Best Kept Secret

Practicing gratefulness may be the best kept secret to help reduce stress and feel better. Practicing gratitude every day can have a significant benefit to our physical and emotional well-being.

-The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention-

For more information from the CDC, visit Gratitude/How Right Now

I appreciate more validation of the value of living gratefully. Don’t let the word practice throw you. It’s the kind of practice similar to practicing breathing deeply, being more kind and gentle to others and ourselves, paying attention to our five senses and to Nature’s splendor. Like any practice, it has tedious moments, but when I become more and more open, it seems less and less like work.

Living gratefully is most effective when actions and emotions are paired, when we engage our senses and our thoughts together to deepen an experience. If you go to research articles about the benefits of practicing gratitude, they often refer to early studies that had college students write down several gratitudes a few times a week.

It proved effective in supporting mental and physical well-being and also had lasting impact. This is how my practice began over 25 years ago–a daily practice of writing down things, people, and experiences for which I am grateful. I was fairly early in my alcoholism recovery and still stuck in the default mode of self-pity and “all or nothing” thinking. This practice began to loosen the grip of my own toxic emotions enough for me to start moving forward in transformative ways.

It is still part of my practice, and there is also so much more.

Starting a pot of coffee, listening to the sounds, then breathing in the aroma of the brewing process, heightens my appreciation of those first sips.

Stepping outside in the winter wonderland we have today, I feel the cold air, walk cautiously on icy surfaces, hear the crunching of ice and snow beneath my boots. It is a visceral moment of gratefulness and connection.

What are some of your visceral moments?

Living gratefully creates a generous energy individually and collectively. It opens doors and windows. It doesn’t ignore or gloss over pain and challenging times. It allows us to move through such times with more clarity and resilience.

All of this fits nicely with my word for the year: GENEROSITY. More on that in my next post. Onward!