Category: Depression Skills

gratitude therapy in a nutshell
Emma McAdam, LMFT

The Healing Power of Gratitude

One of the easiest ways to practice gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal. Choose a regular time each day to just write down a couple things you’re grateful for. You could even use social media as a way to express gratitude. Try this little experiment right now- for 7 days post what you’re grateful for on your social media-and see how that changes how you feel.
There’s some other ways too-
Write a letter of gratitude to someone
Tell a coworker or friend something you appreciate about them
Sit in a quiet place and think about when something went well-bring to mind how it felt. Practice that feeling every day for a week. Anything you can do to strengthen that feeling of gratitude and contentment will help you foster an abundant mindset. Write it down, talk about it, re-live it, meditate on it.
A regular practice of gratitude can change your brain structure by thickening neural pathways. Hebb’s law says that “neurons that fire together, wire together.” That means that the more you practice gratitude, the better you get at it. Your brain gets better at looking for more of that and it gets easier to feel grateful and happy. So for example, if you consciously notice how beautiful the sky is, you’ll be more likely to notice the beautiful sky again and feel gratitude again. Even though the sky is always there, the focus on gratitude is like a signal to your brain to notice it.

You really can change your brain, small and simple changes like this, add up over time to rewire your brain and make you healthier and happier. So choose one way today that you’re going to start practicing gratitude- and tell me about it in the comments.

Read More »

Business Inquiry