During a difficult time, gratitude is more important than ever. Research shows that gratitude can help us cope with traumatic events, regulate our negative emotions, and improve our well-being. More importantly, gratitude can have a positive effect on our friends and family too. It’s a small way to have a meaningful impact.
We may go through times when we feel high and low degrees of gratitude, and that’s only human nature.
It’s okay to feel angry and disappointed. It’s okay to wish things were different—that we were healthier, happier, or generally less lost in the world. If you’re having a tough time, stifling these negative emotions doesn’t make them go away and could actually be unhealthy. There have been numerous studies showing that when we regulate or ignore our emotions, we can experience short-term mental and physical reactions as well.
It might not be possible to feel grateful all the time, but I do believe it is possible to be grateful more often than not.
The opposite was true for me for many years, but I’ve shifted my ratio of grateful to ungrateful moments by adopting and reinforcing the following:-
- Being thankful for the essentials — appreciating what I already have — has allowed me to live more simply.
- I used to worry more about what I didn’t have and seemed to constantly crave for these things. That changed when I figured out how to be thankful for what I have, and to be in the most important place – the present. There’s no better moment than the now. Practice gratitude to enable yourself to be entirely present.
- When you focus on appreciating what you have, you feel less concerned about what you don’t have, and that can help to ease your mind.
Now that I’m more accepting of myself and my life, I don’t compare myself to others and I take pride in paving my own path. It’s very liberating to do things that are best for me and my family, without trying to please the rest of the world.
Knowing that I have the essentials brings me relaxation and eases my mind. I’m also more at peace because I don’t add things that aren’t valuable to my life in order to avoid the stress they may bring.
I want to leave this world knowing that I tried to give people the best version of me, with the hope that they know how appreciative I am for them. Being around inspirational and joyful souls is contagious, and I aspire to be this type of person.
Practicing gratitude helps lift away worry because I recognise and appreciate that I have enough. It has led me to greater happiness and a better version of me. The same can happen for you.
Allow yourself to live simply and make life less complex, in as many ways possible; remove unneeded possessions & stop doing unimportant tasks.
Start each day with gratitude. There is always something to be thankful for — family and loved ones, breathing fresh air, drinking clean water and don’t forget to smile when thinking about these things; it’s a quick and easy way to fill your heart with gratitude and live in those extraordinary moments.
I’m Brett Thiedeman – Just an ordinary guy, focused, conscious and intentional about my learning, growth & being a change maker in my own life and the lives of others.
