Establishing Your Daily Gratitude Practice
Gratitude is a mindset or orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive in the world. Gratitude is integral to psychological well-being because it focuses on appreciating routine or ordinary positive events in our lives (Nguyen & Le, 2021). Furthermore, a foundational study completed in 2002 linked gratitude to life satisfaction, optimism, hopefulness, and vitality (McCulloch et al., 2002).
Step 1: When to Practice
To see the benefits of a gratitude practice, it’s essential to do it repeatedly – not just occasionally. How do you find a way to make it a regular, day-to-day practice? The first step is to accept that gratitude can become a habit. That's because habits help us obtain our goals by reducing our reliance on conscious awareness and motivation to perform an intended behavior. When behavior and environment are repeatedly associated, the brain goes on automatic to perform the new habit. Many habits in our daily lives provide opportunities to connect a new behavior to an existing habit. This is called “habit stacking”. For example, linking changing batteries on the smoke alarm to daylight savings time, brushing your teeth to prompt flossing, or taking vitamins with meals. What established habits in your daily life would work to link your gratitude practice? For example, when you awaken, at mealtime, or at bedtime? For information on how to establish a habit, see our blog series on Establishing Habits. Click here for Part 1 – A New Approach.
Step 2: How to Practice
Once you determine when you will practice, the next step is to establish what type of gratitude practice you want to do. There are many ways to practice, and it is best to pick just one to start. Once you have consistently done it for a few weeks, you can always try another one to keep your practice from becoming a mindless process. Here are just a few ideas on how to get started.
Keep a journal, either electronic or paper. Start with a commitment to only write one thought of gratitude per day. This makes it easy and attainable.
Involve the whole family. Try keeping a gratitude jar where everyone adds their gratitude thoughts each day. You might have each person choose a different color paper for their daily gratitude thoughts. It might be fun to see which is the dominant color in the jar. Maybe a little friendly family competition?
Try finding a silver lining to negative experiences. Try thinking about the worst moments of your life and then contrast them with what is happening now. Consider how you survived, endured, and flourished into the person you are today.
Explore what makes life meaningful. Consider the daily opportunity to take control of your experiences by becoming aware of the moments in your life that add to its meaning, such as hugging someone you love.
Consider what you appreciate most about yourself. Consider what makes you unique and special. As you bring these positive thoughts to mind, try to visualize them as an invisible coat of armor protecting you from daily challenges and hardships.
Consider what you have in common with others. With COVID-19, we have all been affected in some way. Take a moment to reflect on how your experiences are similar to others. Once you have that in mind, consider what you might do or say to be of more support to others.
Identify one person each day to thank. Set an intention to express gratitude to at least one person in your life. Not in a casual habitual way but a genuine, specific way.
Power of 3. The "Power of Threes" exercise helps you remember the little things you appreciate. You can write them down on a piece of paper or keep a note on your phone. All you do is take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. Then, ask yourself, "What am I grateful for?". Write down at least three things and keep the list going. In challenging times, you can go back to this list and be reminded of all the good things in your life.
Gratitude at work. Whether you're the boss or a team member, why not begin a yearlong practice to show your appreciation? A straightforward way to do this is to write a personal note each week. Today, a handwritten note is a unique artifact that demonstrates the person writing the message went above and beyond. Expressing thanks to colleagues may feel awkward or counter-cultural in your workplace, but it's worth the risk to make someone's day. The key is to be sincere and specific about what you appreciate!
If you have access to the Levelhead app, there are many audio gratitude practices. In the Learning to Thrive track, there are seven to help keep you going. If you don't have access to our app, click here to receive periodic audio exercises throughout the 30-Day Gratitude challenge.
One final thought. Don’t give up if you miss a day or two (or even more) during this challenge. This happens to everyone. Just be kind to yourself and know that you aren’t alone. All that matters is that you start it again as soon as you can. It’s worth the effort.
References
McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(1), 112–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/ 0022-3514.82.1.112
Nguyen, T. M., & Le, G. N. H. (2021). The influence of COVID-19 stress on psychological well-being among Vietnamese adults: The role of self-compassion and gratitude. Traumatology.