Building Gratitude

Building gratitude, or the practice of being thankful, is a technique used by people trying to build happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.

Research has found that there are many benefits of practicing gratitude. These benefits include things such as:

Increased mood, happiness and life satisfaction: Practicing gratitude has been linked to an increase in happiness, improved mood and increase in life satisfaction. Consciously redirecting toxic and negative thoughts and emotions to ones that are positive and grateful, can help improve happiness levels. 

Improved self-esteem: One of the benefits of building gratitude is improved self-esteem. Some researchers have suggested that this may be due to a reduction in social comparisons by removing the focus from feelings of resentment or jealousy.

Improved sleep: People who are grateful may experience benefits such as improved sleep. Researchers have found that people who practiced gratitude during the day were able to fall asleep quicker and reported a better quality of sleep than those who didn’t.

Increased emotional resilience: Emotional resilience is the ability to bounce back and recover from stressful situations. Simply focusing on what there is to be grateful for rather than what is bad, can play a massive part in building emotional resilience.

How do I build gratitude?

Start a gratitude journal

Regularly writing down things that you are grateful for, is an easy and simple way to help build gratitude! A key thing to remember is to try and keep points specific. If you are struggling, try and write down just three things that you are grateful for, and pretty soon you will find more and more!

Vocalise your gratitude

Vocalising your positive thoughts and feelings can really help and reinforce them! Tell your friends and family why you are grateful for them, or about the parts of the day that you are grateful for.

Gratitude Meditation

Gratitude meditation differs from regular meditation in that instead of focusing on breath control, focus is instead on appreciating the positive things in life.