A Healthy Idyllwild: Gratitude heals

This theme of gratitude has become an annual favorite of mine. It seems appropriate for the season and for this year especially when it might be a bit of a challenge to feel grateful.
This time of year, with several important holidays converging, is an apt moment to explore gratitude and become more aware of how consciously and purposefully practicing gratefulness can benefit us both physically and psychologically.
Purposefully promoting gratitude seems to promote health and healing. (See links below for the health effects associated with gratitude). Surely, this benefits us when we are stressed. Interestingly, it can also benefit us when we are happy. Who knew? Let’s not neglect consciously acknowledging our gratefulness and purposefully practicing the arts of gratitude.
Gratitude, or thankfulness, is the active affirmation of goodness. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “grateful” as being appreciative of benefits received.
How do we purposefully practice the arts of gratitude? Why do we need to actively commit to practicing gratitude? What negative habits interfere with our experience of gratitude?
The most straightforward idea here is that in order to reap the benefits of gratefulness, for ourselves, our loved ones and for our community, we need to spend time actively acknowledging daily (or nightly before we go to sleep) what we are grateful for. And we need to keep at it. (See tips below). Theoretically, we are strengthening brain connections or pathways that elicit the physical and psychological benefits of gratitude.
What might interfere with our purposeful practice? There’s an oddity in how our brains’ tricky little neurons are designed. Our brains are naturally wired to hold on to negative experiences more than positive ones. This is a survival tactic. One wants to quickly recognize where the dangers are and avoid them. We are hard-wired for this tactic, but we can work around it.
Sometimes we find ourselves dragged down into a swamp of negative thoughts, however. Let’s call this rumination — the enemy of gratitude and peace of mind. We are ruminating when we get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts about some past hurt — a cycle which increases our stress in the moment and brings us to no helpful resolution to the problem.
We just keep going round and round. Like the snake eating its own tail, we end up right where we began and off we go again on another round. We always feel worse, bummed out or exhausted after a spate of rumination. And that creation of discomfort is how it interferes with being grateful. (For tips on overcoming ruminating, see last link below).
Tips:
Keep a gratitude journal. Write down those things on a daily or weekly basis that you are grateful for. It is especially nice to do this just before bed as it settles the mind, brings some peace and aids sleep.
Write a gratitude letter expressing thanks and deliver it. Or if delivery is not in the cards, then keep the letter but reread it periodically.
Savor the good in your life. These are your resources. Reminisce often about the good. Use all your senses to enhance and intensify these resources. Purposefully, bring these to mind one at a time. As you think about a resource, recall to mind all the wonderful details of that resource. This increases its strength as an aid to gratitude. You are drawing yourself a picture in your mind of a fully fleshed-out goodness. Some have called a resource “anything that doesn’t suck.”
Psychologist Rick Hanson (see links below) suggests practice guidelines with using resources to enhance gratefulness.
First, think about a good experience you are grateful for. (Your resource.)
Next, stay in the memory as long as possible. (This time it’s OK to go over and over it.) Importantly, use all your senses to enhance that memory. (Intensifying your resource.)
Then, bring your attention to what is satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable about that experience. (This strengthens brain pathways that hardwire the benefits of gratitude.)
Finally, gradually link the positive with the negative memory. If the positive has been strengthened through the previous steps, it can gradually replace the negative.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by the negative, stop for a while and restart, leaving out the last step until you are adept at strengthening your positive memories.
Forming new habits takes time and repetition. Try any of the above, including information in the links below, to find what works best for you and that which you enjoy practicing. Then do the practice two to three times per week, for starters, and notice how you feel. Write down what you are feeling and what practice tip you used … repeat! Increase the number of times you do this per week. Hopefully, you can get to daily practice.
Nothing in this article is meant to be medical advice. Please consult your health care provider.
Some information above taken from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/11/23/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-of-gratitude-that-will-motivate-you-to-give-thanks-year-round/#587fdf22183c
https://neuropathyalliancetx.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/The-Healing-Benefits-of-Gratitude-nh.compressed.pdf
https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/crm
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-can-i-clear-my-mind-3144602
https://www.verywellmind.com/rumination-why-do-people-obsess-over-things-3144571
Callie Wight is a California state-licensed registered nurse with a Master of Arts in psychology.