Why is Gratitude Important?
There’s a lot of social media posts encouraging people to practice gratitude, but it’s not often explained why this is useful for building and maintaining good mental health.
Here’s our take on it…
We can often get stuck in patterns of unhelpful thinking, worrying about the future, dwelling on the past or criticising ourselves, others or the world. We have threat detectors in our brains that actively encourage this type of thinking in the hope that we can identify the big problems that may be lurking on the horizon and come up with a fool proof plan for how to avoid them. Our survival instinct is winning as long as we continue to stay safe and come to no harm. This function has kept humans alive for hundreds of thousands of years which is great, except for the fact that the things we predict, often never happen as we thought!
The impact of this is that the more we notice and avoid things that might potentially cause us harm, the more things we see to be harmful. We avoid more and more things, never finding out how the world really works and if our negative predictions would have come true. Our fears are reinforced, and our worlds become smaller and scarier. Our internal threat detectors are doing a great job but often at the cost of happiness and joy!
Something else that impacts our thinking is a phenomenon called Habituation. This is the idea that the more we are exposed to things, the more we get used to them and the more we get used to them, the more our positive thoughts and feelings towards things fade away. For example, think about the last time you got a new mobile phone. At first, it was really excited to open the box and set up the phone, you might have played with all the settings and new features, admiring the enormous memory and marvelling over the advancements in technology since your first ever mobile phone. Over time however, the newness and excitement wear off and you get used to the settings and features. This phone, like the old one, becomes ‘the norm,’ you have habituated. Habituation is useful because it means that we can function in a highly efficient way and complete multiple tasks on ‘auto pilot’. We become used to things, so we don’t need to expel excess energy re-learning how to do things each time we try it out.
This can happen in all areas of your life; just take a moment to think about all different things you do on ‘auto pilot.’
By now you might be noticing that there’s lots of things outside of your conscious awareness that impact how you think and feel about yourself, your life and your world. These things are functional and help us to survive but don’t necessarily bring us joy, happiness or a sense of purpose. It’s because of this that we must be more deliberate in our efforts to be happier.
Gratitude can help!
Gratitude is the emotion we feel when we are thankful for something. By regularly paying attention, on purpose, to what you are grateful for each day, you can interrupt negative thinking patterns and move your attention out of threat mode and off auto pilot. The overall effect of practicing gratitude is a greater awareness of the good things in your life which reduces symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. Research also tells us that people who practice gratitude have fewer common health complaints, such as headaches, digestion issues, respiratory infections, runny noses, dizziness, and sleep problems. Practicing gratitude towards the people in your life can also improve your relationships and connections with others. Gratitude can have a massive effect on so many areas of your life in a really positive way.
Try it right now, take a moment to answer some of the following questions:
What is something you do every day that you are grateful for?
What is something you see every day that you are grateful for?
Who do you have in your life that you are grateful for?
What makes you smile?
What has gone well recently?
What have you accomplished?
What life experiences have you had (good or bad) that you are grateful for right now?
What abilities do you have that you are grateful for?
Now reflect on what that was like for you. Hopefully you noticed some small shift towards something that felt good. It might not have been easy to do, you might have struggled with some of the questions. That’s absolutely fine it can be difficult at first but the more you practice the easier it will get. Just imagine what it might be like for you if your brain noticed more things that you’re grateful for than things that could go wrong.
Gratitude practice is one of a few ways to tackle negative thinking and boost mood and wellbeing. It’s not the only way though and if you need more support, please reach out to us or your GP to discuss different options available to you.