Be Glad
Give Thanks
REJOICE
Give Thanks
REJOICE
Description
You made it through six weeks of nurturing, eliminating, tweaking, balancing, growing - you should be not only proud of yourself, but grateful.... for yourself!
To Do
Count those blessings! Better yet, write ‘wm down!
Nourish Yourself / Get Up & Go!
(excerpted from Boost Your Health With a Dose of Gratitude
If you want to get healthier, give thanks.
“Grateful people -- those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a temporary state of mind -- have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health," according to University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons as reported on WebMD.
"Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations..."
Additionally, “Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that researchers say boosts the immune system.”
Tools
Back to ye olde journal!
Tip
Counting Your Blessings: How Gratitude Improves Your Health (excerpted from article by Bruce Campbell http://www.cfidsselfhelp.org/library/counting-your-blessings-how-gratitude-improves-your-health)
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| I'm grateful that I found a pic for this post that contained one of my fave treats, Tiramisu! |
If you would like to increase the level of gratitude in your life, here are five suggestions for getting started.
1) Keep a Daily Gratitude Journal
This is probably the most effective strategy for increasing your level of gratitude. Set aside time daily to record several things that you are grateful for. (Typically, people list three to five.) You can write when you get up or at the end of the day. Pick a time that you will consistently have available. You can use a book like the Journal of Gratitude or write on loose-leaf paper or a notebook. The important thing is to establish the daily practice of paying attention to gratitude-inspiring events and to write them down. In Emmons' words, the act of writing "allows you to see the meaning of events going on around you and create meaning in your own life." For an example of the use of a gratitude journal, see Joan Buchman's article The Healing Power of Gratitude.
2) Use Visual Reminders
Two obstacles to being grateful are forgetfulness and lack of awareness. You can counter them by giving yourself visual cues that trigger thoughts of gratitude. Emmons says he puts Post-It notes listing his blessings in many places, including on his refrigerator, mirrors and the steering wheel of his car. Another strategy is to set a pager, computer or PDA to signal you at random times during the day and to use the signal to pause and count blessings.
3) Have a Gratitude Partner
Social support encourages healthy behaviors, because we often lack the discipline to do things on our own. Just as you may be more likely to exercise if you have an exercise partner or participate in a class, you may be able to maintain the discipline of gratitude more easily if you have a partner with whom to share gratitude lists and to discuss the effects of gratitude in your life. Emmons says, "If we hang out with ungrateful people, we will ‘catch' one set of emotions; if we choose to associate with more grateful individuals, the influence will be in another direction. Find a grateful person and spend more time with him or her."
4) Make a Public Commitment
We feel accountable when we make commitments to others. In our self-help course, we have people set weekly goals for themselves. The fact that the goal is made publicly to a group, makes it more likely that people will follow through. For a discussion of how to achieve short-term goals, see the Chapter 6 in our course textbook: Goals and Targets.
We all carry on an inner dialogue with ourselves that is often called "self-talk." When this inner conversation is negative, our mood is usually low. Research has shown that we can change our mood by changing the tone of the things we say to ourselves. For an introduction to this approach, called cognitive therapy, and a description of a three-step process to change your self-talk, see the article "Taming Stressful Thoughts" (reference below)
Tweak
Take something that normally annoys you and turn around to find the gratitude in it. Example: Does your husband fall asleep in the theater every time you get him to go to a chick flick with you? Instead of being bugged that yet again he is missing the whole movie and worse yet, making you miss part of it with his nodding off or even snoring, turn it around and be grateful for the fact that he is willing to accompany you in the first place. Or be grateful that you even have a husband at all! You get the idea
Question
What can you be grateful for today that you may not have thought to be thankful yesterday
Thoughts
“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” - Denis Waitley
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” - G. K. Chesterton
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” - Anon
Tidbits
This statistics graph shows the demographic downloading of the word “gratitude” (http://www.mininova.org/stat/2908601)
There is a Facebook page called Gratitude Friday: http://www.facebook.com/GratitudeFriday?sk=info
Treat
Anything your heart desires! You’ve earned it!
Blogs & Articles
Does Gratitude cause Happiness? A Meta-analysis: http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Does_Gratitude_cause_Happiness%3F_A_Meta-analysis
In Sum
You have so much to be grateful, including yourself, as well as your commitment to Love Yourself Lovely by participating in this 42+ day challenge. Well done
And may I just say I am very grateful for this experience... and for YOU!
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