Gratitude can pull us up when we’ve fallen. It has a way of taking us outside of our minds and our worries, and bringing us into the present moment.
Do you make gratitude a regular practice in your life? If not, it’s not too late to start.
It’s helpful to be aware of the benefits of incorporating a gratitude practice into our lives. Robert Emmons is a leading scientific expert on gratitude and through his studies of people ranging from 8 to 80, he has confirmed several benefits.
Physical benefits include an improved immune system, better sleep, and lower blood pressure.
Psychological benefits include more optimism, higher levels of happiness, and overall higher levels of positive emotions.
Social benefits include that people are more forgiving, more outgoing, and, arguably one of the most important benefits for those who’ve been living in a state of shame, less lonely and isolated.
Incorporating gratitude into your daily life can have a positive impact in a short time. The task here is creating the practice and then sticking with it.
You’ve no doubt become aware of the standard practice of keeping a gratitude journal. This may seem cliché, but it really is effective in bringing gratitude into your everyday life.
I advocate that you do NOT go purchase a fancy journal. So often, people don’t want to “mess up” the pristine pages of a hand-tooled pink-dyed leather journal.
Find a spiral notebook your kids never used, hit a 39 cent school notebook sale at the office supply store, or pick up a journal you already own and start using it to record daily gratitude.
Start with this schedule. Place your gratitude journal next to your bed along with a writing instrument.
Just before lying down to sleep, record the date and three items that you are grateful for. Look back at your day and find something that fits.
If you really can see nothing to have gratitude for, then write down a favorite blanket or coffee cup, a vacation memory, or something you love from any time in your life.
I’ve had days where the thing I’m grateful for is that it’s the end of the day! Or that I LOVE the pen I’m writing with (because, let’s face it, I’m very picky about the pens I use).
Start today. I’d love it if you committed to this practice for three weeks – just 21 days – and take stock of your emotional state and energy level. Better?
Source of some information in this blog post found here at UC Berkeley.
