Benefits:
The benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. People who regularly practice gratitude by taking time to notice and reflect upon the things they’re thankful for experience more happiness, feel more alive, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and even have stronger immune systems.
We would suggest you do this practise in the morning to start the day. If you begin your day with setting your mind to a positive state you’ll set yourself up for success that day.
Actions:
The practise takes 10 minutes. The eventual goal is to do it daily.
First 5 minutes – Gratitude List:
- Write down 3 things in your life or in the world that you are grateful for.
- Here’s the fun…they need to be fresh things each day (they can’t be a repeat from the last couple of weeks).
- If you’re struggling to think of new things, a helpful tool can be to think about things that you sometimes begrudge doing and feel like you “Have to do”. Flip these around to “Get to”, rather than “Have to” (i.e. “I have to pick up my kids from school” becomes “I get to pick up my kids from school”…there are many people in the world who don’t have kids and wish they did. Or “I have to go to work” becomes “I get to go to work”…there are plenty of people out there without a job who would really appreciate one.)
Second 5 minutes – Affirmations:
- Create 1-3 Positive Affirmations and chant them for 5 mins+
- Positive affirmations can be used to re-program your thought patterns and change the way you think and feel about things. They are short positive statements that can help you focus on goals, get rid of negative, self-defeating beliefs and program your subconscious mind.
- If you’ve been using the Journal tool then you may have already created some new empowering beliefs to temper emotions that have come up. These can be used for this practise.
Here are some examples of positive affirmations related to various areas of personal development:
- I know, accept and am true to myself.
- I believe in myself
- I trust and have confidence in myself.
- I eat well, exercise regularly and get plenty of rest to enjoy good health.
- I learn from my mistakes.
- I know I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.
- I forgive myself for not being perfect because I know I’m human.
- I never give up.
- I accept what I cannot change.
- I make the best of every situation.
- I look for humour and fun in as many situations as possible.
- I enjoy life to the fullest.
- I stand up for my beliefs, values and morals.
- I treat others with respect and appreciate their individuality.
- I accept others for who they are.
- I contribute my talents and knowledge for the good of all.
- I make a difference whenever I can.
- I practice patience, understanding and compassion with others as well as myself.
- I commit to learning new things.
- I strive to be open-minded.
- I endeavour to be the best that I can be.
- I live in the moment while learning from the past and preparing for the future.
Have fun creating your own and tailoring them to suit your own needs and tastes. You can look online for inspiration if you need more ideas.
You might feel silly at first doing these practises. That’s okay. But once you’ve done them for a little while, you’ll start to notice big changes in how you feel and how you react to situations that might have troubled you more in the past.