How does GRATITUDE affect your mental health?

Since positive psychology evolved, many findings have come about regarding positive thinking. We nowadays hear words like, “Be Positive,” Think positive”, “Positive thinking helps to grow faster”, “look into the positive side of anything” etc.

This concept of positive thinking, visualisation or imagination became so famous after “The Secret” was published. Many people are fascinated with the idea of positive thinking and imagination. But still, many people have lots of doubts and questions regarding positive thinking or positive psychology. Today I am sharing with you one of the most important topics about “GRATITUDE”.

Gratitude is only one single dimension of positive psychology. As a positive psychologist, I also believe that thinking positively even in the worst situation helps a human mindset to be calm. stay confident, feel less anxious, able to control and understand emotions. Above all one can feel so happy and serene. Like they feel deattached from situations. people and outcomes.

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is one of the streams of psychology that focuses on mental well-being, happiness, and state of flow. It does not address problems and weaknesses but identifies mental assets like courage, developing a strong positive attitude, building skills, acceptance, resilience, state of flow, happiness, bliss etc. In simple words, positive psychology encourages one to become self-worthy enough so one can get lots of happiness. Rather one is crying for rotten bread.

Positive psychology helps a person to make bread. However, positive psychology is criticised because it neglects the core negative area and emphasises the positive area of life. But it should not be denied that if one only focuses on and targets negative areas all the time there is always a chance to feel like a victim. Let’s discuss GRATITUDE one of the parts of Positive Psychology.

What is Gratitude?

So many people are still unaware of Gratitude and how to practice it. Gratitude is an act of being thankful towards people, things, situations and life. As a human, we have been blessed by so many things. And we never pay anything for those blessings.

We are blessed by our bodies, the air which we breathe, the water which we drink, the food which we eat and so much more. If we count some of the blessings we could not even make it in the factory. Like air or water. We all are blessed for someone’s kind act of innovation so we can live our lives with this zest.

Gratitude is an act of observation to see the positive side rather than just the negative side. Gratitude is something to look at what is there rather than what is lacking. Because our human mind is never satisfied with what we have. It always looks for inadequacy and feels inadequacy. We all tend to cry for problems but never tend to feel good for what we have. This attitude always creates negativity.

We feel our life is unfair. We are always surrounded by problems rather than solutions. We crib for small small things. But never say “Thank you” for big things as mentioned earlier. Gratitude helps to grow you faster as your vision never sticks to inadequacy but simultaneously looks for achievements and blessings as well.  Gratitude does not mean ignoring or overlooking the negative or problematic side of life.

But by practicing Gratitude one can achieve strength and courage which helps to deal with negative emotions. When you feel depressed and anxious everything you observe is all or nothing. There is a rule of overgeneralization applied to all information. This makes a person more vulnerable and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness are absorbed which influence thoughts, emotions and behaviours.

How to practice Gratitude?

As you learn about Gratitude. You may think let me try once. So here I am putting a practical activity which helps you practice gratitude. Gratitude can be practised for any live or dead thing, person or even for any situation. Because Gratitude is a deliberate act of being positive. In this practice, you need a paper or pen. Or you may use your devices also for writing. You also make a special Gratitude journal.

Step 1: List of the things you are grateful for:

As mentioned earlier Gratitude is a deliberate action. Hence you can select any dead things also which make your life very easy and you can get so much of benefit. When you follow the below chart then you will also observe certain unobserved things as well. Mention them as well. You will be more conscious now onwards when you were not there.

I am feeling good and blessed which I never thought earlier.

Step 2: List of the Situations:

In our lives, we only memorise good situations and experiences. But we never become a person by good situations. Always challenging and problematic situations make us something. When we think about them we feel sad, depressed and distressed. Because those situations have given us pain and sorrow. But today take any of the situations which make you vulnerable or sad.

Think opportunities you were getting from that situation. Yes, that situation was a very tough time in your life. But that time only empowered you to become something. Rather you see and correlate every situation with that situation just observe opportunities you got from which have improved you and developed you.

The practice of this particular activity will help you to overcome your regret and curse feelings. Because as much as you build hatred feelings that much you become negative. As it affects your core belief about yourself, others and this world.

But when you find opportunities in unwanted and distressed situations you start building strength and a positive attitude towards negative situations as well. It builds up your confidence and resilience attitude in you. Once you rate yourself you feel your feelings which gives you more optimistic feelings about that situation.

Step 3: List of the People:

Lots of people help us directly or indirectly. Many of them we come across and some of them we never come across. Here, I will take the example of a farmer. He never met me and I never saw him. But he worked hard to sow food for me and this humanity. But because of him, many survived on this mother earth. So when I feel grateful for him I feel grateful for the food I have at the dinner table. I never experienced how and what processing has been done. But I am blessed that I am getting which fills my hunger.

When you feel grateful for those whom you never met you start observing consciously those things which you took up till now as granted. You become more alert and conscious before you make any complaint. Before you feel the frustration of something going wrong in parking or the situation of too much traffic. You get back your resilience and start observing good things. Because after this practice you may look for more blessings rather look for complaints.

Example: I am so grateful that I am getting twenty-four hours of electricity. Which gives me light in the darkness. Thank you to power generated house and the people working there. because of them, I am blessed with Electricity.

When you practice Gratitude you feel good and automatically your senses draw your attention towards those things which empower you. When you feel gratitude your tendency to complain and crib for small rotten things will change. You become more observant and conscious before you take any pessimistic thought. You think twice about which thought you want to think and then you will empower yourself with the optimistic one.

How does Gratitude affect your mental well-being?

As you might start practising while reading this article. You immediately feel good or maybe overwhelmed a little as well. Because then your mind will give all noticeable items which you have never observed. All humans on this earth are suffering from hedonic adaptation.

Hedonic adaptation is where we come to a stable level of happiness despite having positive or negative situations. Due to this we never acknowledge those things which we get at no cost. Like Sunlight, oxygen, the body etc. When you start observing those things your mind will be trained to see things which are more positive and healthy.

Boost your confidence Level:

As you observed yourself in a difficult situation and the way you have handled it. It boosts your confidence level. Because you now understand your ability, strength and capacity to deal with difficult times. You will always prepare yourself for tough times. And without having a single pessimistic thought you become more optimistic. Because here you judge yourself with situations and people. You build confidence because you only dealt with it. You now understand your weaknesses and limitations which you can overcome with it easily.

Build a more resilient Attitude:

Attitude matters most. When you know that you are confident enough and have self-trust that you can solve any problem you develop a resilient attitude. You become flexible with any situation. And try to accommodate yourself with it by accepting it. Then you change it accordingly. Remember when you learn to be grateful you also learn much about acceptance. Rather than becoming adamant you are more flexible to the situation and change gradually according to your expectations.

Less Complaining more blessings (More calm and balance mind):

As you decide one or two days as gratitude days. You are more focused towards blessings. When you list your blessings you also can count positive things rather than negative things. You slowly develop a tendency to see good things and points first rather than negative ones. This attitude gives you a calm and serene mind. You have more control over your anger and frustration. You become within yourself. And never judge others based on their communications and behaviours which help you to be more natural with yourself.

Draw your Limit:

When you can see and feel what gives you happiness and calm mind you love to be there. When you understand your mind you also can understand toxicity. Sometimes we are so absorbed in others that we forget ourselves. And that leads to more toxicity. Because then we start expecting them to behave the way we want. When you understand that your interactions with certain people, places and situations make you more vulnerable you start developing boundaries. You will feel grateful and make your strong way which gives of flow state and happiness.

You learn Forgiveness:

When you are grateful for negative events and count on your opportunities you find yourself in the mode of forgiving others. Because we accept that everyone has their thoughts and insecurities. Every human has a purpose in their life. But some may contradict us. When we feel grateful we become stronger to forgive that person because when you introspect deep down you find opportunities to solve that problem or challenge.

Criticism for Gratitude

Gratitude practice has been criticised also because by ignoring or avoiding negative things one cannot build up a strong empire. This statement in a way is right but with the approach of a narrow point. Because if you want to change your perception, cognition and behaviours which give you long-term happiness and a serene mind. The practice of gratitude is the first step to achieving.

Because it never taught us to overlook negative points but it asks for more acceptance. As when you accept something you are in a position to change. Because you are not resisting with the reality. To be grateful is a practice of becoming a positive person. Which builds a strong character and personality. By accepting and being grateful for difficult times your willpower becomes stronger to reach to expected results.

Hope you get quite a good insight into one of the practices of Positive Psychology. For any questions, you may contact us or book an appointment for a session.

Thank you. Be always Grateful.