Walt: The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude - the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
If you want to know how that works, we can practice some gratitude exercises so that we’re able to access neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity reveals that we can physically reallocate connections between our brain cells.
Here are some benefits of gratitude on well-being;
M/E (Mental/Emotional) - Gratitude and humility go hand in hand; they are mutually reinforcing. Expressing gratitude induces humility in us, and humility increases our capacity for experiencing and conveying gratitude.
SO (Social) - Gratitude is well-known to promote prosocial behaviour. The more grateful you are, the more likely you are to help others. As your cup overflows, you feel a natural urge to help others.
PH (Physical) - Gratitude trains our mind to see the positive, rather than the negative. When looking into the future, this results in a more positive outlook. The more grateful we are, the more optimistically we look to the future.
SP (Spiritual) - Just like humility and gratitude go hand in hand, so do spirituality and gratitude. The more spiritual you are, the more likely you are to be grateful, and vice-versa.
Gratitude is also strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
Here are the ideas how can we grow/develop Gratitude;
Emote: Feel the gratitude within you, don't just think about it.
Extend: Extend your gratitude to the people around you, instead of focusing on yourself.
Exercise: Practice/do your daily gratitude exercises.
Gratitude is perhaps the best researched emotion out there, and it might just be the most powerful one as well. Once you also see how beneficial being grateful is, then you can move on to practicing different ways to develop gratitude.
If you want to learn a lot about gratitude, here are some links for you…
Here’s also my Gratitude jar. It’s called my Gratitude Christmas Wish List Jar, and this is how I grow/develop my Gratitude;
Exercise:
Few more days before Christmas. I will get my paper, pen & jar and begin my gratitude time. To ensure I remember, I will schedule at 7 am on my calendar from Term 2 to December so I can get settled & ready for the next day and complete the gratitude wishes everyday.
Emote:
I’ll make sure I’m in a peaceful space for what I’m wishing for. When I wish for something I will focus on feeling what I am thinking of what I needed, not just doing it for what I wanted.
Extend:
For what I’ve shared that I’m grateful for everything, as the number of days has passed everyday, I will try to extend more of my gratitude and do something to show how grateful I am for any person/people that cared for me.
Hope you learned and enjoyed and you too can grow/develop your own Gratitude!!!
