Living a life of gratitude can bring about a lot of positive changes in your life and help you notice things like the sun shining, someone giving you a compliment, or the experience of having a cozy evening with your family. Once you add gratitude to your daily routine, you will improve your well-being. You’re mental and physical health changes for the best, enabling you to intentionally notice joy and happiness in everything that you experience.
So, how does gratitude change your mind, body and soul?
The gratitude regions relate to the part of the brain that controls heart rate. Feeling grateful helps you relieve stress because you start experiencing more life satisfaction. By intentionally choosing not to give attention to toxic emotions, gratitude makes you feel better and experience fewer ailments because of a stronger immune system. Individuals who are mentally healthy have a higher likelihood to take care of their overall health more than others. Mentally healthy individuals usually participate in more physical activities such as various sports or attend a gym to contribute to their physical well-being.
Once you add gratitude to your daily routine, you will improve your well-being.
The best way to reap the benefits of gratitude is to find things you’re grateful for every day. You can think or write to yourself, “I’m grateful for my family” or “I am grateful for my health” week after week, but what do you truly mean?
Be specific about what you are genuinely thankful for. “I am grateful for the person who held the door open for me today,” “I am thankful my car starting this morning,”. Make it a practice to notice new things each day. Gratitude allows us to participate more in life. When we notice the positives more, that magnifies the pleasures you get from life. Instead of adapting to goodness, we celebrate goodness. We spend so much time watching things—movies, computer screens, sports—but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives.
Gratitude goes against our need to feel in control of our environment. With intentionally practicing increased gratitude, it will cause you to accept life as it is and be grateful for what you have. Here are some self care ideas to support implementation of increased gratitude in your daily life.
- Start by thinking about gratitude daily: Take some time every day, a few moments, to reflect on what you’re grateful for.
- Keep a gratitude journal: Reflect on three to five positive things that happened to you each day, or parts of your life that you’re grateful for, and write them down.
- Tell people thank you, verbally or in writing: Intentionally increase your verbalization or physical expression of gratitude.
How do you show gratitude to others?
Showing gratitude to others not only important to your own self-esteem but also improves the relationships in your life. As we evaluate the partnerships we should consider the importance of each of them & reciprocate positive energy to them. This shows that we not only value them but we continue to nurture and build a stronger bond with one another. Some ways to show gratitude to others are:
- Giving genuine complements
- Doing something kind for someone
- Provide encouragement
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References
- https://andthenwesaved.com/34-ways-to-show-gratitude/
By: Anna Newell Jones - https://tinybuddha.com/blog/50-ways-to-show-gratitude-for-the-people-in-your-life/
By Lori Deschene - https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/showing-your-gratitude
By Abby Moore - https://liveyourlegend.net/29-ways-to-show-unique-gratitude-and-other-random-acts-of-kindness/
- https://www.metrofamilymagazine.com/gratitude-in-action-30-ways-to-give-thanks/
By: Heidi Smith Luedtke - https://www.self.com/sponsored/story/6-small-but-impactful-ways-to-show-your-partner-more-appreciation
By: Annie Daly - https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
