incorporating some simple exercises into our lives. 

• Gratitude journals can take many forms, but one way of doing this is to simply write down one thing that you are grateful for each day. It can be something that happened that day, something you felt, or someone in your life who has made a positive impact on you. People who keep gratitude journals have been found live a more active and healthy lifestyle, feel better about their lives as a whole, and feel more optimistic about their day and upcoming week as oppose to those who don't.

• Daily discussion of gratitude results in higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy, and better quality of sleep. Grateful people also report lower levels of depression and stress, although they do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.

• People who think, talk, or write about gratitude daily are more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or offered emotional support to another person.

• People with disposition towards gratitude are found to place less importance on material goods, are less likely to judge their own or others success in terms of possessions accumulated, are less envious of wealthy people, and are more likely to share their possessions with others.

Express gratitude. Engage a friend or romantic partner in a daily discussion about what you are grateful for. This might take the form of questions like, "What was the best part of your day today?", or "What is one thing that made you feel really happy today?" This kind of discussion not only helps to increase your own awareness of all that you have to be grateful for, but can also promote positive connection and experiences in your relationship with whomever you choose to have these exchanges. 

For example, instead of having dinner with a friend or partner and talking about all the stresses of your day, this kind of discussion leads you both to focus on the positive things, which in turn helps the stresses feel less significant, and helps you feel happier when around your friend or partner. Basically, gratitude promotes gratitude.

If you find that you're very busy and unable to stick to a regular gratitude practice, train yourself to notice things, in the moment, that you are thankful for. They can be small things: maybe you notice that your bed is very comfortable, that traffic was moving on your way to work, that your lunch is tasty, that a good friend said something nice to you, etc. It is easy to take these kinds of experiences for granted and not direct our conscious awareness to them. Train yourself to notice these kinds of things and really feel grateful for them. This will help increase your own experience of happiness.

Whatever you think about or talk about will be drawn into your life. Thinking about what you are grateful for will draw more of that to you. This is the Law of Attraction.

Go ahead and adopt this recipe for your success:

Gratitude + Positive Affirmation + Visualization + Application = Manifestation.

Nicole Larissa Nelson

@coachedbycoco