The power of gratitude
My dad always used to say to me “count your blessings” and this phrase has always stuck with me.
However, only many years later did I really grasp the concept of counting your blessings when I started going on my own personal development journey and when I learned all about the power and the positive effects of gratitude.
Gratitude is not just about good manners like saying thank you, it’s about thinking about what you are grateful for in your life, about what is going right in your life. And really feeling this. Really feeling thankful because when we feel thankful it’s impossible to not feel good.
When you start feeling grateful a mind shift starts to happen.
We as humans are programmed in such a way that we focus on the negative.
This stems back to our reptilian brain which tried to keep us safe from predators, so we were always on the lookout for danger.
So naturally you will think about everything that going wrong in your life. He said that, she didn’t do this but she promised she would, I didn’t get the job offer, my boss is annoying, I want to find another job but I don’t know what, I feel stuck, and so the list goes on and on…
When we are not careful about where our mind wonders of to, we can get into a very negative thinking spiral. You can probably think back to a day where just everything went wrong, and you were thinking “what is going on today, nothing seems to be working out, why me, why is all the bad stuff always happening to me, why is everyone else so happy and lucky? Life is unfair…”
Especially when we are unhappy in our job it’s important to practice gratitude. When you are unhappy in your job it will cause a ripple effect on everything else in your life. Chances are high that you are snappy at your husband, you are too tired to play with your kids, you have not seen your friends in ages because you are too tired to leave the house, and instead of going to the gym you open a bag of Dorito’s and a bottle of wine, and you watch Netflix all night.
Especially in these times you need to remind yourself to practise gratitude to shift the focus from the negative to the positive. You need to shift your focus to get yourself out of this negative space.
I love this quite: “Where your attention goes energy flows and what you put your energy into expands.”
When you focus more on the positive you start to think differently, when you think differently you feel better, when you feel better you act differently. Whatever life throws at you, you can handle it better, and just like that you create a whole new reality for yourself.
When you are having a good day, how do you feel? How do you behave? Chances are high that you feel so good you want to pour it onto others, you are more helpful, maybe you donate some money, maybe you feel super confident, and you go apply for that job.
When we are not careful about where our mind wonders of to, we can get into a very negative thinking spiral. You can probably think back to a day where just everything went wrong, and you were thinking “what is going on today, nothing seems to be working out, why me, why is all the bad stuff always happening to me, why is everyone else so happy and lucky? Life is unfair…”
Especially when we are unhappy in our job it’s important to practice gratitude. When you are unhappy in your job it will cause a ripple effect on everything else in your life. Chances are high that you are snappy at your husband, you are too tired to play with your kids, you have not seen your friends in ages because you are too tired to leave the house, and instead of going to the gym you open a bag of Dorito’s and a bottle of wine, and you watch Netflix all night.
Especially in these times you need to remind yourself to practise gratitude to shift the focus from the negative to the positive. You need to shift your focus to get yourself out of this negative space.
I love this quite: “Where your attention goes energy flows and what you put your energy into expands.”
When you focus more on the positive you start to think differently, when you think differently you feel better, when you feel better you act differently. Whatever life throws at you, you can handle it better, and just like that you create a whole new reality for yourself.
When you are having a good day, how do you feel? How do you behave? Chances are high that you feel so good you want to pour it onto others, you are more helpful, maybe you donate some money, maybe you feel super confident, and you go apply for that job.
By shifting the focus from the negative to the positive you think differently, you feel differently, and you act differently.
When you feel grateful you release serotonin and dopamine chemicals in the brain that is associated with happiness and pleasure. Neurons that fire together wire together creating new thinking pathways in the brain. Therefore, you can recreate yourself through your thinking. This is called neuroplasticity.
According to scientific research, practising gratitude has the following benefits:
- It increases happiness and reduces depression.
- It helps you sleep better.
- It improves your self-esteem.
- It helps you to stop comparing your life to others because you are grateful for what you have.
- It reduces stress.
So how do we practice gratitude?
You can do this by writing in a gratitude journal 3 things that you are grateful for, and you can do this every morning when you wake up or every night before you go to bed.
Here are a few questions that can help you get started with your journal:
- What were some pleasant things you experienced today?
- Were there moments that made you smile or laugh or boosted your mood?
- Who did you enjoy spending time with and why?
You don’t need to have a fancy journal you can just buy any journal that you can write in.
If you don’t want to journal, then write it down in your notes on your phone or just say it to yourself when you lie in bed at night or when you are alone driving in your car on your way to work.
Whenever you’re feeling down, and you catch yourself going down the negative spiral start thinking about what you are grateful for.
The things that you are grateful for don’t need to be huge things.
You can for example be grateful for your morning coffee.
Gratitude is like a muscle that you can build, it’s like going to the gym, you need to make it a habit and part of your routine for you to see lasting changes.
Instead of waiting for that promotion or winning the lottery to feel that rush of gratitude and joy start to bring this feeling into your everyday life by practicing gratitude.