5 Gratitude Practices to Improve your Mental Health

In today\’s day and age, our culture revolves around money, success, status and material gains. The amount of stress we put ourselves through due to this is phenomenal.

We often find ourselves complaining about our lives, our situations or even about ourselves. Our mind is quick to criticize, whether it is a situation, a person or ourselves. We readily see the stain in a rug, rather than the rest of its beauty. To the effect that for many people, the primary way they communicate with others is through complaining, negativity, self defeating statements and criticism. This may lead to a lot of anxiety, depressed mood, stress, feelings of low self esteem, poor confidence and other issues. Our general approach to life and to ourselves becomes pessimistic and we have an unhealthy relationship with our own self. This means that we don\’t connect to our deep emotions, avoid dealing and processing unpleasant emotions, we are routinely unkind to ourselves. In order to change this relationship, in order to create a more positive outlook towards life, an attitude of gratitude is of utmost importance.

Of course it is understood that gratitude is not like an antidote to depression, anxiety or other issues, and it is not the only thing that can solve one\’s mental health issues. To solve these issues, one needs to focus on may other factors in life ranging from physical health, identifying cognitive and emotional patterns and challenging them, working on beliefs, behaviors, and so on. Gratitude is however, a useful aid that can help one to create a portal to a positive mindset. The idea is not to practice gratitude as a forced toxic positivity exercise, but to recognise that just as there are things to complain about or criticize, there are also things that one can feel grateful for. More than anything, the best thing that a gratitude practice does is to bring out minds in the present by making us acknowledge our reality and appreciate it. As negative thoughts and feelings usually surround past or future thinking, or seeing the present through the lens of the past and future; gratitude practice is about orienting ourselves in the here and now.

Here are some easy ways to begin your gratitude practice:

1. Think of Five things that made you happy

At the end of everyday, think of five things that made you happy, made you smile and offer gratitude to those things. They can be events at work or in personal life, they can be people or even something that you did. It can be as simple as someone making you a cup of tea or having a smooth drove to work. It doesn\’t matter what it is, but to cultivate this emotion in your mind everyday.

2. Maintain a Gratitude Journal

Writing about what you are grateful for everyday is a motivating and fulfilling practice. Journal writing is a useful tool not just to express yourself, but also to get clarity in thoughts and review our inner speech with ourselves. Gratitude journalling let\’s us explore and record whatever are thankful for and can be a wonderful thing to come back to and read again when we are feeling low or dissatisfied with life.

3. Thank three people who have helped you

Whether verbally or internally, offer gratitude to three people who have made your day. It may be someone who has made you tea, a waiter serving you, your close friends making you laugh, or anyone who has had even a small contribution in your day. We disregard the small acts or gestures of kindness that people do, often nitpicking about things we don\’t like about them or what we wish they did and didn\’t do. Cultivating an inner feeling of gratefulness for those around us consciously, tremendously helps our relationships and helps us become kinder and gentler to them.

4. Compliment or Appreciate People

We may believe that those who are close to us know how we feel about them and we don\’t need to verbally express what we feel. But showing our care and affection to others through actions isn\’t the only way, using words is necessary and improves a relationship. We should appreciate what we like about people instead of taking it for granted. It may be a kind gesture, some good advice or concern that someone shows for us. We should bring into our speech, a way to encourage and complement others. This in turn makes us more mindful of others positive actions rather than focusing on their negatives.

5. Meditate

Meditation can take us deeper into our gratitude practice and make it a more enriching mental experience. Guided Meditations on loving kindness, compassion, gratitude are all shown to have a positive impact not just on our mood, stress levels  and thoughts but also on our relationships. They aid in making us feel grateful, not just in retrospect but also when something good happens in the moment and we become grateful in real time. It extends our gratitude practice beyond just the time that we practice it and brings it into our daily life. Meditating on gratitude also helps us develop acceptance, forgiveness, healthy detachment and a positive outlook on life.

At ZorbaCare Rehabilitation Center in Pune, we aim to provide a supportive and positive environment to clients who are recovering from alcohol or drug addiction. Rehabs in India usually focus on the Twelve step program, however our program involves an eclectic or mixed approach that employs many therapies such as Cognitive behavioral therapy, Motivational enhancement therapy, Mindfulness training, etc., as well as the traditional Twelve step approach. Deaddiction treatment requires a client to learn psychological skills such as emotional regulation, challenging thought patterns, working on relapse prevention. Gratitude practice is an important skill to learn for clients in treatment. This fosters an attitude of acceptance, positivity, motivation, and an optimistic approach to life. These are vital attitudes for recovery and for a person to lead a fulfilling life.