“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” (William Arthur Ward)
Gratitude changes your brain and hence, your life.
I’ve just completed a ten-day journey of gratitude. Though I’ve practiced this in the past and written about it often, these ten days have taken my gratitude to a new, higher level.
I serendipitously stumbled across this ten-day practice guide on social media. Finally, something of real value in social media. I’m grateful for that, too. As part of their outreach to the ecosystem in which we live, Belmont Abbey College offered a free e-book to anyone who requested it. I took them up on the offer and received my free gift. Belmont is a small liberal arts college in North Carolina steeped in Catholic tradition and populated with Benedictine monks who provide a moral compass for the students. It was ranked the number one small school by US News and World Report.
To take you through the ten-step journey requires more space than this blog allows. So, I’ll give you the highlights. Each daily practice begins with a scripture passage, followed by a one-page reading about the step of gratitude, then a few lines to journal, concluding with a short prayer. Since the journey is personal for everyone, I’ll share some of my insights from the process.
- I always thought I was pretty good at gratitude, but this ten-day practice took me to another level.
- I learned that there are an infinite number of small things in our lives to be grateful for that we overlook as we are waiting to be grateful for the biggies like winning Powerball.
- I’ve become more mindful of the myriad blessings that fill our lives—from the first taste of morning coffee to the last waking moment before I sleep at night. Life is a smorgasbord of blessings if we have an appetite for it.
- I’ve discovered that a life filled with gratitude necessarily crowds out negative emotions like resentment, anger, envy, and hopelessness. There is little room left for negativity when we choose the positivity of blessings.
Gratitude changes brains. As the positive thoughts of blessings navigate their ways through neural pathways they also create new routes for cognitions to travel. Researchers have coined the term “natural antidepressant” for gratitude, as its daily practice produces nearly the same effects as medications. Expressing and receiving gratitude flood our brains with the necessary neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine that are responsible for our feeling good. They are natural mood elevators available to anyone, anytime. When our brains change, our minds change. We improve our thought processes, clear our cognitions, and view life in hopeful ways.
There are a host of physical, social and spiritual benefits that accompany gratitude. If we have a choice for how we frame the reality that surrounds us—which we do—why would we not choose to see the blessings nestled in our life experiences? Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning, “The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” The way of blessings is a choice of attitude.
Could there be anything more desirable than to live a life filled with joy and peace? The daily practice of gratitude is a path to that life. I am grateful for this practice and the path I have chosen. I wish you that same joy and peace—grateful to be grateful.
Tom Reilly is the author of 16 books. His latest is Hope in The Shadows of War.
