The Benefits Living In Gratitude Has On Mental Health

If you felt pressured to show gratitude growing up, it can be difficult to develop a gratitude practice as an adult. It may feel like you have to wallow in gratitude in order for people to know you love or care about them.

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Whether you are starting fresh with your practice or overcoming a few obstacles, gratitude is a proven way to improve your mental and physical health.

There are many ways to start a practice of gratitude to help reduce anxiety and depression in your life and increase your overall well being. Gratitude doesn’t have to be limited to saying thank you, though it can include that too.

The benefits to living in gratitude are abundant, and a few may include:

• Improved sleep
• Less chronic pain
• Reduced Anxiety
• Reduced Depression
• Increased Mood
• Increased Immunity
• Perspective Taking
• Increases Resiliency
• Brings Feelings Of Happiness

 A few simple ways to practice gratitude can include:

Find a gratitude buddy.

You can send 3 reasons you are grateful each day to your gratitude buddy with an email, text, or even a social media message. You can start small and grow your number. The point is reflection.

If you are grateful for food, shelter, and clean drinking water; start there. You may be surprised at how you build your gratitude when you consistently practice it.

Write in a gratitude journal.

You don’t have to share your gratitude with anyone for it to count. You can simply jot down a few ways you are grateful each day so that you can show appreciation for the simplest pleasures.

Say thank you every night before bed.

You don’t have to do more than say thank you in order to be grateful. It doesn’t have to be complex or complicated to matter. Simply say thank you. It can feel difficult to do this if you feel anxiety or depression, and this is a way to help reduce those feelings.

Read More: “Practicing Gratitude Has Many Benefits. 5 Ways You Can Practice Gratitude”

Living in gratitude doesn’t have to feel like another thing to do. You can incorporate it easily into your life. Saying thank you doesn’t take much and can make a big difference for your mood and those around you.

You don’t have to feel obligated to practice gratitude, especially if you have experienced conditional love and gifting.

If you’d like to challenge yourself with gratitude, you can hold yourself accountable by tracking it for yourself and with others. This can mean that you start a gratitude log or even have a gratitude jar throughout the day.

These physical objects can be a visual reminder to you to see all the ways in which you were grateful that day. They can also be a reminder of how you are expressing gratitude or practicing gratitude.

The practice of gratitude doesn’t have to be for anyone but you, though it’ll likely benefit the people around you too when you do incorporate it into your daily life. Gratitude can elicit a positive emotion and have health benefits, leading to reduced stress.

If you are finding it hard to be grateful, this is even more of a reason to start with a simple thank you for the things you do have right now. Daily gratitude can make all the difference.

If you are having trouble navigating gratitude, a therapist can help. Mental health professionals can help you take perspective in your life and see things from a different point of view and our clinical team at Denver Metro Counseling can help. This can include the practice of gratitude.

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Written by: Randi Thackeray, MA
Clinically Reviewed and Edited by: Julie Reichenberger, MA, LPC, ACS, ACC