Studies have shown that practicing gratitude can benefit your mental health significantly. It can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while improving your mood, your self-esteem, and optimism. Gratitude can also strengthen your relationships, which improves your social support and feeling of community. It’s even been suggested that gratitude might even lower your blood pressure and strengthen your immune system.
With all of those benefits, take a moment to think. How often do you practice gratitude? Is it part of your everyday life, or is it just something you think about around special holidays? It could be worth it to start integrating gratitude into your daily life. That’s the best way to see how much it can benefit you. There are plenty of ways to integrate gratitude into your daily life. The more you integrate gratitude and make a point to notice it, the more gratitude you’ll notice yourself feeling on a regular basis.
A good way to integrate gratitude is through journaling. Whether in the morning or the evening, take a few minutes to write down a few things that you’re grateful for that day. Make sure you have variety, so you’re not just writing the same thing over and over again. Personally, I like to do this in the evening, so I can reflect on my day and think of things I’m grateful for that occurred throughout the day. Some people find it easier to do so in the morning, though. Whatever works for you is the right way to do it.
Conversation is another good way to integrate gratitude. Make it a point to mention things you’re grateful for when you’re grateful for them. This can look like expressing gratitude to someone when they do something you’re grateful for, right in the moment. Doing so can uplift you and the other person. Two birds with one stone, right? It can also look like saying out loud things you’re grateful for, whether that’s to someone else or just to yourself. Mindfulness will help you be more aware of what you’re grateful for when you’re grateful.
If you’re not around the people you’re grateful for on a daily basis, you can send thank you notes, either through the physical mail or by shooting them a text. You might be surprised by how excited people are to hear from you, and to hear that you’re grateful for them.
You can also keep track of what you’re grateful for with a gratitude jar. Write down what you’re grateful for on a slip of paper and store it in a jar. If you do this regularly, it can be fun to read back through the papers yearly and remind yourself of all of the things you were grateful for in the past year.
Gratitude walks or meditation can help you with being mindful of gratitude. While you take a walk, pay attention to what’s around you and tell yourself the things you’re grateful for, either around you or from recent experiences. Meditation helps you focus on your feelings and the present moment. This is an excellent way to think about what you’re grateful for in the moment.
A small way that I used to integrate gratitude was with Instagram. Once a week or so, I would post a picture and use the caption to express at least three things I was grateful for that day. Even though it wasn’t daily, it made me more aware of the good things around me and what I was truly grateful for.
Obviously, there are plenty of ways to integrate gratitude into your daily life. It might take a little bit of time to make it a habit, but start with being aware of the things and people around you that you’re grateful for, and expressing that gratitude to the people around you. See how grateful your mental health starts being for you.
How do you integrate gratitude into your daily life? What practices work best for you?