In tough times — and even in regular times — thankfulness is a huge bang for the buck on your well-being …
On any given day, it's a challenge to find good news. Finding bad news is easy.
One of my high-school classmates posts regularly on Facebook. She often posts happy news links, and reminds us all regularly: “Look for a good story every day!”
Thankfulness, gratitude backed by science
If my Google News feed is any indication, I'm a bit of a student on self-improvement and life-hacking.
Over and over again, I read articles that discuss scientific evidence of the benefits of practicing gratitude every day. Apparently, thankfulness isn't just for Thanksgiving!
Here is a taste of a few:
- 6 proven reasons gratitude and happiness make the best leaders
- Gratitude makes you happier, healthier, and more popular
- How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain
- 14 Health Benefits of Practicing Gratitude According to Science
The bumper sticker version of all of this is that there are documented, tangible benefits to practicing gratitude regularly.
What's more, it takes so little time to practice this each day to reap the benefits. Five minutes is enough — either to get your day off to a good start, or to prepare yourself for a good night's sleep, or both!
How to practice gratitude for free
As you've probably guessed by now, it costs nothing to practice thankfulness.
Here are some ideas I've picked up in my reading:
Start off your day with specific gratitude
Even a brief review of one thing that you're thankful for can make a difference in how your day starts.
Being specific about what (or who) you're thankful for amplifies the positive effect. Rather than being thankful for your good health, perhaps reflect on something specific about your health that's good or improving. Or rather than being thankful for your job, think about something specific that makes it easy to go into work.
Switch up your thankfulness
Over time, this exercise starts to lose some of its power if you're thankful for the same things over and over again.
Try to make it a point to be thankful for something different every day. If you catch yourself repeating one item of gratitude, pause for a few seconds and broaden your scope a bit. Find something else.
Taking the extra time to examine other positive parts of your life will keep the habit fresh.
Practice gratitude throughout the day
No job is perfect. There will be rough spots regardless of where you are or what your role is.
You can pause throughout the day when you feel your mood starting to flag. Stand up and stretch a bit, and ponder on some act of kindness one of your coworkers did recently.
Try this and see if it doesn't lighten your mood a bit!
Act on your thoughts
It's the little things that make the difference — things that are easy to do, or not do.
If a coworker lifted your spirits or did you a kindness, don't be afraid to tell them. It will lift both your mood and theirs!
Write your thankfulness down
While you can get benefit from thinking about things you're thankful for, the act of writing things down engages other parts of your brain.
Writing for a few minutes on a topic can be therapeutic. It also gives you a record of your gratitudes so that you can refer to them later.
You can write on any scrap of paper you have lying around, of course, but if you're willing to spend a few bucks on a gratitude journal, you can do that too.
Review what you're thankful for before bed
Meditating on gratitude before bed can help to push stress away, and quarantine worries about what happened or what is to happen.
Try dwelling on one thing that went well during the day — something that you're thankful for. If nothing comes to mind, then be thankful the day is done!
An attitude of gratitude is free
Again, just to drive it home: This is an easy, free way to improve your life and your disposition!
You've got everything to gain, so give it a shot!
