Put Our Hands Together in Gratitude
Put Our
Hands Together
in Gratitude
November and the holiday of Thanksgiving embarks a month of thankfulness, appreciation, and gratitude. As chilly nights, snow flurries, squash themed suppers, woodstove fires, and our local deer and bird fowl begin to sprint and scamper, the notion of being thankful or having gratitude comes into our line of sight. Even in those grim, dark, and tough times life can present … there is always something to be grateful for.
The practice of gratitude can be quite simple. Gratitude is a warm emotion or feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. When we are experiencing gratitude, we are thankful for someone or something. We can be grateful for our loved ones, our children, our families, our support systems, our friends, our pets, our jobs, our homes, our health, our beings, our talents, or what life currently presents to us. Gratitude derives from the Latin word “gratus” which means “thankful, pleasing.”
Gratitude in practice is directly felt in our heart center. When practicing gratitude, our body’s temperature will increase, we will feel balanced and centered, our breathing will slow in its pacing, we will feel spaciousness within our heart and chest, we will begin to smile, and at times tears of joy will flow.
Practicing gratitude has a direct correlation to our levels of happiness, health, and wellbeing. In 2015, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Amy Morin, writes an article called, “7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude.” These benefits are as follows:
1. Gratitude opens doors to connections, relationships, and friendships.
2. Gratitude improves physical health (fewer aches and pains significantly indicated).
3. Gratitude improves psychological health (reducing the impact of emotions such as envy, resentment, frustration, and regret).
4. Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression.
5. Gratitude directly correlates to improved sleep.
6. Gratitude improves self-esteem (one way is by reducing social comparisons).
7. Gratitude increases mental strength. To analyze mental strength further, this article references a 2006 study involving survivors of trauma during the Vietnam War. The study measured gratitude quantitively and found veterans who scaled in higher levels of gratitude had a direct correlation to lower rates of post traumatic stress symptoms/disorders and higher scores of resiliency.
During the month of November, consciously choose gratitude. However large or small your practice may be, give it a whirl. The cultivation of this emotion is paramount to human life and well-being. A few ways to implement gratitude are: keep a gratitude journal or jot down people or elements in your life you appreciate, write notes or letters of thankfulness or admiration, mentally thank or send gratitude to those around you, pray, meditate, sign up to receive daily gratitude perspectives from The DailyOM, and embrace your blessings.
I leave you with a quote by Eckhart Tolle: “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
Laura Widger is a NY State Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 15 years of experience in the field of emotional wellness and mental health. She currently works for CCA-Connecting Communities in Action and specializes in trauma healing with children and adults. She lives in Cattaraugus County with her husband, children, and German short haired dog. Laura personally and professionally strives to promote internal self leadership and the discovery of true genuineness and balance within.