The gift of gratitude is one that is a never-ending treasure. Why wouldn’t you want to gift it to yourself or others? When looking for reasons to be grateful, one of the main reasons that is not often stated is that gratitude promotes optimism and a resilient outlook on life. This is perhaps the biggest gift you can reward yourself because life throws us down to require grit, determination, motivation and much more including resilience and optimism. With gratitude, you can reset your attitude as often as you like promoting positivity and problem-solving which are also key to a fulfilling life. This is in part because gratitude also helps with emotional regulation and decision-making by increasing gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. Hopefully, this convinces you to introduce gratitude to your life in order to make living worth all the grand things it’s meant to be.
What are 3 ways you can introduce gratitude to your life today?
1. Write a gratitude letter to the most important people in your life and text it to them. Share why you are grateful for them and all their great attributes.
2. List 3 things you are grateful for right now on paper or in a word document.
3. Use stop-look-go to pause, savor your appreciation for your immediate environment, and go onward.
When you incorporate gratitude to your daily life, you recognize how there are an abundant number of things to be grateful for. The practice brings resilience, optimism, motivation, positivity, emotional stability and fulfillment. In turn, your brain becomes prepared for the challenges or lows that life can bring you. Your preparation to ride the roller coaster of life becomes fortified each day when you remind yourself of what you are grateful for. You cannot avoid all the negative emotions or thoughts, but you get the gift of living in the present as well.
There is a never-ending treasure as mentioned before with gratitude, and we are just beginning to uncover its effects on the brain and body. Think of how gratitude has rewarded your life for just another positive perspective that the trait can add!
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