Your Leadership Super Power: Gratitude

grat·i·tude

noun

the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation 

Gratitude activates positive emotions, improves health, and builds strong relationships. Happy Thanksgiving. This is not about religion or spiritual beliefs. It’s about how gratitude draws you into the energy of appreciation, thus creating a pathway to more abundance.

 If you start your day with a to-do list streaming through your brain, you know how often the magnitude of the list causes anxiety and self-doubt. Often, we attempt to quiet the self-doubt by moving faster and getting more done. Getting more done is the ultimate solution, but not the first one.

 As an entrepreneur, coach, mother, and family member, I have found that moving faster is not the starting place for me. I begin each day in silence. In that silence, I offer gratitude. Generally, we are all grateful for what we have. We know we are better off than millions of people in our communities and worldwide. But I want to share why making time and space in your busy life for gratitude is so important to your success.

 How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain

A study reported in Greater Mind Magazine in July 2017 pulled together three groups. All three groups received counseling services, most for anxiety and depression. In addition to counseling, the first group was instructed to write one letter of gratitude each week for three weeks. The second group was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not do any writing activity. They found those who wrote gratitude letters reported better mental health four and twelve weeks later.

 Gratitude helps manage toxic thinking

In previous blogs, I talked about the inner critic and its grip on our minds and self-esteem. In She Who Controls Her Inner Critic, Rules Her Future, I wrote, Our inner critic can be a cruel and profoundly damaging force. Its strength and impact determine our overall mental well-being. It can talk you into not reaching for your dreams. This destructive voice in our heads is never satisfied and can soil and spoil anything we may achieve, no matter how impressive. It magnifies the negative, spreading discontent—and worse—in our lives.

Expressing gratitude for what you have quiets the inner critic and makes it impossible to focus on the things that went wrong or may go wrong during the day. Gratitude is a lovely distraction from the toxic chatter and creates new patterns of perception. You quite literally begin to see life differently. Gratitude will also decrease anger or dwelling on someone who did you wrong. You can add someone who has supported you to your gratitude list and turn your attention toward them. 

 Gratitude is also linked to resilience. Focusing on the things you are grateful for gives puts you in touch with your strengths and successes, which increases your ability to bounce back. You will find your trait of optimism will blossom when you appreciate your life.

 Expressing Gratitude: Let Me Count The Ways

I encourage my clients to express gratitude in moments of silence. I encourage them to use their first thoughts in the morning to express appreciation for yesterday and the fact that they are here again today. Then, at the end of each day, I encourage them to have a gratitude journal. Oprah added this idea to the national lexicon decades ago. It is an excellent practice, and I’m so grateful that she helped turn up the volume on gratitude.

A gratitude journal forces us to pay attention to the good things in life we might otherwise take for granted. In that way, we become more attuned to the familiar sources of pleasure around us—and the emotional tone of our life can shift in profound ways.

At the end of each month, I encourage everyone to read their gratitude journal to see how well things are going or to recognize how well you handled the difficult moments. Getting ahead of the inner critic chatter is very important. It is very hard at times to quiet her down.

There are so many moments throughout the day to bring gratitude into the picture. “I am grateful that the meeting went well. I am so glad I was prepared.”  

I know you are very busy but add a few of the items listed below to your day for 30 days and see what happens. The gratitude list may lead you to utter, ‘Duh!’, but it is often the obvious things that we overlook. Take your choice.

You can say, “I am so grateful that”:

·       The energy that is larger than me is looking out for me

·       I woke up today and can read this blog

·       The food that I gather in the grocery store is clean and regulated

Or, “I am so grateful for”:

·       The friends who make me laugh

·       The people and experiences that taught me

·       The roof over my head

·       The job (even if you hate it)

·       The pet who loves me unconditionally

·       The four seasons

·       The days off

·       Today/Tomorrow

·       The technology I am using to read this blog

·       The excellent book that transports me

·       The music I love

·       The colors and textures that enhance my life

Gratitude broadens our outlooks and allows us to see new possibilities in our lives and the greater community. Being able to stay positive helps us to enhance our capacities for the future and become more resilient during trying times. Being intentional about cultivating positive emotions is imperative to personal and professional development, and yields some of the most reliable and abundant dividends.

Happy Thanksgiving.