It’s hard to believe that something as simple as a gratitude practice can change your life, but the truth is there are multiple gratitude practice benefits. Gratitude has the capacity to take you from miserable, living from a place of lack and constant comparison to happiness, thriving, and living in abundance.
This post is all about the 10 Unbelievable Gratitude Practice Benefits that Will Change Your Life
I personally used to be someone who never felt like anything was enough, and sometimes still struggle with this idea of “not enough”. I constantly compared myself to others and, truthfully, was a miserable b*tch (sound familiar?). A lot of my behavior was subconscious, and it wasn’t until I went through a very emotional breakup that brought me to my bottom that I made a change.
If you’re someone who always feels like your life is lacking or who compares yourself to others, then you may need to adopt a gratitude practice.
What is a gratitude practice?
We’ve established why you may want to start a gratitude practice but maybe you’re still confused about what classifies as one.
A gratitude practice is quite simply an activity or action that you take to express and experience gratitude.
There are multiple ways you can practice gratitude, one of the easiest ways is to list what you’re grateful for. If you’re a morning girlie you can draft your list as part of your morning routine, but if late nights are more your thing you can draft your list at the end of the day.
10 benefits of gratitude
1. Gratitude Creates Increased Optimism
As someone who perpetually saw the glass as half full I can ensure you that practicing gratitude will give you a more optimistic view of life. By no means does gratitude remove systemic barriers or take away very real issues and negative experiences, but it can be a supportive tool. There is always something to be grateful for, even if it’s being able to open your eyes and breathe that day. Life truly is a gift, and when we’re in awe of those gifts we’re optimistic about receiving more.
2. Minimizes Anxiety and Depression
This may be self-explanatory after benefit number one, however, gratitude is scientifically proven to minimize anxiety and depression. A UC Davis Health research study showed that gratitude is linked to lowering cortisol (stress hormone) levels by 23% and higher levels of oxytocin (UC Davis Health, Gratitude is Good Medicine, 2015). Patients in their study who were practicing gratitude were experiencing lower levels of anxiety and depression.
3. Improves Our Self Esteem
You know that one hype girlfriend who’s always gassing you up in your comments? That’s what having a gratitude practice does for your life. You become your own number-one hype girl gassing up all the aspects of your life you appreciate. It would be hard not to have good self-esteem when you’re constantly being told how amazing your life is.
4. GRATITUDE Speeds up Manifestation
Okay, things might get a little woo-woo here so buckle in. Gratitude is the stepping stone toward manifesting your dream life. Boom, head explosion, mic drop, I know. Here’s the thing about manifestation one of the key elements is “the law of correspondence” which states that our outer world will reflect our inner world. If we’re constantly complaining that our lives aren’t good enough, so and so has more than us, we could never achieve XYZ then guess what? all of those things will continue to manifest as your reality. When we practice gratitude we are showing our appreciation to the universe and we’re opening ourselves up to receiving more. People often make the mistake that gratitude means you’re settling for where you’re at but it doesn’t, gratitude is thanking the universe for what you have while asking it to provide more.
5. Strengthens Romantic Relationships
One of the five core love languages is words of affirmation (check out the book here!), so of course, gratitude is going to strengthen your romantic partnerships. Your partner wants to feel affirmed and they want to know you’re grateful for the relationship. It doesn’t feel good to be with someone who takes the relationship for granted, and I know we’ve all done it. One of the biggest lessons I learned in my last relationship was about gratitude and I make a conscious effort to ensure my current partner knows I’m grateful for him.
6. Improves Our Friendships and Family Relationships
Your friends and family are there to support you but after one too many complaints and comparisons, they’re going to get tired. No one wants to feel like they’re in competition with their friends, and complaining isn’t having a conversation. When you choose to bring gratitude to your relationships instead you’ll notice a massive shift in your dynamic. Showing gratitude for your relationships will also make them feel appreciated.
7. Reduces Stress
We already know from benefit #2 that gratitude reduces stress but let’s get into the how. Practicing gratitude gives you a sense of reassurance. Maybe you’re stressed about work but you’re grateful for the new admin support you’ve just hired. That gratitude then serves as a reminder that you got this! Our gratitude list is often the proof we need that we’re actually working toward our goals and we don’t need to stress ourselves out too much worrying about them.
8. GRATITUDE Serves as Motivation
Gratitude makes us more productive! When we’re grateful for the things we have it gets us excited about the possibility of creating more. We can use this excitement as momentum and fuel for the rest of our goals.
9. Improves Our Decision Making
When we’re actively practicing gratitude we are in a state of appreciation and not in a state of desperation or worry. This allows us to make decisions more clearly and efficiently rather than rushing decisions for short-term gratification.
10. Makes Us Desirable to Work With
It’s no surprise by now that gratitude raises our vibration and makes people want to be around us. If it improves our personal relationships then of course it improves our professional ones too. Gratitude flexes our praise muscle allowing us to celebrate our employees/co-workers/boss/clients etc easily. We become someone that people enjoy working with and we attract more business opportunities.
Physical Gratitude Practice Benefits
There are also physical benefits of gratitude that are science-backed. Living from a place of gratitude can improve your sleep, lower blood pressure, boost your immune system, and even minimize any chronic pain. It’s becoming more and more clear that our physical and mental health are interconnected, working on our mindset by practicing gratitude can physically heal our bodies.
I hope you see the immense value in starting your gratitude practice! if you need some help to get started click here to download a free guide on how to build your own gratitude practice.
This post was all about the 10 Unbelievable Gratitude Practice Benefits that Will Change Your Life
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