Benefits Of Gratitude + Gratitude Practice Tips

Gratitude benefits include improvement to both physical and mental health. In this talk, we explore the benefits of a gratitude practice. Plus look at four ways to practice gratitude. Allowing you to receive the benefits of gratitude to begin your healing journey.

Transcript

Welcome.

My name is Andrea Trevillion,

And I teach emotional healing and spiritual growth with the goal of helping you transform your life into one filled with inner peace and joy.

I do this through writing,

Classes,

And one-on-one work.

This week,

We are going to talk about the benefits of gratitude and how to start a gratitude practice.

I want to begin with the benefits of gratitude because oftentimes when we start talking about what might be trendy,

Such as a gratitude journal,

We don't quite understand why.

And so that's why I want to start with the science that is being done to understand what gratitude is doing to us.

There's multiple studies going on currently that are showing us really truly how beneficial this quick and easy practice can be.

So it is improving our mental health.

It is changing the way our brain is processing our emotions and feelings.

It's improving our physical health.

And the thing that I love the most about it is one of the studies has shown that the act of having a gratitude practice,

Of being grateful,

Releases dopamine and serotonin,

Which are feel-good chemicals.

So if you want to be happier and improve your mental health,

This very easy practice can be super beneficial.

And it lasts long term.

There was a study at UC Berkeley where they had some people who were coming in to get mental health counseling.

They divided them into groups that did gratitude and those that didn't.

And they had them write a weekly gratitude letter.

And they didn't have to send it.

They just had to write it.

And when they did brain scans months later,

The parts of the brain that were responsible for happiness were still showing a change,

Even if some of them had fallen out of the practice.

So this is just fantastic information that is coming through to us that gratitude really truly can help us deal with depression and sadness and overwhelm.

And in addition to those great mental health benefits,

There have been studies that have shown that it improves the physical health of a person,

Including improved sleep,

Decreased stress,

And even decreased pain.

So I am super excited that science is starting to really dig into what's going on when we practice gratitude because it gives us that much more reason to stick to it.

If you can add a gratitude practice to your self-care routine,

Your mental health care routine,

It will take you that much further.

In fact,

In that Berkeley study where they divided the groups,

They all went to counseling.

And that group that went to counseling and did gratitude got faster,

Better.

So with that,

I want to talk about four ways that you can start a gratitude practice,

Even if it is not with gratitude journaling.

And I'm doing this because gratitude journaling for me,

I've actually always struggled with.

And I've struggled with it because I usually sit there and I stare at a blank paper and I can only come up with the same things over and over.

It's like I'm paralyzed by the idea of I have to be grateful,

Which is really odd for me because I grew up being taught to be grateful and give to others and everything.

So the fact that I always struggled with gratitude journaling really threw me for a loop.

And so I've worked on ways over the years to make it easier.

So the first tip that I have for you is you might need to change the word gratitude.

Gratitude for me makes me freeze.

And finally,

Something triggered me,

And I think it was in my regular journal practice that made me go,

Okay,

What if I use the word celebrate?

And so I started doing a celebration journal and that changed everything.

If I sat down and said,

What do I have to celebrate today?

The list was 10 times longer and had a wide variety of things going on.

So if the word gratitude doesn't work for you,

Find another word that does.

So gratitude is one,

Like I said,

I changed it to celebrate.

You can also change it to thanks or appreciation or thankfulness.

Whatever that is,

You can just Google dictionary and look for alternate meetings and find one that actually resonates with you.

Now,

The second thing that I did is I actually moved my gratitude practice out of my regular journal.

I love to journal,

I journal every single day.

It didn't fit in my journal.

And what I did instead was I hung poster board on the wall and a little marker box right next to it.

And every single time I had something to celebrate and was grateful for,

I would write it on the poster.

I had these hanging on the wall in my bedroom.

So every night when I went to bed,

I could look up at the posters and see everything that I was grateful for.

That was hugely beneficial for me.

Now,

I actually don't have them on the bedroom wall anymore because I have recently moved,

So they came down.

And in the meantime,

While all that was going on,

Before I could put new ones up,

I shifted to my third tip.

My third tip for you is do gratitude meditations.

I love a great guided gratitude meditation because one,

I've always struggled with gratitude,

But two,

It really allows you to look at gratitude in a different way.

Every single meditation teacher does a gratitude meditation slightly differently.

And so it can trigger different things,

Different thoughts,

Different ideas on how to be grateful.

So if you really are struggling with the whole writing everything down,

Shift over to gratitude meditation and see if that works for you.

And the final thing that I would recommend that you do to start a practice is do the gratitude letter that they did in the UC Berkeley study.

And what you just need to do is once a week,

Write a letter to somebody expressing your gratitude.

You do not have to send it.

You don't have to keep it.

You can throw it away.

The idea is simply to activate the brain areas that are grateful to get those benefits.

You can be grateful towards somebody and express gratitude and not necessarily share it with them.

And this might be the case because you might not always want to do a gratitude letter towards somebody you know.

Maybe you are highly grateful for a teacher,

Somebody you've found on YouTube or a podcast or whatever,

And it might not be something that you would actually send to them,

But you are highly grateful for them.

So just doing that weekly practice will really help you do that.

So I encourage you to start a gratitude practice.

The benefits are,

I mean,

Immensely huge,

And you will find that not only do you become happier,

But those physical issues might go away too.

Thank you for sharing your time with me today.

Reviews

Very refreshing and comforting to hear that there are ways other than keeping a gratitude journal to cultivate a grateful mindset! Thank you for sharing

Thank you for sharing. Love the idea of using the word celebrate. It really resonated with me.

I’ve been journaling my gratitude and appreciation for years! But, these additional tips are wonderful additions to focus on gratitude. Thank you!! 💜

Thank you for sharing your struggle with gratitude journaling and tips to overcome 🙏 😊

This is useful and inspiring. Practical tips for increasing the good things and keep them coming.

Great ideas thank you

Thank you for your gratitude tips

Excellent! Thank you 🙏

Changing up the word “gratitude” is a game changer for sure. Namaste

Interesting things to consider. Thanks for posting