Gratitude Journals and Mental Health
Gratitude Journals and Mental Health
Gratitude Journaling is keeping a log of where and what all you are thankful for. It helps you lower stress levels, sleep better, reduces anxiety and other stress and heart related diseases and brings mental peace and happiness in life. It is a good habit to write down all the things, people and situations in life that one is grateful for. It is great for enhancing mental health, will-power, stamina and emotional health. It also harbours better interpersonal relationships. Optimism and Gratitude decrease depression, sadness and loneliness. They inculcate positive emotions of happiness, pleasure and well-being.
Gratitude helps in increasing mental strength, resilience and personal self-esteem. It allows the removal of decaying emotions such as envy, resentment, jealousy, hatred, fears and comparing ourselves to others. Inferiority and Superiority complexes are both detrimental to one’s mental and emotional health. Gratitude increases empathy, positive outlook, kindness and all other positive emotions required to live a blissful and content life.
Maintain a Gratitude Journal. There are innumerable things to be grateful to God for. Family for starters is the backbone of every person. Be grateful to each and every member of your family to be in your life, love you and teach you some important lessons that your soul needs to learn. There are tough times, differences of opinion and conflict in relationships, but we must overcome all of that with the power of Gratitude for what and who all we have. Our friends and genuine well-wishers also deserve to be grateful for.
Besides family, having a good education, job or business is a wonderful thing. Not everyone is as blessed. Many though being more equally or more capable, may not have got the same opportunities in life. It is very important to feel, express and write down that we are grateful for our academic and professional lives, as that earns respect for us and gives us a social status.
We must also be immensely thankful for our economic status and that we can pay for and buy things to sustain life. While paying for stuff, we must be happy that we have blessed with money and can afford to buy a product or service, for our convenience. Money, wealth, material assets, property, house, basic necessities and financial success are all divine blessings. Of course, we work hard for them, but not all those who work hard are blessed with the privileges like us. So, we must be thankful to the divine powers, our parents and our revered Master.
We must also be grateful to our Spiritual Master, teachers and all those who have taught us something or influenced us positively in any way. We must acknowledge the contribution of each and every person as they are in some way responsible for who we are and where we are in life, currently.
We must be thankful for all elements of Nature that sustain life – Sun, water, earth, fire, air and space. We must pay gratitude to our body, as it is through our physical body only that we can experience and enjoy the worldly pleasures of life. Our 5 senses make us experience the world and its beauty. We must pay gratitude to our body by taking utmost care of it. Regular physical exercise, Yoga and Kriyas, Meditation, breathing exercises, taking a balanced and nutritious diet, adequate sleep and maintaining a positive mental attitude are the best ways to take good care of your body, so that it can serve you better.
Maintain a Gratitude Journal happily and make your life much better, wholesome, fulfilled and complete.
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