‘Your mind is a magnet. If you think good thoughts, you will attract good thoughts.’
Unknown
Gratitude is beautiful. It not only transforms your inner world, but projects beauty onto everything around you. It is one of the most powerful methods of journeying ‘up from the well’.
This is the most simple ‘small thing’ you can adopt. It requires a maximum of only 10 seconds and can be done from the comfort of your bed. However, I acknowledge it is hard when in the pits of depression.
Depression strips away the colour from life, leaving everything in grayscale with intense patches of darkness.
Gratitude, piece by piece, vibrantly colours your world.
However, it is a slow process. Practising gratitude is difficult, and not a quick fix. It is a skill that needs to be learned and requires time to feel its effects. It eventually becomes second nature, and your brain begins to subconsciously find gratitude within your life (without actively identifying it).
Three is a solid foundation for starting many of the ‘small things’, so start with naming three things for which you are grateful for when you wake up.
When you are in a dark headspace, it is difficult to find anything good in your life. That is why it is important to start with minor aspects of life – the things we often take for granted but are fortunate to have. For example, if you are reading this blog, then you have eyes, are literate, and have access to the internet (3 major things to start with).
It does not matter if the words feel empty and you don’t really feel anything when you say them. With practise, the real feeling of gratitude will come. You just need to be patient.
Other suggestions:
– ‘I am grateful for the clothes on my back.’
– ‘I am grateful for every part of my body that works for me.’
– ‘I am grateful for electricity.’
Look hard at the things, moments, and people throughout your day, and try to see their value.
For example:
– The smile of a stranger passing you on the street.
– The vibrant colours of flowers.
– Feeling a soft breeze on your face.
– The quiet.
When we don’t take notice of the small moments, we miss life. We miss the thousands of miracles that occur around us in a day, and we take them for granted. Life comprises these many small moments to create the beautiful montage we can one day look back on.
When you are feeling overwhelmed with life and the colour is slipping away, stop what you are doing and look around.
Take a breath and look through the eyes that allow you to see.
If you are amongst nature, observe how the sunlight bounces off the leaves of a tree and creates contrasting greens.
If you are amongst buildings, admire the structural intelligence and work that went behind each one, and acknowledge the amazing feats of humanity.
If you are amongst people, observe their faces, their eyes, their micro-expressions.
Stop and be grateful for it all.
Methods for gratitude:
– Say it to yourself, anytime and anywhere-whilst sitting in traffic, whilst waiting in a line, before you go to bed.
– Write it in a journal, daily.
– Voice it to a loved one.
– Voice it to yourself in the mirror.
The benefits:
– Increases optimism –> key to overcoming depression.
– Become less resistant and more open to life.
– Brings peace.
– Reduces the range of negative emotions.
– Reduces feelings of comparison and envy for others –> improves self-esteem.
– Makes our memories happier –> focus on the positive aspects.
– More connected to our environment and less self-centred.
– Transforms simplicities of life into something more.
– Gratitude breeds more gratitude.
There are multiple psychological studies online that prove this method works.
Remember: to reap the full benefits of gratitude, it must be a daily practise.
Up From The Well 