When I started practicing yoga, I developed the habit of journaling. Initially, it was because of the yoga teacher trainings I attended because they required us to journal about some questions for our personal development. From there, I started getting into the habit of journaling three things I am grateful for every day.
So, since it is Thanksgiving, I wanted to write about the power of gratitude in healing and some tips for you to follow if you want to start your gratitude practice. This time of the year we talk about the things we are grateful for, but we tend to put those in the back burner. So, starting a gratitude practice will help you be more thankful about the many things in your life on a daily basis and not just during a specific time of the year.
Research Surrounding Gratitude Practice
Research shows that when you have a gratitude practice, you experience your life a little bit more happily and joyfully. For example, people who have depression and anxiety who undergo therapy and have a gratitude practice can be helpful in changing their results with their mental health. Gratitude practice can also make some changes to your brain.
Physical Therapy And Gratitude Practice
As a physical therapist, gratitude practice is important to me because I see folks with chronic pain. Chronic pain means you have been experiencing pain that has lasted longer than three to six months. Those who have chronic pain usually have depression and anxiety, too. So, knowing that gratitude can help with depression and anxiety and change the brain, I give gratitude practice as homework for my patients.
I have seen in my patients that practicing gratitude can improve their mood. Usually, when your mood improves, pain tends to decrease. It may not a hundred percent go away, but it is enough that you can start moving more and doing things that you enjoy. That is why the practice of gratitude is important because it can have a huge change for those experiencing pain in their life.
The Effects Of Gratitude Practice
It is worth noting, though, that when you start your gratitude practice, you will not see changes until four to 12 weeks of doing it. As with all things, just like with movement and exercise, you want to be consistent with your gratitude practice. If you are consistent, you will surely start to see some changes.
If you have never been consistent about gratitude practice or you never tried it before, it might feel a little fake at first especially if you are not feeling great. When you are not feeling great, finding things to be grateful for feels fake and forced. What I encourage you to do, though, is just keep trying to do this gratitude practice even if you are faking it. It’s like saying “fake it ‘til you make it,” and you might not feel confident about what you are writing, but as you progress and be more consistent about it, you will see changes come to you and your life.
Tips On How To Start A Gratitude Practice
If you want to start your gratitude practice, read through the tips I have for you.
The first one is you do not have to write more than three things down. Three things has been shown to be a great place to make changes with this gratitude practice. It could take just under three minutes to do a practice like this.
The next tip is be really specific as research suggests this too. For instance, instead of saying you are grateful for your couch, you can be more specific by saying you are grateful for your couch that supports your comfort during your gratitude practice or when you are watching TV. Another instance is when you say you are thankful for your cats, it is better to make it more specific by saying you are thankful for your cat snuggles that help you rest. Being more specific helps you feel the gratitude in your body as you try to create the emotion to feel and believe it.
In line with this, you might think that a couch isn’t something one should be thankful for, but with gratitude practice, it is also about finding the small things throughout your life that you are grateful for so you can fully cultivate gratitude practice. If you think that gratitude practice is all about big things, it could limit you from moving forward with this practice.
The last tip I have for you is finding pens and papers that make you excited to write on them. I have specific pens I like to use as well as a specific gratitude journal. That makes me feel motivated to write down on it every day. If you do not like writing things down, you can also draw what you are grateful for or speak it out loud to somebody in your life.
Conclusion
I know that when I am practicing gratefulness, it helps me to be more patient and more kind throughout the day as I am a little bit more present. I hope this blog will help you start a gratitude practice as well.