Practicing Gratitude

Practicing gratitude is one of the most important things that you can do to improve your mood. It is just about impossible to feel gratitude and depression at the same time, as they are polar opposites. Practicing it can be a total game changer in your outlook and mood. It has been shown to improve one’s immune system, help with sleep, and a decrease in loneliness.

You might wonder how to feel gratitude. You don’t need to feel happy to feel grateful; it’s more about being thankful and appreciative.

How to practice gratitude

Think of something that you are thankful for. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but it can if you’d like. Maybe you don’t think you have anything to be grateful for. This can be something as simple as you are grateful that your partner takes out the trash, that you have someone to cook you a hot meal, etc. Perhaps someone held the door open for you, or let you cut in when there was a lot of traffic. If you look for these examples in your day, you will find them. It’s about training your brain to be an observer during the day.

Now that you have thought of the incident, notice the feeling that came up. Where do you feel it in your body? Do you notice a warming sensation? Notice what it does to your mood. Sit with these feelings and truly feel them. Instead of ruminating on the bad, focus on the good.

I don’t know about you, but when someone lets me cut in during heavy traffic, I am very grateful. Someone actually put me before himself or herself. That doesn’t happen every day. On the flip side, how do you feel if you let someone else cut in, and they indicate that they are thankful. That feels good too. We can feel grateful, that someone else was grateful to us.

Research on practicing gratitude

A study by Brown and Wong show that gratitude has mental health benefits. They conducted a study on 300 college students seeking mental health counseling. One group received counseling, the second group was told to write one letter of gratitude per week, the third group was told to write about negative thoughts and experiences for 3 weeks.

Those practicing gratitude had greater benefits than just counseling alone, up to 12 weeks after the study. Brown and Wong’s findings show 4 benefits of practicing gratitude.

Gratitude lets go of toxic emotions

The benefit appears to come from the lack of negative words in writing. When we express gratitude there is no focus on negative words. It is very difficult to ruminate on toxicity when you are expressing gratitude.

You don’t have to share gratitude to get the benefits

In the research study, only about 1/3 of the people actually sent the letters they wrote. They did not find any significant difference in mental health benefits between those who sent the letter and those who didn’t.

The benefits of practicing gratitude occur over time

It appears that the mental health benefits were not evident right away. They were greater after 4 weeks of expressing it. Then even more so after 12 weeks.

Gratitude has lasting impact on the brain

Brain scans of those who expressed gratitude were different than those who did not.

Ideas for practicing gratitude

Gratitude journal

We mentioned writing letters of gratitude to people earlier in the blog. You can write these letters in your own journal.

Another idea is to just list 3 things you are grateful for. These can be very simple things, as the big things don’t occur all that often. It can be that you are grateful for your health, that you have food and shelter, and your family. Do this on a daily basis as the results may be cumulative.

Gratitude wall

I have heard of clients pasting sticky notes of their gratitude on a wall or around their desk. If you are really creative you may want to draw a tree on your wall, get leaf shaped sticky notes and add the leaves to your tree. When you are feeling down, you can go to your wall as a way to lift your mood.

Expressing gratitude as a family

Gratitude is good for all of us. Why not practice it at the dinner table when you are all together? It’s a wonderful way to bond as a family.

These are a few ideas. I’m sure you are creative and can think of other ideas. If you suffer from anxiety or depression, practicing gratitude can be a game changer. In addition there are many other tools I can teach you. Please give me a call at 713-304-6554.

Take care,

Debbie