Mental Health Toolkit - Gratitude

Starting and maintaining a regular practise of thinking about what we are thankful for in our lives is one of our superpowers for both restoring and maintaining wellbeing and optimism. A daily check in with what is going well in our lives can help us to develop a ‘glass full’ instead of ‘glass empty’ focus.

Regularly reminding ourselves of what is going right in our lives counteracts our natural tendency to focus on our problems. We tend to focus on what is not right particularly when we are struggling with a low mood, anxiety or depression. It is during these times that we particularly benefit from a focus on what we are thankful for, even if it is a struggle to get going with a gratitude list when we feel like this. do it anyway! While it won’t immediately transform our current mood, if you develop a regular practise you can retrain the mind to focus on what is going well.

ACTION

Write down 5 or 10 things that are going right in your life and do this every day.

Here’s a few examples to show the range you can include from the tiniest little thing to big ones. You can also think of things that are not going wrong e.g. Im grateful that I don’t have a disease

Right now I am thankful for:

• the comfortable seat I’m sitting on

• the good health of my children

• the beautiful autumn colours outside

• its not raining today

• living in a relatively safe area

• the comfy shoes I have on

• the bus stop/train station nearby

• a warm dry house

• having an job

• having good quality fresh air to breath

• a wide choice of food to eat

Try it out and watch how, with regular practise, it starts to elevate your mood and energise you.