In part 1 of 2 of this series, we looked at 3 key reasons of how gratitude can positively affect your pain. In part 2, we look at simple, practical strategies to practice gratitude daily.
4 commonly used gratitude interventions
Gratitude Journal: This can mean listing just five things for which you’re grateful every week. The mechanism of the journal regarding building well-being has been linked to consciously, intentionally focussing our attention on developing more grateful thinking and on eliminating ungrateful thoughts. It helps guard against taking things for granted; instead, we see gifts in life as new and exciting. Longitudinal studies have shown that people who live a life of pervasive thankfulness experience life differently than people who cheat themselves out of life by not feeling grateful. A weekly journal may look like this…
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Gratitude letter (written or verbal): Showing gratefulness to colleagues and friends lets them know that their efforts or acts of kindness have been noticed. Furthermore, people are likely to remember this gesture and therefore have a more favourable impression of you!
Gratitude lists: Spend time regularly reflecting on whoever, or whatever, makes you feel appreciative and grateful. Something as simple as a list can help in the practice of gratitude. Keep the list somewhere where you can see it so that you can use it easily and so you don’t forget about it when life gets busy! Put a pen and paper close by, too, so you’re all set up to make entries.
Use Visual Reminders. Because the two primary obstacles to gratefulness are forgetfulness and a lack of mindful awareness, visual reminders can serve as cues to trigger thoughts of gratitude. Often, the best visual reminders are other people.
