The last year in November,
I hosted a gratitude challenge inside of my Facebook community.
And we see this done in so many areas in November,
Like in this season,
In this time of year.
The idea of being grateful and thankful really is something that we could carry into every day,
Every season,
Every aspect of our lives.
So not just one month.
Because the practice is so,
So powerful.
The more that we look for good in our lives,
The more the brain sees it.
And there's scientific research and studies around how the brain works,
How it filters information in,
And decides what's relevant and important to actually process and have in our lives.
So lots of support to back up what I'm sharing here today.
When we're feeling down,
When we're surrounded by negativity,
Which happens a lot,
When we're just overwhelmed,
It's really easy to spiral downward and get stuck in that.
I've been talking about kind of feeling stuck and unmotivated.
But when we have negativity,
Stress,
Overwhelm,
We have to intentionally work our way out of that.
A lot of people are very,
Very miserable because they're staying in that place of stress.
They're staying in that place of negativity.
So when we look for good things in our lives,
And we see them more often,
It's easier to move ourselves out of that place of stress.
We can find the silver lining,
So to speak,
Right?
I'm not one for advocating ignoring or pushing aside the more challenging feelings and emotions that we have.
But I do advocate for finding ways to manage those times so that we don't end up staying there because that's where big problems happen.
So how can you start a gratitude practice?
You might be like,
Okay,
Well,
You know,
I hear about this all the time,
But what can I do to actually build my own practice?
And I always say that you're gonna do what works for you.
New habits,
New routines,
Rituals,
They do take time.
It takes time to build this,
And it takes intention and purpose.
You have to purposefully do this day in and day out until it becomes part of who you are.
And I know we've talked about that before as well.
So some ideas,
Because one way will not work for everyone,
Some ideas that you can implement to start a gratitude practice.
You could list three or more things each day,
Morning or night,
That made you smile.
Look for little things throughout the day that otherwise you may have missed.
And I like to dig a little deeper.
So like,
You might say,
I'm thankful or I'm grateful for dinner with my family.
Take that a step further and say,
I'm thankful for the conversation with my son at dinner.
Like,
Go a little bit deeper and create memories,
Pathways in the brain of these things that made you smile and feel good.
Keeping this in a journal really compounds.
It really adds up over time,
And you'll start to see all of that good like building and building and building.
So the first couple days,
It might feel hard.
You might struggle a little bit thinking of things that happened,
But then you see that list day after day after day,
And suddenly you're just amazed at all of the goodness you have in your life.
The second way that you could practice gratitude is to go for a walk and pay attention.
Take note of what you're grateful for about your time outside.
What did you see?
What did you hear?
How did you feel?
What did you smell?
Like,
Maybe you went for a walk and the neighbors were barbecuing and you smelled their grill or their campfire,
Or maybe you were in the spring season and you smelled the flowers.
Like,
What things happened during that time?
So that's taking that bigger practice and honing it down to a very specific time of what was happening on this walk.
The third thing that you can do is to make a habit of telling others each day that you're thankful for them.
So give a reason.
Like,
Thank you for holding the door for me.
Thank you for bringing me coffee.
Thank you for helping me with this project.
Thank you for taking my phone call and answering my questions.
Thank you for smiling at me.
Like,
It can be anything,
But when we express outwardly what we're grateful for and thankful for,
It comes back.
So people start to notice the things that we're doing for them,
And they become more grateful and thankful for the things that we're doing as well.
So it's this great kind of circle of gratitude.
But when we,
Actually there was a quote or a saying that said something about being grateful really doesn't,
It doesn't do much if you don't give the gift.
So you can be grateful for something,
But if you never actually tell someone else that you're grateful for,
You're missing out on giving them that gift.
So something to think about.
You can do gratitude meditation,
Which of course you know I absolutely love.
Just sit quietly and feel what happens in your body and your mind when you live in gratitude for everything that's in your life.
How does it feel to see the good in each moment?
You could sit and do a meditation of gratitude for your body.
I'm thankful for my mind because,
I'm thankful for my strength because,
I'm grateful for movement because it gives me energy.
Like you can literally take a meditation around anything that you're thankful for and really feel that,
Feel what happens in your body.
And then you can also use gratitude affirmations.
So they can encourage us to find the good in each day so we don't get sucked into that stress that I mentioned earlier.
That stress,
That place of overwhelm is what wears us down.
And so many things happen when we live in that space.
So affirmations are used to reprogram your mind to capture empowering beliefs,
Habits and thought patterns.
So you could wake up and you could affirm for yourself,
Today I'm going to find the good.
Today I'm going to feel the good.
Today I'm going to pause and look at the beauty around me.
Today I will.
Like you can just fill in the blank of something that you're going to do that whole entire day to look and encourage gratitude.
So I would love to know if you have a regular gratitude practice.
If not,
Is it something that you would like to start?
It's so,
So powerful.
And again,
So much research and science behind how this helps the brain process different things when we are facing challenges in life.
So if I can support you in any way,
Feel free to reach out.
And I hope that you found this helpful.
