How grateful are you? Gratitude is important for physical and emotional well-being, but let’s consider two aspects of gratitude that may be overlooked: appreciating the struggles you’ve experienced, and sharing your gratitude with others.
There was a study that asked 2,000 Americans whether they had experienced any of 37 different negative life events over the course of four years. It looked at depression, health problems and life satisfaction. The outcome may surprise you.
Those who had the most and those who had the least struggles suffered more than the others. In other words, the study showed that going through some hard times resulted in better physical and emotional health. While multiple negative events can be bad for us, so can the lack of negative events.
Is it true for you?
Think about your own challenges. Hard times can build your coping skills, help you recognize what’s important to you, and give you confidence to tackle future problems. You’re probably not grateful when you are in the middle of hard times, but looking back you might be grateful for what you learned from them.
Gratitude helps!
Think of the people in your life who have made a positive difference. Family members, teachers, friends, fellow service members and Veterans, your health care team, religious leaders—anyone whose presence has made your life better.
There was a study on how to increase happiness and it found that an effective strategy was to write a letter to one of these people and then read it to them. Writing a letter allows you time to reflect on what this person means to you and draw out the details. Reading it allows them to hear the impact they had on your life. This action has enormous benefits for both the reader and the listener.
You may want to start this process with a five-minute meditation process on gratitude:
Putting Gratitude into Practice
During the holiday season—or anytime you want to build gratitude—consider these two ideas:
- Think about how you have overcome life challenges and what you learned about yourself.
- Write a letter to someone who helped you in your life and read it to them.
Anyone who is experiencing a crisis and needs to talk can reach out—dial 988 then press 1 for immediate support.
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I read it and think of it as being a wonderful topic it even made
me smile and up lifted my spirit thanks so much love you all for it thanks I have been going through it with my health more more than usual.
It’s hard to get through the holiday season alone. Depressed. Cold and hungry. With nobody to call that will help. I feel like I’m already a ghost. TBI sucks and it happened when I WAS in training. So they say it’s not service related. It happened at fort Jackson SC. Not at home!
Speaking for myself, as a person on a life-long journey of recovery from PTSD, addiction, and depression; the most valuable of my life lessons have come from the heroic efforts that were required to return me to wholeness spiritually, physically, emotionally, and socially. The practice of daily gratitude was, and remains today, an invaluable skill required to resurrect me from soul-sucking apathy, guilt, self-condemnation, despair, and depression. If it were not for the gift of my afflictions, how would I have gained the perspective I have today, a perspective that allows me to have joy even in the midst of trials? If it were not for the dark, how could we know how good light is, or that light even exists? God’s creation is complex and deeply beautiful. God is a master at taking broken things and making them into works of art. Perspective is everything, and it is a choice we make. We choose our thoughts, our thoughts determine our perceptions, our perceptions determine our feelings, our feelings determine our actions, and our actions determine the final outcome. Change your thoughts, change our world.
Awesome testimony. I believe every word and in what you have accomplished. Thank you for your encouragement.
Due to intense training I’m able to be better
So wonderful. I learned much – and have been doing several of the things mentioned. I heard once, If you never had a problem, God couldn’t solve them.
Thank you for publishing interesting and useful articles