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Writing this blog post about gratitude has been on my to do list for weeks. Then I moved it to my ‘tomorrow’ list the last few days. I then decided to write it as soon as I got up this morning. And now I am determined to finish it by midnight. Gratitude is important so I want to make sure these 3 Ways to Cultivate Gratitude get to you no matter what!
The Gratitude Challenge
As many of you know, we are hosting a 21-day Grandparent Gratitude Challenge, and we hope you will join us! There’s already over 100 people signed up and we finalized the giveaways yesterday. It’s going to be great!
We’ll send you a daily prompt, along with some printable note cards, and a cute game to play with the grandkids. I couldn’t be more excited! The thought of these bite-sized daily prompts seems so manageable in a world where everything seems monumental right now. So before I dive into the three ways to cultivate gratitude don’t forget to sign up for the challenge here!
The Roller Coaster Year
The wear and tear of 2020 on our society, and ourselves has been relentless. There is a roller coaster of emotions each day, and sometimes it is just easier to shut off all those emotions rather than spend time considering them. However, investing time exploring gratefulness is well worth it!
The Benefits of Gratitude
Science has shown repeatedly that gratitude is not only good for our happiness level, it’s good for our physical well being too! Here’s a list of the benefits of gratitude from an excellent articlde, The Neuroscience of Gratitude and How It Affects Anxiety and Grief:
- positive emotions and thoughts
- more aware and awake
- enhanced mood
- better communication
- more empathy
- stronger interpersonal relationships
- more likability
- more involved team member
- stronger immune system
- less body aches and pain
- optimum blood pressure and cardiac functioning
- better sleep/wake cycle
Wow! Why wait any longer? Here are three ways to cultivate gratitude, and yes, you’ll find these along with practical application ideas in the Gratitude Challenge!
3 Ways to Cultivate Gratitude
1.Connect with people
This year of all years has made it a challenge to be with others face to face. And as we are out and about, all masked up and six feet apart, we can easily miss the opportunity to express our appreciation to someone. I’m going to look for opportunities to do that. It might be a big wave and thank you to the person who brought my curbside order to the car, perhaps sending a text to a friend, or writing a thank you note to a co-worker. It just may make someone’s day, and it will make mine as well!
2.Focus on what is good
It’s easy to take things for granted, or to start creating the mental negativity list. However my goal during this season will be to focus on the good around me. Rather than think about the distance between me and the grandkids, I will celebrate snail mail, facetime, and even knowing what the temperature is where they live. However, sometimes the hurts and losses are very deep. Choosing to focus or find good amidst the pain doesn’t mean we are in denial about it. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” Robert Emmons, wrote an article titled “How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times. It is well worth the read!
3.Reflect and Repeat
I plan to spend a few minutes at the end of each day reflecting on how the above gratitude exercises went. It will be a great way to begin a night’s rest, and will also be an encouragement to repeat living gratefully the next day.
I don’t say enough how grateful I am for each of you! Knowing that there is a group of grandmothers out there working diligently to have an amazing relationship with their grown kids and grandkids just makes my day. I really do believe we are making a difference, in our families and beyond. We are creating a history worth repeating for years and years to come.