Scientific research from the field of positive psychology reports on the many benefits of gratitude to enhance mental-emotional health and well-being. A simple Google search brings up multiple sources for the benefits of gratitude including increasing happiness, cultivating empathy, decreasing depression and lists many more life enhancing benefits.
There is also data suggesting that a gratitude practice may be more beneficial if it is done intermittently as a practice and not as a rote pattern of lip service but rather to take a moment of mindful awareness to notice in the moment what you feel grateful for. Studies also advise that for those who keep a Gratitude Journal, to write a journal entry more intermittently and not as a routine daily habit.
There is no doubt that a moment of reflection on what you feel grateful for is a powerful way to really feel gratitude from your heart.
Gratitude as a feeling is a heart opening experience felt in the present moment when you are truly sincere. It drops you right out of your busy, stressed mind to pause for a moment, notice something you are grateful for and to respond from a place of gratitude either verbally or empathetically. Simply stated, feeling gratitude will lift you up in these five aspects; emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, and sexually. Gratitude shifts your attention from your head into your heart.
Just as defibrillator paddles shock the heart to turn around a lethal heart rhythm, intentional use of gratitude can turn around the loop of your negative inner dialogue and feelings of mental stress and overwhelm.
Whenever you feel like you are riding on a mental-emotional roller coaster of negative thinking such as worry, anxiety and stress, you can take a mindful moment to pause, take a deep breath into your belly and focus on something you feel grateful for (Pause-Notice-Choose). You can take it a step further and name three things you feel grateful for and really pause and take a moment to feel into your gratitude; to lift your mood and create hope in that spontaneous moment. Taking a mindful moment to reflect on gratitude will interrupt the mindless stream of negative thinking and shift your attention away from the negative stream into a positive flow that empowers you.
Where your attention goes is what you are giving power to.
Taking one breath and naming one thing you feel grateful for represents your new focus off the negative thoughts and onto where you want to put your attention, on something that feels good and opens your heart to happiness.
Three deep breaths into your belly and naming three things you are grateful for has the alchemy of the number three from my Shamanic lineage. Three represents life, the element of water, your emotional aspect and the sacred plants who are the givers of energy.
Happiness is associated with three.
Taking four breaths and naming four things you are grateful for, is the number for determination to access a flexible, receptive mind and to feel balance and harmony. Your determination with four breaths clarifies your intent of where you want your focus to be.
Attention = Power in my Shamanic teachings simply means that “where your attention goes is what grows.”
Its empowering to have a tool or a practice you can use to shift your attitude in a moment as an act of empowerment.
Thanksgiving is a holiday we celebrate in America every November where we take a pause and come together with family and friends to feast together and share gratitude for each other and the “harvest” of the year. This holiday is a potent catalyst of gratitude, happiness and connection.
This time of year can feel hectic and stressful for many who are pushing through their holiday preparations and feeling overly busy as the year comes to a close. It may be good stress of planning for festivities or negative stress of having unrealistic time or budget expectations; either one can run you down physically, mentally, or emotionally. Remember you can spontaneously take a mindful moment for gratitude to refocus your mind and drop into your heart to tap into happiness at any point when you feel overwhelmed or caught on the mental-emotional roller coaster during this holiday season.
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