By Stephenie Craig, Journey Bravely
When did you last compare your life to someone else’s and find yours lacking? When did you last have physical symptoms of stress? When did you last spend hours, days, weeks or months focused primarily on the things in your life you wish were different? Life with technology offers you piles of information to sort daily. Some information is helpful, while much of it leaves you wondering if you and your life measure up to the social media cultural standard. What do you do when you find yourself feeling stressed or your life feeling not enough?
While simple, gratitude often gets overlooked as a highly useful and practical tool for actually feeling better and feeling enough. Gratitude gets the most attention in November when you think about what you’re thankful for around the Thanksgiving table. While a meaningful practice once a year, gratitude can hold a more significant space in your life that can actually change how you feel and experience the world.
Gratitude in its fuller form is a daily practice of slowing down, reflecting on what is already good in your life, savoring and celebrating the goodness, then intentionally acknowledging the goodness in some way such as writing it down, noting it in your phone, or saying it aloud to yourself or another person. Gratitude is scientifically known to potentially reduce stress, reduce blood pressure, help anxiety, help depression, improve health, increase optimism and increase happiness.
Gratitude is not designed to minimize your struggles. For example, statements like, “I should just be grateful, I don’t have real problems like people who are hungry or sick” aren’t helpful to caring for yourself properly. Your pain and struggle are real and it is healthy to validate and tend to the hard parts of your life. Gratitude instead offers some balance and perspective to the struggle. Statements like, “I am really struggling with anxiety today and it is hard. And at the same time, I am also so grateful for my support system, for the sun being out today, and for my pet who makes me smile,” invite the goodness that exists into your processing of the hard.
Gratitude can be contagious if you let it. It has a sneaky way of taking self-focused, negative thoughts and transforming them into healthy connection with God, self, and others. You begin to notice kind things others have done toward you and you begin to engage spiritual gratitude. At its best, gratitude can motivate you toward kindness, generosity, and creating opportunities for others to experience gratitude.
So, how do you engage and spread gratitude? Ways to Practice and Spread Gratitude:
- Slow down. Set aside a time each day for 3-5 minutes. Set a reminder in your phone to
help support the habit. Take a few deep breaths and say to yourself, “I am slowing down to notice the good.”
- Reflect on a gratitude question. What was good today? What am I taking for granted in my life I could be grateful for? What nature do I see around me? Who am I grateful for?
What am I looking forward to? What can I celebrate today? What kind thing has someone done for me?
- Savor and celebrate the good. Think in detail about the beauty of nature. Think about the person you are grateful for and why you enjoy them. Notice deeply what a gift it is to have all of your basic needs met.
- Record your observations. Journal, use notes in your phone, send a thank you note, or tell someone what feels good in your life. Note how it feels inside to spend time thinking about good things.
- Spread gratitude. Allow gratitude to motivate generosity and kindness. Watch for opportunities to create grateful moments for others. Send a kind note, give a thoughtful gift, use loving words of affirmation, go out of your way to be helpful or meet a need, share your gifts with others.
In a time that encourages you to do more, get more, and keep up. Try engaging in the radical rebellion of slowing down, being grateful and spreading gratitude to others. Be gracious with yourself and others as you grow in gratitude. For support along your journey, connect with us at Journeybravely.com.
