Commit to Calm Day 5

Learn how to practice gratitude for a better sense of well-being. Commit to using this practice to create more calm in your life.

Gratitude in its simplest form is a feeling of thanks and appreciation.[1] It can arise from helping others, or you can practice it by engaging in habits that help you to focus on and appreciate the positive aspects of your own life. Gratitude is related to well-being, both in terms of understanding it and improving it.[2]

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Melody Beattie

Benefits of habitual gratitude

Robert Emmons, a leading expert on gratitude, has studied hundreds of people, young and old, who practice gratitude through journaling. His research demonstrates that practicing gratitude creates a sense of well-being. Even after just a few weeks, the positive results are overwhelming.[3] Physical benefits include better immune system, decreased blood pressure, more exercise, and improved sleep. Just as important, psychological benefits include more positive emotions, increased alertness, more joy and pleasure, and heightened optimism and happiness. Finally, he has observed social benefits like participants becoming more helpful, forgiving, generous, and outgoing.

Practice gratitude

Ways to practice gratitude

Of note to a person in search of calm, is Emmons’ own admission that it is easy to lapse into a negative mindset. Practicing gratitude does not come naturally. Instead, he says we must work at it. He offers some ways to practice gratitude for a better well-being:

  • Keeping a gratitude journal – once a week write a list of five things for which you are grateful
  • Counting your blessings –before bed or at the dinner table, list (out loud or in your head) all the things you are grateful for
  • Creating concrete reminders (especially for kids) – drop money in a jar as you count your blessing and then donate the money
  • Thinking more abstractly – consider what you can offer others instead of what you receive
For more ideas, consider writing a gratitude letter to someone who had a big impact on your life.

Or, mix it up with 3 more creative ways to practice gratitude. Bonus: these ones are kid-friendly!

Practicing gratitude and my Commitment to Calm

Thus, practicing gratitude is something that can be learned and cultivated and promises to deliver a host of benefits. This is the motivation for item number three in my Commitment to Calm, “practice contentment by journaling a gratitude list.” As such, I spent time today writing in a gratitude journal. I started the journal a few years ago and would write in it from time to time, mainly making lists of things I was thankful for, recording quotes or inspiring notes, or even taping in a few of the kids drawings and cards from Andrew. Practicing gratitude in this way has improved my well-being.

Unfortunately, I haven’t written in my gratitude journal in almost a year. Before creating a new list today, I took a few minutes to flip through my previous writings. Every gratitude list reminded me of a great moment in my life, many of which have slipped my mind. Simple things like a funny word Ike, my middle child, used incorrectly, or big things like a trip to Sedona are recorded. Reading these entries and reliving the memories made me smile, changing my mood today.

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.

Oscar Wilde

I am unsure why I stopped making these lists, but did note my last entry was at the end of January 2020. The pandemic started to become a stressor in my life by March of that year. Despite the insane levels of stress around the pandemic, there were surely some great moments as well. I can’t help but think I missed out by not writing an occasional journal entry. Perhaps focusing on gratitude in 2020 would have made things feel better, been a source of calm during chaos. At the very least, the journal entries would have provided some great recorded memories.

Regardless, I am happy to be recommitted to making these lists again.

What would you write on your gratitude list today? Leave me a comment!

Want more? Consider signing up for Take Five, a weekly newsletter containing five things to reflect on and inspire your own journey to a calmer state of mind.

For real time updates, follow me on facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest!

[1] https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/gratitude

[2] Wood AM, Froh JJ, Geraghty AW. Gratitude and well-being: a review and theoretical integration. Clin Psychol Rev. 2010 Nov;30(7):890-905. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005. Epub 2010 Mar 20. PMID: 20451313.

[3] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good