Gratitude

Deliberate gratitude is one of the many pillars of positive psychology. Especially the gratitude journal. You can call it the blessings list or whatever you want. It does not need to be a long list. But it needs to be felt deep within. Lock the feeling inside when you write it down. Ideally, you want to do this first thing upon waking up or before bed. The reason being you want to program your mind before sleeping about the things you are grateful for. And upon waking up you set your mind up for success by looking at the positive things in life by again focusing on gratitude.

There are a lot of studies documenting the effects of gratitude. These include better sleep quality, less daytime dysfunction, less need for sleep medicine. It also helps lower blood pressure, and even studies on decreasing inflammation in cardiac patients. 

Another tip is using thank you alarms throughout the day. Generally, we use the alarm to wake us up. It is a device that gives a lot of people stress. Use the alarm and writing down simple thank you statements, such as thank you for today! I am blessed! I am awesome! You can use deliberate gratitude throughout the day. It will energize you. It will make you smile when you remember how blessed you are. And most importantly it is reprogramming your subconscious mind for positivity.

The most powerful statement that touches a cord in me is the Persian proverb, " I cursed the fact I had no shoes until I met the man who had no feet." We often forget we are blessed with good health. That we are blessed with a great life. A lot of people are suffering. We should be thankful for the little blessings in life we take for granted!

Gratitude is a superpower. If only we were grateful every second of every day for the little things that we have, we would have no time to feel anything else but truly blessed. The secret to gratitude is recognizing the little things we already have. What would it feel if we didn't have eyes? What would we be without our lungs? Celebrate the little things in life regularly and you will be shielding yourself from stress. I do it every day when I wake up and before I sleep. Do it until it becomes automatic. 

Hope this has been of value.

Thank you so much for your time.

Jonathan Flordelis MD