Gratitude made simple with Coach Ofosu
Generally speaking, it’s not easy to be a human being.
Some days are just hard.
If this is true for you, know that you’re not alone. It’s true for me, too.
So much of what we experience—both internally and externally—is outside of our control, and this pervasive uncertainty can sometimes impact our ability to access joy, meaning, and fulfillment.
The good news is that there’s an antidote to these types of feelings: gratitude.
Practicing gratitude, whether in the form of quiet, personal reflection or in more creative ways like journaling, writing poetry, coloring, or simply sharing with someone you trust about what you’re grateful for, is proven to increase our overall sense of well-being and support our mental, physical and emotional health.
Why practice gratitude?
Our minds tend to fixate on negative things. This is actually a survival tactic that we inherited from our ancient ancestors. By focusing on problems that needed to be solved and thinking about impending danger, our ancestors developed strategies to stay safe and eventually thrive. Many of the real dangers our ancestors faced are no longer threats in our modern world, but those mental characteristics of hypervigilance and focusing on what’s wrong have been passed down to us. This is why cultivating gratitude is both a process and a practice. When we deliberately focus on the positive in our lives, we are rewiring centuries of mental conditioning. It’s both a revolutionary and evolutionary act. Cultivating gratitude isn’t just for ourselves. We’re also laying the groundwork for future generations to be less stressed and anxious.
Needless to say, gratitude is a big deal! Below are three ways that I like to cultivate gratitude in my life. They are a go-to for me whenever I’m feeling down, but they also support me in moments when I’m feeling great, and I really want to soak in those feelings.
1. Personal reflection through mindfulness
Having a mindfulness practice has been crucial in my gratitude practice. Taking time to be present and kind to my mind, body, and emotions through practices like sitting meditation, walking meditation, and being in nature has given me the opportunity to experience gratitude in real-time. When I give myself the gift of slowing down and being present, the simplest things emerge as sources of gratitude for me: the act of breathing, the sounds I hear, the miracle of being alive. Mindfulness, for me, opens the window for gratitude to naturally enter.
2. Pursuing creative acts
In his book The Creative Act, music producer Rick Rubin suggests that everyone has the ability to tap into their own form of creativity and that expressing ourselves in creative ways can be a legitimate expression of what we feel grateful for. Although I’ve been a recording artist for many years, I didn’t always express the things I was grateful for in the songs I would write. More and more, however, I find that the songs I want to write are about the sources of gratitude in my life: my family, nature, my own resilience, and my meditation practice. Deliberately connecting with the things I’m grateful for and expressing that gratitude in creative ways deepens my connection to those sources of gratitude and increases my sense of meaning, joy, and well-being.
However, you don’t need to be an artist to find creative ways to connect with gratitude. Simply writing down five things that you feel grateful for every day, a few times a week, or even once a week, can produce the same effects.
3. Saying (or texting) it out loud
I’ve found it extremely rewarding to share what I’m grateful for with others, whenever the opportunity arises. Speaking on these sources of gratitude deepens my connection with them. Even more fulfilling, however, is reaching out to let the people in my life who I’m grateful for know how I feel about them. Whether it’s getting flowers for my wife, texting my parents, or telling my children encouraging words, letting the people in your life who matter to you know that you are grateful for them creates a feedback loop of goodness that can’t be topped.
Even though it’s easy for us to focus on the negative, practicing gratitude is a great way to rewire our brains to remember that although life is challenging, it’s also full of beauty and wonder. If you’re interested in developing a gratitude practice for yourself, check out the Gratitude and Journal Singles on the Balance app. It’s a great place to get started.
Thank you so much for taking the time to connect with me on this meaningful topic. I’m grateful for you.
