Gratitude is a noun and Webster’s dictionary defines it as “the quality of being thankful, readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”  By being grateful and showing gratitude you can distract yourself from worries and upsets.  Stress, worries and other less-than-desirable emotions are habits that can be changed and replaced with good-feeling thoughts and emotions such as relax, peaceful, positive and joy.  Gratitude pulls you out of your negative mindset.  When expressing gratitude you’re thinking of a more positive target.  YOU FEEL BETTER, LESS STRESS!

Think of how you feel when someone expresses appreciation about YOU.  Often times, even though you might brush it off, you feel good about it.  Your happy that you were able to do something for someone else.  Your positive sense of self is enhanced which reduces the level of negative, self-downing thinking.  Reduces stress.

How do you feel when YOU express gratitude to others.  Often you feel better about yourself because you’re recognizing and emotionally giving to others.  Your stress is reduced.

Questions to ask yourself to be grateful for:

• What was the best part of your day?  (make it a family ritual)
• Who are your grateful for?
• What around you are you grateful for?
• Who helped you today?
• What did you do today that you enjoyed?
• What lesson is this experience teaching me?
• Can I find ways to be thankful for what’s happening to me now even though I was not at the time it started happening?
• Use your 5 senses?  What do you see?  hear?  feel?  smell?  taste? that you are grateful for?

William James said “the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

Choose thankful thinking!  Think of it like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes and the easier it will be to  consistently put into action.  Become aware of what you are thankful for!