Gratitude: The simple power

 There's a famous saying about focus, "Whatever you focus in life, grows". If you focus on shit, shit grows, and if you focus on good things, good things grows. So the topic for today is going to be gratitude. One of the most important aspects of life is not to focus on what you don't have but to focus on what you have, so what you have grows. Obviously, when we talk about things like gratitude, we first have to delve into the most fundamental aspects, what exactly does gratitude really mean? On a higher level we all know it correlates to the appreciation of the things that we have in life. But how do scientists define it? 

According to Dr. Colvin's blog , gratitude has 3 parts to it: 

1. Being thankful for the good things in your life. 

2. Being thankful for the people that made your life better. 

3. Adopting new behaviours like having more sympathy, greater appreciation of life and being less judgemental, as a result of interacting with the people that you interact with.

Now that we know what gratitude is? Let's think about the reason we really need gratitude or better put, the importance of gratitude. 

A lot of times, we battle through tough times in our lives, whether that's professionally or personally, we all go through certain situations which are bad or not favourable. It's very easy to lose hope in circumstances like a layoff, a chronic health disease, a death of a loved one, accidental loss, etc. And in that moment of weakness, there's a good chance that we can succumb to life and not deal with the losses with the right attitude. Even during such times, there's always something that you can be grateful for and that's what makes life worthwhile. You can always look forward during the tough moments and its always teh tough moments that makes an individual and not the weak moments. So when I asked chatgpt to tell me reasons on why gratitude is really important, these are the points that chatgpt gave on a higher level: 

1. Enhances Mental Health:

   • Reduces Stress and Anxiety: Practicing gratitude can lower levels of stress and anxiety by shifting focus from negative to positive aspects of life.
   • Improves Mood: Regularly acknowledging and appreciating the good in life can lead to a more positive mood and overall outlook.
   • Fosters Resilience: Gratitude can help individuals bounce back from adversity by fostering a positive mindset.

2. Strengthens Relationships:

   • Increases Social Bonds: Expressing gratitude to others strengthens relationships by showing appreciation and fostering a sense of connection.
   • Promotes Social Support: Grateful individuals are more likely to receive support from others, as their positive attitude attracts people.
   • Enhances Empathy: Gratitude can increase empathy and reduce aggression, leading to more harmonious interactions.

3. Improves Physical Health:

   • Better Sleep: People who practice gratitude tend to sleep better and longer, as gratitude reduces negative thoughts that can interfere with sleep.
   • Boosts Immunity: A positive outlook can improve immune function, making the body more resistant to illness.
   • Encourages Healthy Habits: Grateful individuals are more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors, such as exercising regularly and attending regular check-ups.

4. Promotes Overall Well-being:

   • Increases Life Satisfaction: Regular gratitude practice is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness.
   • Cultivates a Positive Attitude: Gratitude shifts focus from what one lacks to what one has, fostering contentment and reducing feelings of envy or frustration.
   • Enhances Self-esteem: Recognizing and appreciating one's achievements and the support received from others can boost self-esteem and confidence.

5. Encourages Mindfulness and Present-Moment Awareness:

• Increases Present-Moment Awareness: Gratitude encourages people to focus on the present moment and appreciate it, reducing tendencies to dwell on the past or worry about the future.
• Promotes Mindfulness: By being grateful, individuals become more mindful of the positive aspects of their lives, enhancing their overall mindfulness practice.

The above answer is no mine but I have pasted it directly from chatgpt. If you look at it, gratitude is affecting every area of your life, your mental health is becoming better through gratitude, relationships improve, the physical health also improves and so does your mindfulness and awareness in the present. So I mean to say is probably every aspect of our lives improves with gratitude. So by this time we all know that gratitude is affecting every aspect of our lives. 

The big question is why do we not practice gratitude? Is it the lack of knowledge? Social comparison makes us believe that there's something we lack, but gratitude makes you believe that there are a lot of things you have in life, that are priceless or invaluable. It's this state of being that we want to be in, we want to be happier but we don't to practice gratitude. It's like saying we want to pass an exam without studying. I feel we are not doing gratitude exercises because we have never thought our mental health to be important. We want to complete 10 projects in 10 days and achieve that goal, but we can't spend 15 minutes thinking about what we are grateful for in life. Another reason is awareness, we just don't know act a gratitude journal or a diary means and what's the kind of exercises we need to do to in order to be more grateful. 

Out here, I am enlisting all the things that we can do to increase gratitude, we just need 15 minutes not more. 

1. Gratitude Journal : Probably the most popular one, just write down 3-5 things daily that you are grateful for in your personal life, your professional life and 3-5 things about yourself that you are grateful for. The idea is to do this exercise every single day and actually think about the things that make your life easier without saying. 

2. Gratitude Letter: Write a letter to someone whom you want to thank occasionally. 

3. Meditation : You can also do many gratitude meditations available on either YouTube or books that can be a good starting point. 

But the most consistent here in my opinion is a gratitude journal, it can be either digital or handwritten but it's very easy to keep a journal everyday and write things there. So yeah at the end of the day be grateful and lead a happy life. 

I really have too many quotes but don't want to post all of them as most of them say very similar things on the line of advantages. Thank you for reading this blog ! Have a good one :)