Tag Archives: Gratitude

Gratitude is important

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“You can’t feel envious and grateful at the same time. They’re incompatible feelings, because if you’re grateful, you can’t resent someone for owning things you don’t.” ~ Dr. Robert Emmons 

Gratitude is important because when you express gratitude, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin — two hormones that make you feel lighter and happier inside.

Have you ever noticed that when you are looking to buy a new phone or a jacket all of a sudden everyone around you has it? That’s because, consciously or unconsciously, whatever we are focused on is what we see. If we want to trigger gratitude in ourselves, we need to intentionally shift our focus to that which we are grateful for.

You experience gratitude when you shift your focus from what you don’t have to what you do, and when you take time to appreciate and be thankful for those who have contributed to the abundance in your life.

Nearly a decade of research by Dr. Robert Emmons — the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude — and others has found that people who have regular gratitude practices are healthier, happier, and have better relationships.

Further research suggests that gratitude is also key in helping individuals and teams persevere in challenging tasks.

Soutce:  https://hbr.org/2020/10/use-gratitude-to-counter-stress-and-uncertainty

Gratitude: A Super Power

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“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity … it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melody Beattie

There are many definitions of gratitude, but experiencing gratitude at its fundamental level requires a conscious effort. It’s about expressing and saying ‘thank you’ while actually feeling thankful.

Gratitude is a conscious, positive emotion one can express when feeling thankful for something or someone, whether tangible or intangible. It’s about acknowledging and being consciously thankful for the many large and small blessings life brings everyday

Gratitude requires acknowledging someone else’s gesture towards us or the things that are going well in our lives. It involves both a process of recognition of the positive and its outcome.

Research suggest that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. Notably, it’s impossible to feel grateful and stressed at the same time, writes Dr. Jason N. Linder, Psy.D., LMFT, a licensed bilingual (Spanish-speaking) therapist specializing in relationship, trauma, addiction-related, and mindfulness therapies. “This is a basic principle in psychology called “Reciprocal Inhibition”; we can’t feel two contradicting states at once. And the best part about gratitude is that it’s easy to access in little time,” he explains.

Moreover, research has found that gratitude changes our brains and those who practice gratitude tend to have more brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area associated with learning and decision making.

Gratitude can overpower negative emotions. It boosts positive emotions like joy and compassion while encouraging us to look for and connect with what’s pleasing and good in life.

In general, gratitude is a simple tool we all have at our disposal to improve our own psychological well-being and that of others.

Five ways to practice gratitude

Like any skill, gratitude can be learned and strengthened. Here are some tips on how to practice gratitude.

  1. Each day, think of three things you’re thankful for. Make it a daily habit to visualize what’s good in your life.
  2. Start a gratitude journal. Journaling can be an excellent self-therapy technique. When you write, you use different parts of your brain and access memories and emotions from a new perspective. A gratitude journal has been proven to activate brain areas that are related to morality and positive emotions.
  3. Thank someone new every week.There are many people around us, and we are all connected somehow. You must take the time to express gratitude more consciously or thoughtfully. Give yourself the purpose of choosing someone new each week and learn how to express gratitude differently.
  4. Be mindful. When it comes to gratitude, mindfulnesses allow us to focus on the good and to be present in the moment. We can also take the moment to imagine a specific situation we are grateful for and let the feeling grow and be stronger. Mindfulness practices emphasizing gratitude can help us stay in touch with all we have to be grateful for. 
  5. Focus more on others’ intentions.When you receive a gift or a gracious gesture from someone, consider how they intended to bring good into your life. Take a moment to visualize their wiliness to help you, make you feel happy, or be there for you in a challenging moment.

To have people who care about you and that you care for; to have your health, even partially; and, to have interests and the ability to pursue them, even sporadically; are reasons to be fortunate, blessed and grateful. ~ Dr. Jason N. Linder, Psy.D., LMFT

References:

  1. https://www.betterup.com/blog/gratitude-definition-how-to-practice
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mindfulness-insights/201906/mindfulness-and-gratitude

Gratitude 101

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“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance” — Eckhart Tolle

Gratitude is being thankful for what you receive in life. Not just tangible ‘things’ but also feelings, experiences, interactions, anything at all, from big, life-changing things, through to the smallest and most subtle, like awakening each morning.

Thus, the first step to expressing gratitude is to fully understand what it means and it’s definition. Robert Emmons, a professor at UC Davis and leading expert in gratitude has a comprehensive, two-part definition of gratitude:

  1. Gratitude is an affirmation of goodness. By expressing gratitude, we acknowledge that there are good things in the world and that we’ve received its gifts and benefits. It’s important to note that gratitude doesn’t ignore the bad things and hassles of life, but rather encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life.
  2. Gratitude involves figuring out where that goodness comes from. Expressing gratitude often reveals that many sources of goodness are outside of ourselves. We can still be proud of our traits and what we accomplish, but Dr. Emmons believes that true gratitude involves a humble dependence on others. By this he means that we acknowledge that other people’or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset’help us achieve the goodness in our lives.

Expressing gratitude may seem like a light and fluffy practice, but it has significant and measurable benefits. In one study executed by Dr. Emmons, two groups of people were asked to keep a weekly journal. One group filled it with expressions of gratitude. The other wrote about the stressors or neutral events of their lives. The results: those who kept a gratitude journal exercised more regularly, had fewer physical ailments, and felt better and more optimistic about their lives.

The benefits of gratitude are:

Wellbeing – Gratitude has been shown to improve optimism, happiness, alertness and attentiveness, enthusiasm, progress towards goals, and energy levels. It has also been associated with fewer depressive symptoms, reduced stress, being more patient and thus, making better long-term decisions.

Relationships – Gratitude has also been linked with better prosocial interactions. Basically, it’s great for all your relationships.

Health – Gratitude has also been linked to better overall physical health, and specifically improved sleep, increased exercise, and reduced blood pressure.

“When you go deeply into the present, gratitude arises spontaneously, even if it’s just gratitude for breathing, gratitude for the aliveness that you feel in your body. Gratitude is there when you acknowledge the aliveness of the present moment.” — Eckhart Tolle

Gratitude research has found:

  • Daily discussions of gratitude results in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy and sleep duration and quality.
  • Gratitude is a relationship-strengthening emotion because it requires us to see how we support and affirmation from others.
  • People who rank higher on gratitude scales are less likely to retaliate against others and experience more sensitivity and empathy towards other people.
  • Writing in a gratitude journal improves sleep.
  • Gratitude reduces social comparisons and increases self-esteem.

There is significant evidence on positive benefits of gratitude  – health, wellbeing, and relationships — and the benefits are shown over time,

References:

  1. https://www.wespire.com/gratitude-101-what-is-it-and-why-do-i-need-it/
  2. https://www.flowwithelise.com/gratitude-101-everything-you-need-to-know-about-a-gratitude-practice-including-a-gratitude-quiz/

Be Grateful Always

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“The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy….We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God’s love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation.” ~ Mother Teresa

Simply put, gratitude is both a mindset and a habit. It’s a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation, regardless of whether or not your current situation is to your liking.

Gratitude is a heart-centered approach to being at peace with yourself and with all you have. When you practice this feeling of gratitude, it attracts even MORE things into your life for which to be grateful.

Mother Teresa is credited with saying, “Gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.” In short, be grateful and joyful always, in both the good times and bad times

Gratitude makes us humble and elevates us to a higher way of living at the same time, writes Jack Canfield. In all of the stages, ebbs, and flows of our lives, we can be grateful for the life we are living.

We’re either living our best life or preparing to.

To increase your gratitude and attract more abundance to your life, focus on being grateful always.

The best way to activate your gratitude is by acknowledging the gifts most people take for granted, explains Canfield. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population.

If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the 1 billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most.

Do you have a phone?  How about a car that allows you to travel to work or to explore the country? Is your family healthy? Do you have a computer and Internet access to stay in touch with the world, get access to education, and perform work for which you are paid? Do you have clean water to drink?

Celebrate these simple blessings. These daily conveniences are gifts that most people across the world do not enjoy.

a short story about gratitude.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…

References:

  1. https://jackcanfield.com/blog/6-daily-gratitude-habits-that-will-attract-more-abundance-and-joy-into-your-life/
  2. https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/short-lesson-gratitude/

Gratitude Is An “Affirmation of Goodness”

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“Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.” ~ Robert Emmons

Gratitude is more than just a overused feel-good buzzword. In fact, gratitude is a surprisingly powerful force. It’s an attitude and practice shown to improve your mental, physical, and emotional health.

Gratitude is often defined as the expression of a deep appreciation for something or someone that is given freely without expecting anything in return.

Showing appreciation and gratitude for the things and people in your lives can help you adapt to change, cope with difficulties, increase your business success, regulate your emotions and improve your mental and physical well-being.

According to Robert Emmons, psychology professor and one of the leading scientific experts on gratitude at the University of California, Davis, gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.

“This doesn’t mean that life is perfect,” Emmons says, “it doesn’t ignore complaints, burdens, and hassles. But when we look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life.”

And identifying this goodness has a big impact on our brains, bodies and well-being. Studies show that people who practice gratitude experience more positive emotions, improve their physical health, build stronger relationships, and better deal with adversity.

The Effects of Practicing Gratitude

1 | Gratitude Boosts Positive Emotions

Gratitude can help you experience more positive emotions. When we practice appreciation for the people, things, or experiences around us, we become more present and engaged with life and the joys and pleasures it has to offer. Gratitude interrupts the mental cycle of negativity bias helping to decrease anxiety and depression and shift your mindset towards more ease. With consistent practice, this positive mindset becomes a new habit, helping you experience more of the “good stuff”.

2 | Gratitude is Good For Your Body

Gratitude can improve not only your mental health but your physical health as well. Studies have shown the practicing gratitude can lead to lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, and better sleep. People that practice gratitude are also reported to experience less aches and pains and seem to take better care of themselves with more regular exercise and check-ups at the doctor.

3 | Gratitude Improves Relationships (not just romantic ones)

Research shows that practicing gratitude can make our romantic relationships more satisfying, help us feel more invested in our friendships, and lead us to be more helpful coworkers. Beyond just feeling more positive about one another, gratitude helps us feel more comfortable expressing concerns about the relationship and motivates us to work harder and show up more fully in our relationships and jobs.

4 | Gratitude Makes Us More Resilient

Grateful people are more resilient when stressed. Studies show that a grateful disposition can help a person recover more quickly in the face of serious adversity and suffering. Given the physical, emotional and relational benefits described above, it doesn’t come as a surprise that people who practice gratitude feel more able to deal with the challenges they face. Staying connected to the resources in and around us helps guard against the anxiety of life’s stressors.

How to Actually Feel Grateful (and shift towards a gratitude mindset)

Whether you are a naturally grateful person or you find yourself more on the pessimistic side, a gratitude mindset is a skill we can all develop. The benefits of gratitude build up over time, so finding small and easy practices that you can commit to each day is the best way to feel the effects in your life. 

Start actively tuning into the positive events in your life and anything that make you feel good. Try one (or more!) of these tips today:

  1. Get into a habit of writing down three things you’re grateful for daily.
  2. Text/tell a loved one why you appreciate them. Bonus: It’ll probably make their day too.
  3. As you fall asleep or in quiet moments, make a mental gratitude list starting with each letter of the alphabet.
  4. Start a daily gratitude journal.
  5. Visualize something you love (a person, place, pet or object) and let your imagination bring it to life. Let yourself fill up with warmth. 

Bottomline, Gratitude Is An “Affirmation of Goodness”

References:

  1. https://www.calm.com/blog/why-gratitude-is-good-for-your-mental-healthhttps://www.calm.com/blog/why-gratitude-is-good-for-your-mental-health
  2. https://www.mindful.org/an-introduction-to-mindful-gratitude/

💙

Practicing Gratitude

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Practicing gratitude has incredible effects, from improving our mental health to boosting our relationships with others.

Practicing gratitude can have far reaching life-enhancing effects, from improving your mental health to boosting your relationships with family members and friends.

Living your life with gratitude helps you notice the little wins—like the bus showing up right on time, a stranger holding the door for you, or the sun shining through your window when you wake up in the morning.

Each of these small moments strings together to create a web of well-being that, over time, strengthens your ability to better notice the peace, joy and good in life.

Building your capacity for gratitude isn’t difficult. It just takes practice. The more you can bring your attention to that which you feel grateful for, the more you’ll notice to feel grateful for!

1. Start by observing. Notice the thank yous you say. Just how much of a habitual response is it? Is it a hasty aside, an afterthought? How are you feeling when you express thanks in small transactions? Stressed, uptight, a little absent-minded? Do a quick scan of your body—are you already physically moving on to your next interaction?

2. Pick one interaction a day. When your instinct to say “thanks” arises, stop for a moment and take note. Can you name what you feel grateful for, even beyond the gesture that’s been extended? Then say thank you.

Robert Emmons, psychology professor and gratitude researcher at the University of California, Davis, explains that there are two key components of practicing gratitude:

  1. We affirm the good things we’ve received
  2. We acknowledge the role other people play in providing our lives with goodness

Research has linked gratitude with a wide range of health, mental and emotional benefits, including strengthening your immune system and improving sleep patterns, feeling optimistic and experiencing more joy and pleasure, being more helpful and generous, and feeling less lonely and isolated.

“Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.” ~ Robert Emmons

References:

  1. https://www.mindful.org/an-introduction-to-mindful-gratitude/

Gratitude

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“I have every possession I want. I have a lot of friends who have a lot more possessions. But in some cases, I feel the possession possesses them, rather than the other way around.” ~ Warren Buffett

Never allow all the things you selfishly covet or you want make you forget about all the things you have or currently possess. Put a little gratitude in your life today and be thankful for all you already possess.

Moreover, happiness doesn’t mean everything is pleasing or perfect. Instead, happiness means that you can choose to see beyond the problems and imperfections, and embrace an attitude of gratitude.

The endless pursuit of hollow amenities and fruitless assets that barely add any value to your life are often so intoxicating that people loose sight of things that truly make them happy and bring them joy such as personal relationships, joy and peace in abundance.

“Sometimes you have to stop staring at your problems and start seeing how beautiful life really is.” ~ Anonymous

Don’t wait for great. Be Great everyday! Don’t allow a little negativity keep you from feeling grateful for everything that is going right and for everything that is good and pleasing in your life.

Gratitude must become a 24 hour / 365 day mindset, so that you don’t take what you have for granted.

Research shows that gratitude can:

  • Help you make friends. One study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek a more lasting relationship with you.
  • Improve your physical health. People who exhibit gratitude report fewer aches and pains, a general feeling of health, more regular exercise, and more frequent checkups with their doctor than those who don’t.
  • Improve your psychological health and emotional well-being. Grateful people enjoy higher wellbeing and happiness and suffer from reduced symptoms of depression.
  • Enhance empathy and reduces aggression. Those who show their gratitude are less likely to seek revenge against others and more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, with sensitivity and empathy.
  • Improve your sleep. Practicing gratitude regularly can help you sleep longer and better.
  • Enhance your self-esteem. People who are grateful have increased self-esteem, partly due to their ability to appreciate other peoples’ accomplishments.
  • Increase in mental strength. Grateful people have an advantage in overcoming trauma and enhanced resilience, helping them to bounce back from highly stressful situations.

References:

  1. https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-exercises/

May you have Peace, Joy and Patience in Abundance!

Have an Attitude of Gratitude

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“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough” – Oprah Winfrey

Life isn’t always butterflies and rainbows. Sometimes life can be difficult, complicated and messy.

And, you don’t have the power to always control all the external factors to be exactly how you may want them to be in your life. However, you can choose your thoughts, feelings and words. You can choose your response or reaction to those external factors.

You have a choice when it comes to your perspective and you can decide which mindset you choose to navigate your experiences through, one of lack (fixed) or one of abundance (abundance).

Choose an Attitude of Gratitude.

It’s imperative to find and focus on the good. And allow yourself to soak up all the abundance and wonder life has to offer. It’s so much more fun than complaining and being negative all the time.

Practicing gratitude: Remember to be thankful when you wake up in the morning!

Research shows that practicing and expressing gratitude is associated with improvements to one’s mental well-being, as well as decreased stress and anxiety. Additionally, success in life starts with acknowledging what you already have.

Many successful people share a similar daily ritual that helps them achieve short-term and long-term success: making a list of what they are grateful for.

“What we focus on, what we put our attention on really determines how we feel about that particular day or our life in general,” states Arianna Huffington.

A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who wrote about their gratitude over a period of time showed greater signs of emotional well-being compared to people who wrote about negative or neutral life events.

Practicing gratitude trains your brain to feel more positive emotions, appreciate good experiences, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships; all of which contribute to improved mental health.

“Gratitude is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more powerful it becomes. And being grateful doesn’t just make other people happy—it makes you happy, too! That’s because it focuses your attention on the positive things in your life, not the negative ones,” explains Oprah Winfrey.

When you begin to focus more on what really matters and choosing to see your reality from the lens of contentment. This allows you to eliminate unnecessary wants that could sabotage your vision and purpose. It might derail your pursuit of true happiness.

It may not feel natural at first to focus on appreciating what you already have, but by faithfully practicing the daily habits of gratitude, you’ll begin to change your conditioning and strengthen the gratitude muscle.

Bottomline: Always live in gratitude for what you have.

“Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.” — Oprah Winfrey

References:

  1. https://www.oprah.com/spirit/oprahs gratitude-journal-oprah-on-gratitude
  2. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/16/how-arianna-huffington-tony-robbins-and-oprah-use-gratitude-to-succeed.html

Thought of the Day

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There are no limitations to the mind conditioned for success and achievement.

“Try as hard as you wish and you cannot be happy unless you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

Work with all the strength at your command and you cannot accumulate more than barely enough to live on unless you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

The one and only person in all this world through whose efforts you can be supremely happy under all circumstances, and, through whose labor you can accumulate all the material wealth that you can use legitimately, is YOURSELF!” —Napoleon Hill

When you believe in your ability to succeed…you completely transform your life.

The Power of Faith

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“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” ~ Voltaire

What is the Power of Faith?

One example of the “power of faith” is to imagine that you’re a passenger on a Boeing 747 jetliner and trusting that the law of physics applies regarding the lifting force generated by aircraft wings are sufficient to allow an inanimate cylindrical object that has a mass of several thousand kilograms to sustain controlled flight at an altitude of over thirty thousand feet for several hours and several thousand miles.

Faith is believing and trusting that aeronautical engineers properly designed the passenger jetliner, that manufactures, such as Boeing or Airbus, correctly assembled the technological complex flying machine, and that government agencies, like the FAA, reliably certified the jetliner as safe you’re currently flying on as a passenger.

Finally, faith is accepting that the pilots at the controls are adequately trained and experienced to fly the multi-engine passenger jet, that the maintenance technicians were competent and skilled in their duties to maintain the aircraft systems and prevent catastrophic failure while the aircraft is in flight, and that the operations watch standers are cognizant and alert to ensure no other aircraft will share the same volume of airspace at the same time with the jetliner in which you’re a passenger.

Bottomline, most things we do in life, such as flying the friendly skies, are based solely on conscious or subconscious faith.

Faith is believing, trusting and accepting the unknown or that which you cannot know for certain. In a way, faith is believing and trusting what you cannot be entirely be certain about.

It’s the complete and absolute trust or confidence in someone or something. Educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was quoted as saying, “I plunged into the job of creating something from nothing…. Though I hadn’t a penny left, I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a living God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve.”

Believing and having faith in yourself will ensure you achieve your loftiest goals. You can say that faith is the key to living a better and more fulfilling life.

“Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” ~ Mary McLeod Bethune