Valuing What We Have Is The Best Form Of Gratitude

Every day we wake up and our lives flow into a more or less organized routine. In many cases, the day to day passes in a pure inertia, full of haste, problems and very short-term objectives to meet. In short, far from a fair assessment of what we have and a sincere show of gratitude.

There is little time left to think about dreams we had in the past and present obligations press us. They develop frustrations for goals that they want to achieve and they resist. For horizons that you want to live or you want to own. The desire to improve our lives and those of the people around us always lives in us, in return we do not usually put too many increases when we focus on what we have already achieved.

We want to scratch the day for those few hours that allow us to do some exercise, meet some friends and enjoy a while of that hobby that makes us feel good. But we don’t dedicate much of our time to the very healthy exercise of valuing who we are.

Several studies have shown that this state of gratitude brings numerous benefits to our physical and psychological health, to such an extent that it seems worthwhile to find those few minutes a day in which to stop and reflect on it.

Assess what you have

In our culture, gratitude is a term that is often associated with the obligation, sometimes even annoying, that is acquired with someone. But gratitude is much more than that. Gratitude is a state of mind that can be exercised.

Grateful to those who have helped us, even those who made life difficult for us, because they created that obstacle that they taught us. Grateful for the gifts and for the shortcomings. Thankful for what we have and thankful also for what we lost, and that it gave us the opportunity to rebuild ourselves into a better version of ourselves.

Let’s see what benefits are derived from cultivating gratitude and how we can develop this attitude that positive psychology has studied in depth. Because, yes, fortunately it is a quality that can be acquired.

Gratitude and science

Studies conducted by different research teams at the University of California and the Comprehensive Care Awareness Research Center reached astonishing conclusions regarding the concept of gratitude. The fact develop this state of consciousness and feeling gratitude often  literally changes the molecular structure of the brain.

When we are grateful, we activate the areas in the brain responsible for moral cognition, feelings, and also the reward system. The prefrontal cortex is activated, involved in the planning of complex cognitive behaviors, in decision-making processes, in social behavior and in the expression of personality. The anterior cingulate cortex, responsible for emotions and empathy, is also activated. It also increases the activity in the gray matter.

How does it affect us?

These studies, conducted with groups of people subjected to various expression of gratitude tests over several weeks, yielded very positive results. This brain activation of the specific areas affected by gratitude was reflected in an increase in the well-being of the participants on several levels.

Subjects reported fewer overall health problems, lower anxiety and depression scales were given. There was also a considerable increase in their productivity as they felt more renewed thanks to a better quality of sleep. Ultimately, it seems that exercising gratitude is a practice that helps us feel healthier and happier.

Some ways to cultivate gratitude

Wake up every day valuing what you have. Recognition is the starting point of gratitude. Many times, in a normalization of what we have, we end up thinking that it is a right. This happens even when what has been achieved has been the product of our effort.

In this sense, what we lack can motivate us, but not skew the assessment we make of our life. We speak of that base, closely related to the self-concept from which many of the emotions that we experience are born. Thus, gratitude is one of the most fertile mothers in terms of positive emotions. Hence the importance of taking care of it.

A good exercise to stimulate gratitude can be to write a letter or a message to that person who one day helped us with something, even if time has passed. Taking a moment to think about where we would like to focus gratitude today or writing a journal where we jot down three things to be grateful for can help us value what we have. In short, simple routines that can remind us of what we have when what we lack overwhelms us.