How to Practice Gratitude
It is scientifically proven that people who regularly take time for conscious gratitude feel more joy and are less vulnerable to depression. People who regularly express gratitude for the positive things in their life are shown to be happier overall, leading to lower rates of stress and depression.
Try this gratitude exercise for morning or evening before bedtime:
Step 1. Welcome your surroundings with your eyes open or closed: Perceive the sounds, feel the air on your skin, how your body is carried off the ground and how it breathes.
Step 2. Invite joy and gratitude into your body. Who enriches your life? Maybe you're thankful for a friend or animal. Maybe also for an apartment or something someone did for you. Maybe you feel gratitude for having something to eat or just for being alive. Allow joy and gratitude to spread in your body. Feel an inner smile or warm your heart. Invite the gratitude to spread until your whole body and the space that surrounds you are flooded with gratitude.
Step 3. Also perceive opposing feelings such as disappointment, sorrow and dissatisfaction that may now appear. Welcome her too. Then invite gratitude and joy again and allow gratitude to flood all those areas of the body that feel tight before (or still).
Step 4. If it feels right, let go of all opposing feelings and allow yourself to feel gratitude and joy for no reason.
Step 5. Open and close your eyes a few times in a row and assume that you will always feel joy and gratitude over the course of the (coming) day. Realize that joy and gratitude are always available to you, no matter where and in which company you are or what you do.
In conclusion, you may have heard the saying attitude of gratitude. It’s a great little rhyme to remind us that we live a life of gratitude – and practice it! When we practice gratitude on a regular basis, it not only impacts our mental and physical health but those around you.
What are you thankful for?
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