Gratitude is for life, not just for Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving today in the USA and although I’m not American and I don’t live there, I’ve had the pleasure of spending Thanksgivings in the US more than once. I love the sentiment of a day focused on spending time with friends and family and appreciating what you have in your life.
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, it’s a great opportunity to consider why - and how - to bring some more gratitude to your life all year round. Gratitude is simply a state of thankfulness or a state of being grateful, and it’s something you can choose for yourself at any time.
Here are a few things I’ve learned about gratitude over the years:
Gratitude alleviates stress. You can’t feel stressed and grateful at the same time. Choosing to feel grateful may reduce levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Gratitude changes your heart waves. When you feel sincere appreciation for something, you can improve your heart rhythm coherence which has profound positive effects on your cardiovascular system and overall health. And since your heart’s electromagnetic field is strong enough to be measured several feet away, your gratitude has a positive affect on others around you.
Gratitude provides a hit of serotonin and dopamine. These crucial neurotransmitters boost our mood instantly and make us feel happy from the inside.
Gratitude improves health. Researchers have established an overwhelming connection between gratitude and good health, including an improvement in the quality of sleep. It’s positively correlated to more vitality, energy, and enthusiasm to work harder.
It feels great to start or end your day with gratitude. Sometimes I start workshops asking people to share what they’re grateful for, and participants tell me this is a powerful and calming exercise. I often end the day with my partner and I sharing three things we’re grateful for - the more specific, the better.
Whether you’re grateful for something as big as the new job offer you just received, or as small as the cute dog you saw this morning, turning your attention to things you’re grateful for makes you pause in your day and shift your focus. No matter how bad your day is, challenge yourself to find something to be grateful for. The clothes you’re wearing. The roof over your head. All the phenomenal things your body does to keep you alive, without you even having to ask.
You can be grateful for what you have, and still desire more for yourself. Sometimes people tell me they realise how fortunate they are compared to many others, so they don’t feel they should want anything more in their lives. There is no limit on what’s available for you, and there’s nothing to stop you seeking even bigger and better things. Be deeply appreciative of what you have, regularly acknowledge and be grateful for it, and give yourself to permission to still desire more in your life.
Prompt yourself to think “I’m grateful this is happening because…” When things go wrong it’s easy to catastrophise and focus on the bad stuff. But every moment is an opportunity to learn, and you can use this to re-frame your experience of a situation. Imagine that everything is happening for your benefit, and ask yourself what you can appreciate about the situation. Use the prompt “I’m grateful this is happening because...”
Recently I used this technique with a client who had been pulled up by her boss for not delivering a piece of work. She was upset and had started to tell herself that it meant she was no good at her job. When I asked her to tell me why she was grateful the situation had occurred, she quickly realised she had learned more about her boss’s expectations and style, and learned that she needed to communicate more with him about her workload and priorities. She realised she was grateful that it had happened over something quite minor, as it would prevent a similar situation happening again in future. Focusing on what she was grateful for in that situation completely changed her experience (and her stress) and allowed her to gain new insights.
There are lots of ways to bring gratitude to your life each day. Here are some ideas: Write a gratitude letter to someone. Write a gratitude letter to yourself. Start or end the day saying three things you’re grateful for. Go for a walk in nature and marvel and be grateful for what you see around you. Learn about your unconscious body processes (breathing, your heart beat, your liver function, your immune system etc) and reflect on how incredible your body is, then thank it. Say a sincere thanks to someone and appreciate what they have done. Start a gratitude journal. At any point, pause and be grateful for everything you have in that moment.
Do you already practice gratitude, or are you committed to bringing more gratitude in your life? I’d love to hear your ideas and practices.
And of course, thank you for reading. I really appreciate your time.