When I’m feeling down, in a funk, unmotivated, snippy, negative, alone, nothing is right, I have found that pausing and expressing gratitude never fails to shift my mood. And it’s so easy. Anyone can do it. It only takes a minute. And then, boom, my perspective has shifted, my energy feels lighter, solutions seem clearer, I’m now a problem solver, I have a renewed sense of hope. It really does work. It’s so simple and it’s so effective.
I venture to guess this isn’t the first time you’ve read about the power of gratitude, but somehow we forget about it. I’ve started placing those things I don’t want to forget more front and center in my life. Here are a few ways to do that. Write or draw a reminder of the thing you want to remember and place it around your house, work, car. You can use sticky notes, screens savers, paint a quote, make an art piece. There are so many ways to capture the things you are learning and create visual reminders of them. We need those visual reminders! I know I do. We tend to forget. So write it down. Make a vision board. These things don’t need to be pretty or creative or perfect in any way. Of course, if you want to get super fancy, go for it. But sometimes that’s a barrier to getting it done. Get an empty and clean peanut butter jar and fill it with quotes on sticky notes and read them occasionally. Yes, it can be that simple. Or just make a screen saver on your phone something that reminds you to be grateful, so every time you look at your phone, you’re reminded to be grateful.
Here’s why gratitude is the answer. It helps us get unstuck, so we can see all the other options. When we feel like we’re alone and we’re down, there is little to no movement forward. We’re stagnant. We tend to sit in that. And most of the time talking about how awful we feel isn’t going to help us feel better. We need to get unstuck. Being grateful will shift the mood, lift the veil, so we will then call that friend, go on a walk, drink that cold glass of water, do some meditation, roll out that yoga mat, apologize, get back to work and build our confidence, finish what we started, choose to let it go, have that hard conversation, get rid of that old shirt, etc. Gratitude helps us move forward.
One last tip. Practice being grateful for the big things like your health, your family, etc. (if that is relevant for you), but also for the small things (the Spring flowers, your morning cup of coffee, the good traffic on your way to work). And be still in your gratitude until you feel a shift in your body. You’ll notice a shift. Usually, your body will start to relax, you’ll unclench muscles you didn’t even know where tight, your breathing will start to be deeper and slower- things like that. So pay attention. Once you feel the shift, you’ll start to have more clarity around the options that are available to you and you’ll be able to move forward.