Let gratitude lift you

There’s a very strong link between mindfulness and gratitude. Choosing to be deeply mindful of the good things in our lives – both small and large – brings a positive focus into our lives.

Gratitude 2 The mental health benefits of practising gratitude are outlined in an article published by Harvard Health Publications, at the Harvard Medical School:

In positive psychology research, gratitude is 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.”

Research results tell us that people who practise gratitude consistently report a range of benefits such as:

A stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure
More joy, optimism and happiness
Acting with more generosity and compassion
Feeling less lonely and isolated.

So how do you practise gratitude?

Sarah Ban Breathnach, in her book Simple abundance: a daybook of comfort and joy, recommends the practice of keeping a gratitude journal. It works like this: every night, before you go to bed, you write a list of five things you are grateful for. The list can include small things – hearing a favourite song on the radio, receiving a compliment, or watching a beautiful sunset. You can also include big things – like your family or friends, your health and your comfortable home. Sarah describes the benefits you can gain from making this practice a habit:

As the months pass and you fill your journal with blessings, an inner shift in your reality will occur. Soon you will be delighted to discover how content and hopeful you are feeling. As you focus on the abundance rather than the lack in your life, you will be designing a wonderful new blueprint for the future. This sense of fulfilment is gratitude at work…”

Other ways of incorporating a gratitude practice into your everyday life include:

Using mindfulness to truly experience the enjoyment you get from the good things that happen each day
Using your senses to focus on the gifts of being alive.

Being mindful of enjoyment

Writer and poet, Abhinabha Tangerman, suggests focusing your mind on the good things that happen in your day:

Whenever something good happens to you, take the time to really enjoy the moment consciously… Consciously enjoying the moment when it happens is an expression of your gratitude. Research has shown that conscious enjoyment strengthens the positive feelings of the experience.”

Neuroscientist Rick Hanson, Ph.D calls this process ‘taking in the good.’ He advises us to look for good facts – about our lives and the world around us – and then turn them into good experiences by pausing for a few moments and letting ourselves feel good about those facts. Rick suggests we try to do this at least six times a day.

Using your senses

Robert Emmons, Ph.D, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, suggests using your senses to heighten your sense of gratitude:

Through our senses – the ability to touch, see, smell, taste, and hear – we gain an appreciation of what it means to be human and of what an incredible miracle it is to be alive. Seen through the lens of gratitude, the human body is not only a miraculous construction, but also a gift.”