Practicing gratitude brings you into presence, decreases negative thoughts and increases the joy experienced in life.
It's well researched and commonly known how beneficial feeling, expressing or adopting an attitude of thanks can be. And yet, it might still be difficult to remember to pause and lean into the gratitude of a moment.
One helpful way to increase your gratitude is to reflect on what blocks you from feeling it. What gets in the way of feeling thanks for the gifts life brings? Often, I find that engaging in a cerebral reflection about what is stopping the gratitude can create a crack in the doorway to experiencing more of it.
Whatever your blocks, you can face them with awareness and compassion (not trying to figure them out, analyzing them, or judging them - but acknowledging that they are simply there). Facing those harder walls that prevent you from feeling a positive emotion can help begin to make those walls a bit less formidable.
Practicing gratitude in your life - even for the tiniest moments - helps give rise to joy, hope and happiness. It improves mental and physical health. It is so simple, I know, but gratitude has profound effects on well-being.
Mindfulness practice doesn't leave anything out - it provides an opportunity for you to face all of the pieces of you which often leads to greater understanding. In coaching the lens is slightly different, but has the same aim: talking about what gets in the way of you achieving a goal can help you actually meet the goal. Either way, spending a few moments reflecting about what blocks your gratitude can be a helpful step toward bringing more thanks into your daily life.
A few questions to guide you:
What gets in the way of me feeling gratitude in my daily life?
When do I notice feeling most grateful?
What am I grateful for?
What else could I be grateful for?
What helps me remember to feel gratitude?
How do I relate to gratitude?
What do I know about gratitude?
And here is a little gratitude research video that is lovely with a powerful message. If any of you replicate the practice shown in this video, come back and share in the comments about your experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHv6vTKD6lg
With much gratitude for each of you,
Jaime
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