Gratitude helps your mind

Once we are used to thanking the people around us, it’s time to start being grateful for some of the good things working in our lives. This can be difficult to quantify, especially if you are under a fair amount of stress or finding life a bit tough. However there are so many things we have around us we take for granted, and often have no idea of the positive impact those things have on us.

As is true with human nature, there are so many things we don’t realize the worth of until we don’t have around us. If you have children, you’ll be aware of that sense of wanting your child to be asleep just so you can get something don’t without them interrupting you, then when three are asleep, wanting them to wake up so you can hold them, touch them and play with them.

Or maybe you just have forgotten what it’s like to live in your own place, without having your parents around to check what time you get home, or what it feels like to be able to drive somewhere, or go get a takeaway instead of cook… 

There are just so many little freedoms we have that we take for granted. Find things to be grateful for.

ASSIGNMENT  

Take stock of where you sit right now…. 

LOOK 

Take a look around the room. Can you see things? Acknowledge your ability to see. Be grateful for it. Look at the colors around you, how you can distinguish them from each other. This is something to also be grateful for. Think about the things you own. Are they the only clothes you own- the ones you have on now? Allow yourself to feel gratitude for being clothed. Are you in a place where you are sheltered from the sun or the rain or the wind? Allow yourself to feel gratitude for this. 

Do you have any money on you at all? Be thankful even if it is merely a few coins. 

These are all small points of gratitude. This isn’t about trying to find large big things to be thankful for, but together a little gratitude over a range of different things starts to add up.  

So why bother doing this? 

If you make this part of your everyday habits, along with getting dressed, eating, drinking and all those other important tasks then you start to focus on only what is positive and good. Doing this doesn’t make the bad parts of our lives magically disappear but it does give us strength to cope with those aspects. If you are generally optimistic by nature, this can be enough to boost your optimism and keep you from stress. If you are naturally pessimistic, then this can help you move out of negative thinking and into something more uplifting.

It’s so hard to be happy if we can’t find anything to be happy about. But spending time being grateful everyday helps us to naturally become happier. It makes our happy state less up and down and far more stable. This improved state of thinking provides a raft of benefits from increased confidence, to decreased ill health, to increasing our enjoyment levels across the board in a range of different situations.

The key is to do this enough that it slips into our sub consciousness. It’s said that around ninety percent of our behavior stems from our subconscious self. How powerful is it then when we begin to act out of gratitude rather than defensiveness or negativity?

It also becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. As we become happier, we naturally gravitate to things, people and situations that make us happier. In doing so, we begin to create a life that is all we desire and more. It’s the true power of being filled with gratitude.