How to practice GRATITUDE
“it’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes up joyful.” – jesuit priest.
Ashley Neese, well known breathwork teacher and author sums it up beautifully in her book, How to Breathe. “Gratitude in it’s most essential form is the quality of being thankful and a willingness to express appreciation.”
A gratitude practice is something you can do regardless of your size, shape or fitness level and to me is one of the foundations of a life lived in High Health. Gratitude is one of the quickest and most effective practices for turning your day around and one that I have found myself reaching for more and more for some perspective.
Whilst it can seem cliched and is often overlooked due to its simplicity, practicing gratitude has the ability to transform your day in minutes and impact your physical, emotional and social wellbeing.
We have a tendency as humans to live our lives in pursuit of an ideal, seeking upgraded versions of ourselves, different relationships with our partners, new shoes, more money, promotions or any number of other desires and whilst there is nothing wrong with any of these pursuits, we can be left in a mentality of lack, believing we are not enough or do not ‘have enough’ as we are.
So how do we find a healthy balance, when many of us are driven by the desire of something more and who is to say we will appreciate it when we get there, if we don’t stop to appreciate what we have now?
Our experience of life and how we view it, has to do with our very human tendency toward something called a ‘confirmation bias’.
Essentially, we pay attention to the information that confirms or supports our existing beliefs and values and ignore what doesn’t. Our confirmation biases impact both how we gather information and influence how we interpret and recall it. It’s why we tend toward people that confirm what we believe to be true. For example, if we want to complain, we seek out complainers, if we want to cultivate happiness, we often know who to turn too, (they’re usually not the same people!).
what you appreciate, appreciates.
When you focus on things to be thankful for and then see the effects of your gratitude, your brain automatically looks for more things to be grateful for. (“That felt good, I want more!”) This is hijacking your brain’s natural tendency toward confirmation bias to your advantage.
Interestingly studies have found that higher levels of gratitude are associated with lower anxiety and depression.
Gratitude reminds us to bring to mind everyday things that we may otherwise take for granted.
The practice itself is simple, write it, REPEAT it internally, or say it out loud.
I am grateful for ___
ways to practice
Start and end your day with 3-5 things you are grateful for when wake up and/or go to bed at night.
Keep a gratitude journal and write down 10 things you are grateful for every day.
Stop yourself throughout the day, particularly when you’re stuck in a negative loop and think about something you are truly grateful for.
Your mind is unable to be in both a sate of lack and a state of gratitude at the same time so focusing on the positive shifts your mind from the negative.
elevate your practice
The 5 minute journal app has great prompts for capturing your daily gratitude’s, including a photo of the day making it visually appealing too.
Biet Simkin in her book, Don’t just sit there, offers a practice of writing 25 things you are grateful for a period of 21 days to really up the anti.
Write someone a note with something you are grateful for about them and change someone else’s day.
“We enter this world on an inhale and we leave it on an exhale. Every breath between those two is a gift.”
More if you want it.
Brené Brown on Joy and Gratitude. link here