How to Actually Practice Gratitude

What are the benefits of practicing gratitude and thankfulness? We hear a lot about practicing these two things, but how do effectively practice them each day?

Join me as we learn how to sow intentionally in the practice of gratitude so that we can reap abundantly and experience the multitude of benefits that come from it. 

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Transcript

We hear this idea of thankfulness or gratitude swirling around our culture all the time. We see and hear quotes about it all over the place - "a grateful heart is a happy heart!” or "choose an attitude of gratitude!" We see that gratitude and thankfulness are important things.

Not only do we hear about thankfulness and gratitude in the form of catchy phrases, we also see it in Scripture. If you read the Bible, or you attend church, or listen to sermons, you also hear about this idea of thankfulness and gratitude through Scripture. Scripture talks a lot about having thanksgiving, rejoicing always, and in everything, giving thanks.

We hear it all the time - we need to be thankful. We need to be grateful. And those are good things! They are great quotes and verses to read. But sometimes it can leave us feeling overwhelmed. Do I practice this? How do I even begin to practice gratitude in my life? Why do I need to practice gratitude? Why is thankfulness so important? I hear that it's good and I need to practice it, but what are some of the benefits from it?

In this short episode today, I'm envisioning that I'm sitting across from you at a coffee shop, or that we're sitting on a couch in the family room. During these few moments together, you and I are tackling two things: why and how. First of all, why? Why do we want to practice gratitude and thankfulness? And secondly, how we can come to know the why so we can practice these things. How do we practically go about doing it?

I found a lot of data and research from Harvard, as well as the American Psychology Association, about the benefits of practicing gratitude - these are all scientifically proven. Not only are they scientifically proven, but I would say that Scripture 100% affirms this data. Below are seven benefits from practicing thankfulness and gratitude that I think are really important:

1. The improvement of your physical health. There is so much research that goes into this, but essentially, when you practice gratitude and thanksgiving, it takes stress off your body. Stress physically affects your body, but practicing gratitude and thankfulness alleviates and reduces that stress. And by reducing stress, it changes your blood pressure and your heart rate. It changes the way your brain is functioning. It can help with symptoms like headaches and migraines. It really improves your physical health.
2. Improves your psychological health. In my research, I read that it really detoxes you from toxic emotions such as jealousy, deceitfulness, and bitterness. And when you rid yourself of those toxic and painful emotions, your mental health becomes much stronger.
3. It enhances your empathy. As you have gratitude and thankfulness, you have more empathy for people.
4. It reduces aggression because you feel more content and at peace with what it is that you have, no matter the circumstances. It helps alleviate aggression - maybe you won't fly off the handle as easily as you once did.
5. It improves sleep - hallelujah! I love some good sleep. And practicing gratitude helps. It improves sleep because there is this state of contentment - all of these benefits work together to help you sleep better.
6. It improves your self esteem because you know who you are, what you have, and what you value. 
7. It increases your mental strength. Because you're practicing thankfulness and gratitude, no matter the circumstances, it creates a resilience inside of you. You can be confident that you can face it head on, that your circumstances don't dictate who you are. It doesn't dictate your values. It doesn't dictate how you take care of yourself personally. And that is an incredible gift to have and to own mentally.

There are more benefits, but these are the ones that I thought stuck out the most to me - improves physical health, improves psychological health, enhances empathy, reduces aggression, improves sleep, improves self esteem, and it increases mental strength.

So you might say - "Okay, I know it's helpful. But how do I implement more gratitude and thankfulness into my life?" I'm going to give you a simple practice that I have been doing for about 5 years now - which blows my mind - and that is daily gratitude journaling.

Daily Gratitude Journaling
When I started doing this, I actually ordered a gratitude journal from Amazon. It had three slots that you would fill in every single day. But now, I just do it in my journal. I take time at the end of the day before I go to sleep, and I write in my regular journal - "I'm thankful for ____". And every night before bed, I write down five things I am grateful for. I always try to make one of those things about Andrew and one of those things about Archie. So, all throughout the day, I'm looking for things to be grateful for because I know at the end of the night, I'm going to have to write something down. 

Now if you don't want to do is before bed, that's totally cool! For the first three-ish years, I actually did it first thing in the morning because I liked getting my morning started that way. However, being a mother, my morning routine looks a little bit different now. So, I do it at night before bed because I have more control over my schedule at that time. And this works really well to do at night because I get to reflect on my day.

I'm also not the only one who does this. My sister Allison does this on a daily basis, I have friends that do this on a daily basis, I have mentors that do this on a daily basis. It is such a healthy practice. And you might say "Anna, I'm not a journaler". Okay - this is gonna be like a little bit of a coaching moment - Make yourself one. I'm not telling you to fill pages of journals. All I'm saying is, if you can start with writing down three things every single day that you're grateful for, it'll be a game changer. And it doesn't have to be a full sentence; you can say, 1. my job, 2. I have a running refrigerator, 3. the electricity is on in my house. I mean, simple, simple statements. Sometimes I write more. Sometimes it's just a word or a sentence. Again, not paragraphs. That's not what I'm looking for. But you've got to start practicing gratitude, and I found that this is the easiest way to implement it in your life. You also don't have to have some bougie moleskin journal or anything, you can use a notebook from Walmart. You can even use a note on your iPhone and make a running list of the things that you're grateful and thankful for.

Friend, this is the season. This is the time to implement this. Don't let another day go by where you just listen to the phrases - “Have an attitude of gratitude”, or a “grateful heart is a happy heart”. Experience it for yourself. Practice gratitude, implement this simple thing. You can do it right now. Literally right now. If there is a post-it note beside you or your phone beside you, bust out a note and write down three things that you're thankful for. For me, it has become a rock in my day - it is unmovable. It is something I do every single day. Five things I'm grateful for and some days, it is even more than that, but I make sure before I go to bed, I do not close my eyes until I write down five things I'm thankful for. Grateful people, thankful people, people who practice it on a regular basis experience so many benefits from it, and I want those for you, too. This has been a game changer in my life for almost five years now. And I know and I believe that if you choose to sow intentionally in this area, you will reap abundantly - You will experience the benefits of thankfulness and gratitude.