Today I’ll touch upon the importance of gratitude.
Did you know that finding time to be grateful for all the blessings in your life actually can help to bring you even more blessings in abundance?
This is because a happy, positive outlook creates good feelings which are then shared with others to intensify the positive feelings all around.
There is even science behind the benefit of gratitude. Positive psychology studies have been conducted which show that people who take part in a daily gratitude practice manage to reduce stress levels and increase feelings of happiness and well being. Not only does this brighten their outlook, but actual beneficial brain chemicals such as oxytocin are released as a result of the positive change in thinking. These feel-good chemicals work to calm the nervous system and take us out of fight or flight mode.
Not being perpetually stressed allows us to slow down and live our lives in a mindful, rather than reactive, mode.
When we take the time needed to plan, strategize and think through our problems, we tend to bring about increasingly useful results that have far reaching effects on those with whom we deal.
Journaling Exercise: Take Time to Be Grateful
For today’s journaling exercise, I’ll get into a gratitude frame of mind. Gratitude is one of those ways of being that start out with purposeful intent. In the same way that hanging around negative, sarcastic people can change your thoughts to become negative and sarcastic, having a positive outlook is something that can be taught to our brains through repetition.
So for today’s journal, grab your writing tool and trusty notebook or journal.
Jot down five things to be grateful for today. Even if today was a bad day, and lots of things happened that inconvenienced you or slowed you down from making progress in your life… find something positive in the challenges you faced.
For example, suppose that today you came home to a sink full of dishes, which made you feel grumpy after a long day at work.
This prompted you to create a chore list for the family so that everyone is much less likely to come home to messes at the end of a busy day.
This is something positive because it will help your family become more organized and you’ll spend less time cleaning up during those moments when you’d like to cook, eat and enjoy your favorite activities together.
Set Your Intention:
Once you complete your journaling exercise, you’ll have some good ideas about what sorts of intentions you can set for yourself in the name of being more grateful.
Gratitude doesn’t have to be a chore or burden. In fact, you can simply set aside just 10 minutes of your time to write down or think of all the blessings that came to you on this day.
Before long, gratitude will become habit, and you’ll find that all sorts of positive people and situations have begun to manifest in your life!
Stay Safe and Be Well
The Positive Professional 🙂
The Positive Professional 