This week the theme for posts has been ‘gratitude’. So many wonderful quotes to choose from it has been a nice theme to have.
Morning (or evening) gratitude’s have become increasingly popular, and for very good reason. Showing gratitude isn’t just about being grateful for things, it is about setting your brain to look for and recognise the positive which in turn can help us gain a positive perspective on life.
Most people complete them in the morning, it helps set them up for the day. It’s nice to lie in bed and think of a few things you are grateful for rather than the bits of the day ahead you aren’t looking forward to so much.
Some people prefer to do them in the evening. Their preference is to end the day reflecting on all the things they are grateful for that have happened that day.
I personally prefer to recognise my successes and wins of the day in the evening as this helps me identify all the positives of the day before I go to sleep.
Essentially this is an element of gratitude just from a different perspective. It still helps you to look for and recognise the positive and have that positive perspective on the day and its challenges.
Both require practice, and a reminder to make them part of your daily routine. That is why they were included in the Phoenix Planner so that it becomes part of the daily habits.
I have also seen people keep a ‘Gratitude jar’ which they fill with all the things they are grateful for so that they can open on and read through on the days they need a big dose of positivity.
There is increasing evidence that recognising the things that we are grateful for helps us live a happier life. It helps us see the positive in every situation and lifts our mood. This in turn can help us sleep better and can improve our physical health as well as our mental health.
Practice playing a mental opposites game. Every time you feel yourself saying something negative find a positive to follow it up with.
For example;
‘It’s so cold today I’m really not loving winter’
follow it up with,
‘the sky is so blue, it’s not raining and I am seeing the first signs of spring’
It is very simple, but it means that you are ending on a positive. Instead of focusing on how cold it is you are focusing on the positives of some blue sky, a small ray of sunshine and some bulbs that show us spring is on its way.
We can go through life finding all the negatives, or we can go through life looking for the positives.
Gratitude helps us identify the positives. It brings it to the front of our minds, literally, into our conscious behaviour. There is so much we take for granted that just being more conscious of the things that make us happy can make a huge difference.
You can put energy to negative thoughts or you can redirect the energy into positive thinking. It takes some practice but it is one of the easiest ways to change your mindset into something more positive.
Start today – What are you grateful for?
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This Sunday we look at 'Managing Your Mindset'
Full list of events and tickets can be found here: