Every day we wake up and our life flows into a more or less organized routine, in many cases daily life takes place in pure inertia, full of short-term rushes, problems and goals, in short, it is difficult to value what we want to have and have a sincere sense of gratitude.
We have little time left to think about the dreams we had in the past, as the obligations of the present put pressure on us. Frustration arises when faced with goals to achieve that they cannot find time. Horizons that we want to live or that we want to have. The desire to improve our lives and those around us is still alive within us, but we generally do not look up when we look at how much we have achieved.
- We want to enjoy the few hours that allow us to exercise.
- Have friends and dedicate ourselves to this hobby that makes us feel good.
- But we do not dedicate much time to healthy exercise to appreciate who we have and what we are.
Several surveys show that this state of gratitude has many benefits for our physical and psychological health, to the point that it is worth looking for a few minutes a day to stop and reflect on the subject.
In our culture, gratitude is a term often associated with one’s sometimes even uncomfortable obligation to someone, but it’s much more than that. Gratitude is a state of mind that can be exercised.
We must thank those who helped us, and even those who have complicated our lives, because we are learning from obstacles. Thanks to gifts and defects. Give thanks for what we have and also for what we have lost, and this has given us the opportunity to rebuild into a better version of ourselves.
Let’s see what the benefits of cultivating gratitude are and how we can develop this attitude that positive psychology has studied carefully, fortunately this is a characteristic that is acquired.
Studies conducted by several research teams at the University of California and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center have led to surprising conclusions about the concept of gratitude. Developing this state of consciousness and feeling gratitude often literally changes the molecular structure of the brain.
When we are grateful we activate the areas of the brain responsible for moral cognition, feelings and also the reward system, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning complex cognitive behaviors, decision-making processes, social behavior and personality expression, is activated. The cingulate cortex, responsible for emotions and empathy, also activates and increases the activity of gray matter.
These surveys, conducted among groups of people who had undergone several gratitude expression tests over several weeks, yielded very positive results; this brain activation of specific areas affected by gratitude resulted in greater well-being of participants at different levels.
Individuals had fewer health problems and lower levels of anxiety and depression, there was also a significant increase in their productivity by feeling more refreshed thanks to a better quality of sleep, in short, it seems that the exercise of gratitude is a practice that helps us feel healthier and happier.
Wake up every day and appreciate what you have, recognition is the starting point of gratitude, we often take what we have for granted and end up thinking it’s a right, this happens even when what was achieved was the result of the effort itself.
In this sense, what we lack may motivate us, but do not exempt the gratitude we have for our own lives, we mean this basis, closely related to the concept of me, from which many emotions are born that we feel. In this way, gratitude is one of the most fertile mothers in terms of positive emotions, hence the importance of caring for it.
A good exercise in stimulating gratitude may be writing a letter or message to someone who has already helped us with something, even if it has been a long time. Taking time to reflect on what we would like to focus our gratitude on or write one in a journal and writing down three things we are grateful for can help us appreciate what we have. In short, these are simple routines that can remind us of everything we have when we can only think about what we lack.