I was inspired to write today about gratitude, as a result of meeting a wonderful lady called Karen Dwyer. Yesterday I attended the launch of Karen’s Gratitude journal. Karen created this journal to encourage people to practice gratitude on a daily basis. Karen believes that her miraculous recovery from M.S. is partly down to her daily practice of gratitude. Karen took full responsibility for her health when she decided the medication she was on was having a more negative impact on her life than the M.S. itself. As a result she made some changes to her life which included the introduction of a daily gratitude practice.
What about you? Is gratitude something you do on a regular basis? Do you look at your life and feel grateful for what you have or do you feel more like a victim, are you often frustrated, unhappy or disappointed with yourself and your life?
Why bother?
In recent years many studies have been carried out on gratitude and its impact on our happiness and well being. It seems apparent that it is difficult to feel sorry for yourself or feel down if you are actually feeling thankful for something that you have in your life.
In one study done by Dr Robert A. Emmons from the University of California and Dr Michael E. McCullough from the University of Miami they asked participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics. One group had to write down what they were grateful for during the week and the second group wrote about daily irritations. A third group wrote about events that had affected them with neither focusing on positive or negative events. After ten weeks of this practise those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. This group also started to exercise more and visited the doctor less.
Dr Martin Seligman a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, widely known as
father of positive psychology included gratitude in one of his studies on positive psychology interventions. A group of people’s week’s assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. This impact was greater than that from any other intervention, with benefits lasting for a month.
In Karen’s case a couple of minutes a day contributed to her turning her life around.
She suggests a morning practice upon waking. Practicing gratitude at this time of the day can help to increase your mood right throughout the day.
I started to practise gratitude a couple of years ago and I noticed a big shift in the way that I felt. Bad days weren’t so bad when I remembered to be thankful. But I didn’t’ have a practice of gratitude. There are times in life that feeling grateful feels natural, your wedding day, the birth of a child or perhaps a good deed that creates a nice sense of well being, but feeling gratitude when things are not so perfect, when you are experiencing the hum drum of life isn’t such an easy thing. This is why having a daily practise can be so much more powerful, doing it every morning will keep it fresh in your mind and encourage you to do it right throughout the day. This is something we could all do with our children, at breakfast or at dinner ask them what they are grateful for or check out this article for 16 more ways you can encourage your child to be grateful
What to do?
Create a habit of gratitude, you can get one of Karen’s journals here but this also can be done in a simple notebook. Write down a list of the things you are grateful for. Your sight, your strength, your family and friends not forgetting the things we often take for granted like our freedom to choose what we want. The feeling of the sun’s rays on your skin or the privilege to breathe fresh air. A squirrel, a bird, a flower all the simple things that can bring us joy. Be thankful for the heating that turns on simply by pressing a button or the light that allows us to read into the night.
Today I am grateful for my niece who brought me my favourite flowers for my new house, I am grateful for the seat I got on the train on the way to work and I am grateful that my battery lasted until I finished writing this post! I am also grateful for you, my reader who has taken the time to read this post and I wish you more happiness through the act of gratitude.
The more you practise the habit of writing down the things you are grateful for you will find yourself noticing more good things during the day, you will begin to notice how lucky and privileged your are and how a lot of your problems are insignificant in the bigger picture of life. There are many ways you can practice gratitude throughout the day, mindfulness, small acts of recognition and kindness, or check out some more habits of grateful people from the Huffington Post
Being grateful will change your life and touch the lives of those around you and the fantastic thing about this new habit, it will only take you a couple of minutes each day.
So go ahead and pick up your copy of MyGratitudeAttitudejournal.com and start to give thanks for all that is good.
