#35 Days of Dares #22 Dare to Be Grateful
If you, like me, exercise regularly, the benefits to your health and well-being are enormous. Various studies have shown that gratitude is also important to exercise and has many life-enhancing benefits. One titled Counting Blessings Versus Burdens reported:
“There do appear to exist benefits to regularly focusing on one’s blessings,” the researchers wrote in the study. “The advantages are most pronounced when compared with a focus on hassles or complaints, yet are still apparent in comparison with simply reflecting the major events in one’s life, on ways in which one believes one is better off than comparison with others, or with a control group.”
Other studies reveal that the benefits of developing a thankful outlook can:
- improve mental health
- boost well-being
- help you achieve better grades
- have better relationships with others
- help you you sleep better
- protect heart health
- improve your immune system
- help you to cope with stress
How can we cultivate gratitude?
1. Be thankful for every good thing that you have. At one stage of my life, I saw things through a lens of self-pity and with a victim mentality. I made a conscious decision to begin being thankful and to count my blessings. Sometimes it was hard to find anything to be thankful for, but as time went on, it became much easier and now the words, thank you, are often flowing from my lips.
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Push Through: No matter what we think our limits are, we can always expand. If we have children and have another, doesn’t our heart expand? We exercise our bodies and they scream with pain. When we keep training, don’t they become fitter? If we are learning a new skill doesn’t our brain hurt until we push through and our brain develops new pathways? Gratitude expands our souls and our hearts.
Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
3. Sleep On It: As you prepare for sleep, count your blessings. Even if your day has been filled with stress and strife, let your final thoughts be grateful ones. You will sleep more peacefully and get a glimpse of hope for a better tomorrow.
Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good. Maya Angelou
4. Whether you believe in God or not, say a prayer of thanks. Most of our prayers seem to be, ‘Help me.’ When we are at the end of our ropes, we often call out to God, even if we never normally speak to him. Try saying a prayer of thanks. Elizabeth Gilbert began the practice of writing a happy thought on a scrap of paper and filling a happiness jar.
If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. Meister Eckhart
5. Be Grateful For Each Day Every breath we take is a gift. Every day we are given is not to be taken for granted. Life is so fragile and
God gave you a gift of 86 400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you? William Arthur Ward
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