The Power of Gratitude
Having gratitude is something we hear about a lot, but sometimes don’t internalize completely. The definition of gratitude is “appreciation.” To me it is so much more than this! Gratitude is being present, mindful, respectful, and honoring the things in your life. It is something we should practice every day.
The thing that makes gratitude so powerful is that it can literally give you a sense of well being. When you are recognizing the wonder and joy around you, it is impossible to be stuck in worry, doubt, and sadness. It swings the pendulum into pure positivity, if only for a moment. When you come from a place of gratitude, you are thinking with abundance instead of lack, joy instead of sorrow, and hope instead of despair.
Gratitude is also a beautiful mix of grit and grace. It’s maintaining wholeness, no matter what’s going on. Studies have shown that having some sort of daily or weekly gratitude practice can lower levels of depression, lower blood pressure, and improve immune function. Your body actually thanks you for being grateful by taking a big sigh of relief that you have moved out of your primal “flight or fight” state and into a little more enlightenment.
The science behind this is that our brain interprets gratitude as optimism. This in turn lowers your stress hormones and activates your pleasure hormones. Isn’t amazing how in control of our bodies and minds we can be? How we hold the power to our health? Gratitude seems way too simple a thing to be so persuasive right? Well, the catch is that having gratitude daily can be really challenging. There is always going to be something that comes along and knocks you off your pink puffy cloud of positivity. So knowing this, we can then become more self-aware to recognize the distraction and return back to a grateful state. This is where the practice comes into play.
If you start your day by thinking about, or better yet listing at least three things you are grateful for it provides a beacon of light. This can guide you home, back to your heart where your gratitude lies. You can literally train your brain to be more positive and open. The added benefits of the practice are the fact that it helps you sleep better, strengthens your memory, and helps you become more peaceful. Give me some of that please!
This Thanksgiving, remember gratitude, but also don’t forget about it. Don’t let it slip away until next November. Carry it with you, keep it close to your heart, and watch how it changes you, uplifts you, expands you, and carries you into a more beautiful way of life.
3 Pieces of Gratitude Practice:
There are three things to remember when starting a gratitude practice:
1.) Be Consistent- keep a journal or create an alarm on your phone that gives you a reminder to do your gratitude listing. You can say it to yourself like a prayer, write it in your journal, put it on a sticky note somewhere around the house; whatever works for you. Just remember to be regular with it.
2.) Do it with Purpose and Respect- don’t multi-task or think of it as something to “check off your to do list.” This totally sucks the juice out it. It turns it into another meaningless thing that you feel obligated to do; it becomes counterproductive. But if you recognize it as part of your spiritual practice, a way of connecting and recognizing something bigger than you, you come into alignment with it and that’s when the shift can really begin.
3.) Always Come back to it- When the day starts to wear on you and you feel wobbly, come back to your gratitude list. What were the three things you listed that morning? Hold onto them like a lucky charm. Life can be hard and sometimes daunting, but there is always light. The thing we have to remember is to create it for ourselves. It isn’t anybody else’s job to keep our spirits high or our path steady. It is our job and our right to do this for ourselves. And isn’t that empowering? Isn’t that the definition of expansion? And isn’t that why we are here?
Xx,
Beth
