by Jannel Thomas, LCMFT
Wednesday, November 27th, 2024
Around this time of year many people begin to speak of giving thanks. Gratitude, the quality of being thankful, is an awesome concept to practice for many reasons. Practicing gratitude has been associated with great effects including lowered stress levels, improved emotional well-being, improved physical health, strengthened relationships, increased resilience, improved sleep, and overall general life happiness. Here are a few tips to help foster gratitude this season:
- Find Gratitude During Difficult Times – Life, even during the holiday season, can come with rough patches. When experiencing hardship, it can be really easy to lean into negative thinking. Practicing gratitude can help you find light during dark times. While gratitude will not automatically solve your negative feelings or make them disappear, it will create space for both negative and positive feelings to exist. This can create a favorable shift in your emotional energy.
- Daily Reflection – Set aside time every day to take a few moments to identify things you are grateful for. Whether it’s something small such as a beautiful sunset or something larger such as being able to pay a bill. Journaling or writing down what you are grateful for can also be a helpful tool. It gives you the opportunity to reflect back on what you were grateful for during different times of your life. Additionally, it can be helpful to reference if you ever begin to struggle with practicing gratitude.
- Practice Gratitude with Others – When was the last time you did a random act of kindness? Or the last time you told your partner thank you? Take the time to tell someone in your life how thankful you are for something specific that they have done recently or even just for who they are in general. In doing so, you create a moment of happiness that could brighten a random person’s day and/or strengthen the relationships with people in your life who are important to you. This can result in you feeling positive emotions while also building better, stronger relationships.Let’s use these tips to lean into the season of gratitude. By practicing gratitude daily, you can cultivate a mindset that will be helpful throughout life and not just during this holiday season. So take the time to feel and express gratitude. Be intentional. The positive impact that it will have on not only your life, but others is well worth it.
