Our Gratitude Leads to Success
The following is the third in a series of short articles offered to help us during this holiday season.
Don’t let thanks-giving end on Thanksgiving! Studies are showing that practicing gratitude can lead to significant improvements in physical and mental health. With increased gratitude, people sleep better, exercise more, experience less stress, and enjoy a greater sense of well-being and a less depressed mood.
These health benefits stand alone and experiencing any one or more of these would certainly lead to an experience of greater health and well-being any time of the year. I would also offer that intentionally implementing a gratitude practice during the holiday season leads to a certain mental and emotional grounding from which it is easier to settle into your deeper intentions and make choices in alignment with them, rather than succumbing to the fleeting whims and pleasures of the season that delight in the moment but often leave us feeling less-than-awesome a little later.
Gratitude gives us a feeling of satisfying richness, wholeness, and abundance, freeing us from the thoughtless reaching for bodily pleasures to try to satisfy or numb ourselves emotionally. (If we reach for those holiday treats, let it be for the right reasons and in the right proportions! i.e., to simply delight in a temporary pleasure of the senses, no more and no less, and/or to share in a social moment with friends and loved ones.) I think it also helps us tap into the deeper spiritual and relational significance of these holidays and distances us from the unsettling glut of too-muchness that can sometimes obscure our experience of these meanings.
The ways to practice gratitude are endless and need only to be as formal as you want them to be to stick with it. Among the simplest ideas includes keeping a gratitude journal, where you make a habit of recording things you are thankful for each morning or night or other predetermined time. Another simple idea to do in families is to begin each meal with everyone sharing a few things they are thankful for. Positive Psychology lists several other fun methods to try:
Gratitude walks. Set out on a walk with the intention of using the time to center on a focal point of gratitude. This can be experienced as specific thoughts as well as a general sense of thankfulness in one’s life. Try to settle into the physical experience of the walk, feeling the ground beneath your feet, feel the breeze or chill on your cheeks, listen for birds or other sounds around you. Gratitude walks can be solitary or shared with a friend!
Gratitude rock. Chose a rock or other small object that is pleasing to you. Carry it around with you throughout the day, in your pocket, on your desk, in your car, next to your bed. Each time you notice it or shift it around, allow it to be a reminder to take a moment to call to mind a thought or experience of gratitude.
Gratitude letter. This particularly powerful practice is to put your gratitude for a particularly meaningful person in your life into the form of a letter. Be specific! Consider hand-delivering your letter to the recipient and ask to read the letter aloud to them. Be prepared for an incredibly meaningful experience shared between the two of you.
One last, related idea, which came to me from the recently released A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood movie, is to take some time to reflect on those that called and loved us into being. After an opportunity to do this myself, I was flooded with profound, tearful gratitude for all the many, many, many people who have sacrificed and stepped forward in countless ways to love me into this life and shape me into the woman I am today. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, teachers, coaches, counselors, friends, and neighbors all came to mind. These people have woven a beautiful net beneath and around me, lifting me and carrying me, and of all the many, many earthly blessings I delight in, I cannot think of any that come even close to touching the beauty these people have imparted to my life.
I urge you to set an intention to try out one or more of these ideas over the next few weeks. Experience the wash of warmth, joy, peace and grounding that naturally follows!
About Kelly Arensen, Living Well Coaching
Kelly holds coaching certifications through the Institute for the Psychology of Eating and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Prior to becoming a health coach, Kelly worked in the field of international public health, providing nutritional intervention for young children and mothers in developing and war-torn countries, including Cambodia and North Sudan. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University. Learn more about about Kelly’s living well coaching services.
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