ADVANCING OUR GRATITUDE PRACTICE THIS THANKSGIVING

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“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It’s very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe to others.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

GRATITUDE BEYOND THANKSGIVING

An Australian friend of mine recently remarked that the combination of food, family, and good friends made Thanksgiving his favorite American holiday. It’s also one of mine. His comment reminded me that I’ve never experienced a Thanksgiving I didn’t enjoy despite weather disruptions, a death in the family, and relocating to a new home during the holiday.

While it’s hard not to give thanks during this season, it’s easy to lose sight of the powerful role a gratitude practice can play throughout the year. On a continuum, gratitude practices range from the basic skill of regularly saying thanks, to an intermediate practice of recording things we’re thankful for in a diary or journal, to an advanced practice of reflecting on how the things we’re thankful for can reveal patterns illustrating the positive trends that operate in our lives. A basic gratitude practice enables us to successfully meet social expectations, but adopting more advanced methods deepens our practice and yields far greater benefits for ourselves and our communities. 

ADVANCED PRACTICES REVEAL EVERYDAY MAGIC

Most of us learned basic expressions of gratitude as children. For example, when our friend’s six-year-old asked for a banana from the fruit basket on our kitchen counter, he knew to say please and thank you. 

We can build on this foundational practice by training our attention to regularly notice things we are grateful for and writing them down in a journal or notebook. This intermediate practice increases our feelings of joy, optimism, and positivity. When we focus on what we are thankful for, we become better at noticing what’s right instead of what’s wrong, and as a result, negative feelings such as fear, anger, and frustration diminish. 

If we advance our practice further by consistently writing in our gratitude journals and reflecting upon our entries, we may find—as I did recently—the everyday magic that occurs when things that initially seemed negative coalesce to yield highly positive results in the end.

For example, our mailbox was recently destroyed by a passing car; several weeks of effort were required to settle the claim with the driver’s insurance company and have it replaced. Less than two weeks after the new mailbox was installed, it was destroyed by another vehicle. Although I was disappointed as I picked up the pieces of wood and metal, I suddenly realized that we had an option to relocate our mailbox near a drain culvert which would prevent cars or trucks from running into it. At that moment, our mailman suddenly appeared and helped me identify a spot that would meet the postal service’s requirements. Our second new mailbox looks great and functions better in its new location. 

Writing about and reflecting on events in my gratitude journal has helped me recognize how frequently my experiences turn out better than I could ever have expected. This encourages me to keep a positive outlook even when things seem negative on the surface.

GRATITUDE FOSTERS POSITIVITY

As we advance in our gratitude practices, we begin to adopt more positive points of view about life. 

It’s easy for us to only notice life’s problems, which form the basis of most media messages we see. Problems are more dramatic, hijack our attention, and foster negative emotions. As a consequence, we have gotten into the habit of focusing our attention on problems, traumas, and tragedies. 

The good news is that practicing gratitude at advanced levels automatically redirects our attention to the good things that we would otherwise overlook. It elevates our mood, optimism, positive emotions, and ultimately our overall point of view. This creates a state of positivity that builds the mental and emotional capacity needed to attain high levels of health and well-being. 

ADVANCING YOUR GRATITUDE PRACTICE THIS THANKSGIVING

Although research validates the many benefits of maintaining an advanced gratitude practice, most of us practice at the basic level we learned as children—a level that is inadequate for the demands of today’s hyper-accelerated society. Cultivating personal gratitude gives us the means to create positive mindsets and points of view needed to function and prosper today. 

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to ponder these ideas and commit to an action plan—one that will be easier to achieve by using the tools and resources of the High Health Network. If you want the benefits that an advanced gratitude practice offers, contact us to get started today. 

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems
Lead Expert for The High Health Network

Photo by Monstara on Pexels

Sincerely,
Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems