Gratitude

Gratitude is probably one of the most easiest things that we can do to increase our wellbeing and positivity, it is simple easy to do and scientific research says that it has been found to have a lasting effect even after you have stopped writing down the things you are grateful for.

Commonly known as the founder of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman is a leading authority in the field of Positive Psychology, his ‘Three Good things’ exercise is intended to increase happiness and a sense of wellbeing. This is carried out by a simple method of redirecting a persons attention towards positive thoughts as opposed to negative ones.

As we have evolved as humans over time we have developed a tendency to spend much more time thinking about negative experiences rather than positive ones. We seem to spend time replaying bad experiences or events in our head and then trying to fix them or imagine how we would do it differently, if it did happen again, which is highly unlikely that it will. When we replay these experiences it is almost like we are not accepting that they  have happened and no matter how much energy we put into replaying the event and trying out different scenarios we are never going to be able to change that particular event and time in our life, it is the past and that is where it will remain.

For humans today this negative bias of thinking can be the case of anxiety, depression and general a lack of well being. By redirecting our thoughts to more positive experiences we can start to correct this negative bias. it has been said that gratitude is a strength of heart as it forges an emotional bond. This bond can be likened to something small like saying thank you. How many times a day do we say thank you to people or are thanked by others, this transmittance of gratitude to and from others can make a difference to our day and to our feeling of happiness. I believe gratitude goes a long way to opening our hearts and increasing emotional wellbeing and inner happiness, using the “Three Good Things” exercise we can learn to be grateful and give thanks for the things we give and receive on a daily basis. I have carried out this exercise on many occasions and my experience is that it really does help, my advice when carrying out this exercise would be to make sure that you give meaning to what you are writing about and really think how it made you feel and why.

By writing down what we are grateful for that stay it allows us to stop and pause, reflect back on our day and start looking through our memory files for good things that happened. This is so much more rewarding than looking for bad things or replaying negative experiences. I am sure we all have those too. But let’s find the positive ones, that made us smile or laugh or just feel lucky to be alive today.

Exercise

I recommend the best way to start this exercise is every evening, you should write down three things that had happened during the day that you are grateful for (you can write more if you want but as minimum find three). In addition try to write down how this made you feel and what had caused the feelings of gratitude (it doesn’t have to be long a sentence or two will suffice). Try this for one week and assess how you are feeling at the end of the week, then continue for another two weeks and see if there is any increased positive change in your mood and emotions.

Happy feelings of gratitude and joy to you all

Donna x