"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
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. This can directly impact your mood throughout the day, as well as your sleep quality. In fact, therapists often suggest this as one of the first exercises when initiating a treatment against depression. To make it more powerful, it is advised to devote at least ten minutes to this practice, rather than quickly coming up with them. Writing them down is a great way to finish your exercise, and it is useful to come back and read them at the end of the week.
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. People who could find purpose and feel grateful for the good things to come out of a challenging situation show higher resilience, forgiveness, and detachment.
3. Thank someone new every week. There are many people around us, and we are all connected somehow. How often do we take the time to express gratitude more consciously or thoughtfully? Sure, we say thank you every time the cashier at Walmart gives us our purchase, or we thank our roommate for setting the table, but do we take the time to make it meaningful? Give yourself the purpose of choosing someone new each week and learn how to express gratitude differently.
4. Meditate. When it comes to gratitude, meditation can take us as deep as it gets. Different guided meditations, such as love and kindness, allow us to widen our perspective of life and our connection to ourselves and other beings. It promotes acceptance, detachment, forgiveness, and thus, gratitude. We can also take this moment to imagine a specific situation we are grateful for and let the feeling grow and be stronger.
5. Focus more on others' intentions. When you receive a gift or a nice gesture from someone, consider how they intended to bring good into your life. Take a moment to visualize their willingness to help you, make you feel happy, or be there for you in a challenging moment.
Gratitude is, without question, a great emotion to cultivate. Hopefully, we can make it a habit that translates into a trait. Don't forget that practice and patience are key ingredients to our purposes and intentions. Start your practice today.