An Attitude of Gratitude
It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of everyday life and the hardships you might feel on a day to day basis. Whether it is work stress, family stress or relationship stress, it is easy for issues in these areas to get you down. We get caught up in all the problems we feel we have, or we get caught up in everything we don’t have, but think we need, to make us happy. We often forget about all the good things in our life, the things that we’ve got going for us.
The concept of gratitude has been around for centuries. Religious groups have long followed gratitude practices, such as being grateful for food on the table. However, in recent times the concept of gratitude has become very popular as a means of improving our mood. Practicing gratitude has the potential to affect our health, thought processes and behaviour. Because when we feel thankful for something, it helps to shift our perspective from one that is negative, to positive. This can have the effect of helping us feel better almost instantly, or at least help us to be a little bit more optimistic about the situation at hand. Stop and think for a minute, are you a glass half empty sort of person, or glass half full? Your attitude or perspective is critical to your mental health status.
I don’t have everything I love, but I love everything I have.
The practice of gratitude is the first step towards cultivating good mental health. Some of the best and easiest things to be grateful for come from our everyday life – the things that we often overlook and take for granted. Being grateful for the clothes on your back, the sunshine outside, your family and friends, the green trees around you or the time to sit down and read a good book. For most of us, there is so much to be grateful for in our daily life, that we aren’t even aware of. So no matter where you are or what is happening, if you can start by finding something in your life to be grateful for, this is the first step to helping yourself feel better.
The power of gratitude comes from finding joy in everyday life.
Developing and maintaining an attitude of gratitude can take time and be hard work to start with. Because like any habit, it can take time to form, and it can take time to get rid of our old ways of thinking, that might have been a little unhealthy. It is for this reason that it is recommended to find some way of practicing gratitude on a daily basis. As with many things in life, if you only do it on the odd occasion, you won’t benefit from it. Gratitude dairies have become very popular as an easy means of engaging in daily gratitude practice – writing down 3 things to be grateful for everyday is a common one. Other daily methods of practicing gratitude include discussion at the dinner table or doing a formal gratitude relaxation exercise.
Practicing gratitude daily is a great way for this way of thinking to become part of who you who are.
Next time something goes wrong, or you feel a little down, try and find one good thing about your life or circumstances, and hopefully this will help you feel a bit brighter in that moment.