Gratitude

When I find myself in an emotional slump –being a b*tch to everyone, only focusing on the negative – I put myself in check. I’ve developed this habit and I’d like to shit it with you. Each night as I’m laying in bed, I think of things that I’m grateful for. When I first started doing it 2 years ago, I was feeling stuck. At the time, I was working at a Fortune 500 company, and was miserable. I knew that focusing on the negative feelings would just allow that depression to fester. So one day on the train, I resolved to man up. I’d pick myself up by the bootstrap; I mean it just couldn’t be THAT bad.  From that day forward, I began to name 3 things that I was grateful for. I usually tried to do it right before I went to sleep so that I could have positive dreams and wake up refreshed in the morning. In those first few weeks, it wasn’t easy to think of things. If I’d had a particularly bad day, my gratitude statements went something like “I’m grateful I had chicken for dinner. Grateful the trains were on time.” Just really random things until I got the hang of it. As the economy sank, it became “I’m grateful I have a job. I’m grateful I can pay my bills. Grateful I have this comfortable bed to sleep on and a roof over my head”. It was simple things, but things that for so long had been taken for granted, and was being snatched away from people everyday.

As I got more into the habit and my mindset changed for the better, I upped it to naming 5 things I was grateful for; then 7, then 10. As of right now, I’m usually able to name 15 off the top of my head (the habit is that ingrained). Whenever I catch myself backsliding, I stop and list those things until I’m able to fix myself.

I was reading  "The Secret" a few years ago, and one of the quotes that stuck with me was “What you hold in your head, you’ll hold in your hands.”  Meaning if you only focus on how lonely/miserable your life situation is, you’ll only bring more of that onto yourself. And on the flip-side, if you choose to see the silver lining in the majority of encounters you’ll start to recognize the best & beauty of what life has to offer.

Now, as a psych major, it would be irresponsible for me to imply that depression can be cured by simply smiling at every little thing. There are options for people that are genuinely sad/depressed due to a chemical imbalance. What I am saying is that harnessing the power of gratitude & positive thinking is a key step to helping you feel better in general.

So, you may be thinking “what do I have to be grateful for?” Here’s what :

n  you were able to read this post. That means that you’re literate, which is more than a lot of people in the country can say (http://www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html)

n  you have access to the internet, which implies a connection with the outside world

n  you are ALIVE!! Make the best of everyday