The Healing Power of Gratitude: Resiliency Habit #2
The goal of today’s article is to remind you of the healing power of gratitude and how making it a habit can build resiliency and strengthen you while grieving or facing any storm in life.
This is the second habit in a series of seven. The first habit I talked about last week was Adopting a Growth Mindset.
Expressing gratitude changes the way you feel and see the world. It benefits your life and an affect those around you. Let me give you three benefits to gratitude and three practices you can start today.
Three Benefits to the Practice of Gratitude
1. Gratitude changes your perspective
Gratitude is a choice you make to see things differently and as you do that, a shift in how your feel can begin to shift.
While grieving, the nights were sometimes very difficult. I would wake up in a funk and knew I needed to see things differently. One way I dealt with that was to go for a walk around the block. While walking, I’d rehearse what I was grateful for (the flowers, the rain, a roof over my head) and ever slowly my mood would shift.
Gratitude didn’t change my situation but it did change how I saw my situation.
When I practice gratitude, my molehills don't turn into mountains, and those mountains don't turn into walls, and those walls don't turn into separation. — Author unknown
2. Gratitude opens the door for friendship
When you are grateful, you more easily connect with others. Gratitude doesn’t eliminate loneliness but serves to make you more likely to connect with others.
A grateful attitude helps you see people as potential friends and listeners to your story. I found myself talking to strangers and connecting with old friends in a spirit of gratitude. I then thanked those friends who did reach out realizing they are more likely to do it again if they know I appreciate the connection.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. – Melody Beattie
3. Gratitude creates endorphins and other chemicals in your body that promote healing
When I think about “the gratitude walk,” it’s amazing how both your internal perspective and physiology shifts. Gratitude literally creates healthy changes in your body that bring about the healing and a renewed vitality.
Gratitude fosters adaptive coping mechanisms. By managing positive emotions like satisfaction, happiness, and pleasure, gratitude enhances our emotional resilience and builds our inner strength to combat stress. — Gloria & Steinhardt
Three Ways to Do Gratitude
1. Keep a gratitude journal
A gratitude journal doesn’t need to be fancy or necessarily something you do every day. I’ve tried various approaches and times of the day to write down my gratitude list.
Find a way that works for you so you are regularly writing down the things you are grateful for in any given day. Over time, see what difference it makes.
2. Write notes to thank people for a difference they have made
When people help make your life better, a simple note can encourage both them and lift your spirit as well. You can say thanks with a text, an email, snail mail, or with a phone call. It’s not “how” you write your note but “that” you write your note.
Gratitude not expressed is the same as in gratitude. — Brian Buffini
3. Commemorate anniversaries and special days
Anniversaries and special days are not just reserved for happy memories. They are also an opportunity to pause and reflect with gratitude the memories that have been left behind after a loss.
I pause on April 23rd to say thanks for the lessons I learned because of my motorcycle accident. On May 14th, I pause and cherish with gratitude the memories I have from my 36 years spent with my wife Vicky.
Final Thought
Gratitude isn’t a quick fix for grief but an important part of healing the body, mind and spirit. It improves your heart health and the heart’s rhythmic functioning and reduces stress, helps you think more clearly under pressure and heals you physically. — The Institute of HeartMath
