Practicing Gratitude Reduces Stress
What are the benefits of practicing gratitude to reduce stress? Those who openly share their Zen lifestyle of embracing a mindset of appreciation brag about their stress-free life. Are they strange individuals living in a fantasy and an unusual world? Here is a brief description of five activities to support a gratitude practice.
Identifying Practice Tools
1. Journal Writing
Provides an opportunity to identify the positive things in your life. It is just too easy to obsess about negative issues. In my clinical practice, those who sustain a gratitude mindset practice daily. They have a habit of setting aside a specific time and space for this activity. The best time can be in the morning or the evening. Setting aside a specific and limited time is often described as the key to sustaining journal writing.
2. Visual Images
Research suggests that visualizing a positive picture-word task can trigger a positive mental image. This visual picture can lead to improvements in mood and performance. Practicing gratitude can include the simple ritual of viewing photographs of persons who positively touched your life. Find a photo of a memorable, positive event or person to keep on your cell phone. When feeling discouraged or gloomy, it would be practicing gratitude to view this particular photo and reflect positively, to lighten the heavy mood.
3. Note Writing
When was the last time you received a letter or card by snail mail? It requires time to travel to the store and the post office. Sometimes finding the perfect card to send to a particular person in your life can be priceless. The card can be entertaining, inspirational, and effective in reversing your gloomy mood. We all have numerous milestones and events in our lives for appreciation. The simple act of buying or making a card and mailing it to another person is special. Imagine the wonder and warmth your friend or loved one will feel receiving a surprise card in the mail.
4. Send a Care Package
Picture yourself receiving an unexpected parcel of fillable golden eggs containing jelly beans, a box of cookies, and other fun stuff. Fast forward to the experience of your friend receiving a random act of kindness from you! Just imagine the expression on their face as they open the package. Practicing gratitude can include random acts of kindness.
5. List Writing
Make a list of positives in your life. It does not have to be complicated. It is easy to appreciate personal growth when you compare your younger self’s behavior. Writing a bullet list of point positive events on a card or post-it note adopts an attitude of gratitude.
Takeaway
Practicing gratitude forces you to consider the positive people and events in your life. It provides daily opportunities to focus on positive feelings associated with your routine. Think of how children are happy and excited about an upcoming playdate. What happened to adults’ joy and gratitude for simple events and opportunities? It takes time and effort to reflect on and celebrate life events. We often take them for granted. Recognizing goals achieved gives us the confidence to move forward despite feeling the stress of something new. The benefit of managing stress by practicing gratitude is simple, but like everything worthwhile, it requires effort.