An Attitude of Gratitude Project
After reading this article about gratitude, I decided to participate in some of the action steps mentioned in it. Thank you to my step-sister, Carly for sending it to me. I wrote up this post to share a brief summary of the article, include important quotes, and highlight action steps.
I plan to print and post it in my house to be read over and over.
I encourage you to participate and comment here about your experience.
happiness is an inside job
Having an attitude of gratitude changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps gray matter functioning and makes us healthier and happier. When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive and less resistant. Now that’s a really cool way of taking care of your well-being.
The Facts: Scientists have discovered that feelings of gratitude can actually change your brain. Feeling gratitude can also be a great tool for overcoming depression and anxiety. Furthermore, scientists have discovered that the heart sends signals to the brain.
Reflect On: Every time we struggle with depression, why are we constantly encouraged to take prescription medication when mindfulness techniques actually show more promise?
Gratitude is a funny thing. In some parts of the world,
- somebody who gets a clean drink of water
- some food
- a worn-out pair of shoes
...can be extremely grateful. Let's all remember THAT!
Action Steps
- Write a letter of gratitude to another person every week for a month or more. gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns.
- Keep a short gratitude journal to describe 5 things you are grateful for that have occurred in the past week. Ten weeks later, participants in the gratitude group felt better about their lives as a whole and were a full 25 percent happier than the troubled group. They reported fewer health complaints and exercised an average of 1.5 hours more.
- Do a “pay it forward” when you are feeling grateful. distinguish between actions motivated by gratitude and actions driven by other motivations like obligation, guilt, or what other people think. This is important because you can’t fake gratitude, you actually have to feel it.
- Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions
- Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it
- Gratitude’s benefits take time & practice. You might not feel it right away.
- Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain
CONSCIOUSNESS
In a world where emotions aren’t really taught in school (but oh, they should be) and the importance is put on striving for high grades, it’s not abnormal to have difficulty feeling grateful. This is especially understandable if you’ve been brought up in the western world, which is full of consumerism and competition, a world where we’re constantly made to feel we are lacking so we need to strive for more.
...when a person is feeling really positive emotions like gratitude, love, or appreciation, the heart beats out a different message, which determines what kind of signals are sent to the brain.
“We are fundamentally and deeply connected with each other and the planet itself.”
Research findings have shown that as we practice heart coherence and radiate love and compassion, our heart generates a coherent electromagnetic wave into the local field environment that facilitates social coherence, whether in the home, workplace, classroom or sitting around a table. As more individuals radiate heart coherence, it builds an energetic field that makes it easier for others to connect with their hearts. So, theoretically, it is possible that enough people building individual and social coherence could actually contribute to an unfolding global coherence. – McCratey
Every individual’s energy affects the collective field environment. This means each person’s emotions and intentions generate an energy that affects the field. A first step in diffusing societal stress in the global field is for each of us to take personal responsibility for our own energies. We can do this by increasing our personal coherence and raising our vibratory rate, which helps us become more conscious of the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that we are feeding the field each day. We have a choice in every moment to take to heart the significance of intentionally managing our energies. This is the free will or local freedom that can create global cohesion. – Dr. Deborah Rozman, the President of Quantum Intech (source)
Overall, this type of work suggests that human consciousness, in general, can change the world.
Emotions and other factors associated with consciousness have the power to transform our inner world in ways we don’t fully understand yet. These findings show how consciousness can actually transform the physical/material world, and that’s huge. This validates the idea that if we can change our inner world through gratitude, empathy, compassion, and meditation, we can make our outer world more peaceful.
Please join me in my Attitude of Gratitude Project and together we can change the world one thought at a time.
Kelly Miragliotta
October 30th, 2019
A snow day in the beautiful state of Colorado.
P.S. Most of what is written above are exact quotes or paraphrasing from this article. #TakeThatMLACitations
