Want to sleep better, enjoy more fulfilling relationships, experience more positive emotions, greater life satisfaction and lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress? 

Introduce a daily gratitude practice! Gratitude has a powerful effect on our health and well-being, research shows. In fact, at the University of California, an entire team is devoted to research on measuring gratitude and its effects. Based on their research, people who feel more gratitude feel more optimistic, achieve their goals, sleep better, have more fulfilling relationships, and exercise more often. They experience more positive emotions, greater life satisfaction, more vitality, optimism, and lower levels of depression and stress. And that makes life more fun.

Here are six simple ways recommended to start your own daily gratitude practice:

1. Schedule a daily gratitude break. Set the alarm on your mobile phone and take a      moment to find what you feel grateful for. It only takes a moment and can be an instant pick-me-up.
2. Start a gratitude list. Get a special journal, notebook, or notepad, or open a new document labelled gratitude. You’ll be surprised at how much you have to be grateful for.      The list not only makes you feel good, but if times are hard, reading it will provide perspective.
3. Go to church if that’s your thing. Find a religious or spiritual service that suits you, and attend regularly. I read that people who go to church experience more gratefulness. Not only is expressing gratitude part of many church services, but church provides a like-minded and supportive social network that gives participants much to be thankful for.
4. Share your gratitude. People with a greater disposition towards gratitude are rated by others as having more empathy, generosity, and helpfulness. Expressing to others what you are grateful for lifts their spirits and your own and inspires gratitude in others. Include expressions of gratitude in family or friends gatherings too.
5. See the giver behind the gift. Focus each day on a person who provides a benefit to you: a bank teller, grocery bagger, cook, friend or spouse. 
6. Bow. Express your gratitude physically. After all, gratitude is not just mental. It comes from spontaneous feelings rising from deep within. Yoga asanas, bowing, the Namaste expression, religious observances, and expressions of affection are all ways that we can embody, integrate, and express feelings of gratitude.

Religious and spiritual institutions have long understood the power of gratitude, but the scientific world is just discovering its efficacy. Studies focus on developing methods to cultivate gratitude and developing a reliable measure to assess differences in a person’s disposition towards gratitude. The gratitude practices enhance pleasant feeling states, rather than diminishing unpleasant emotions.  

From my personal experience, during tough times, I have always started a new gratitude list as it helps me feel better. It gives me perspective and helps me feel better about the situation. That little book of gratitude sits by my bedside table so I can easily reach out to it when thinking in my bed.

Gratitude is scientifically proven to help so remember: it’s not what happens to us that matters, but how we respond to it. As complex human beings, we can feel many things at once. Why not add gratitude to the list?

Maybe it is that time of the year too (Xmas coming!) when we become more aware of the positive things we have in our life compared to others but I just thought it would be useful to remind you and help you get set for a daily gratitude practice.

Hope it helps.

Namaste

Christel