Practicing Gratitude Can Reduce Stress

What is stress?

This month we want to focus on stress. Stress is very common among us all. Stress affects the mind and body, but learning how to cope with stress can help us feel less overwhelmed and support our mental and physical well-being. When we encounter stress, our body produces stress hormones that trigger a fight or flight response and activate our immune system. This helps us respond quickly to dangerous situations.

Manage your stress

• Identify the sources of stress in your life

• Cut out unhealthy ways of dealing with stress.

• Practice the 4 A’s of stress management

• Get moving

• Connect to others

• Make time for fun and relaxation

• Manage your time

• Maintain balance with a healthy lifestyle

• Learn to relieve stress in the moment

Fight or flight response

When dealing with a stressful situation, your body will go into the “fight or flight” response. The fight or flight response is a physiological reaction that activates the sympathetic nervous system. Essentially, the response prepares the body to either fight or flee the threat.

Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude offers us a way of embracing all that makes our lives what they are. More than just a happy feeling for the parts of our lives currently going our way, gratitude encompasses the willingness to expand our attention so that we perceive more of the goodness we are always receiving. Practicing gratitude on a daily can significantly improve your mental health. Taking time to notice everything around you and spreading gratitude for all the little things will boost your sense of happiness. This may relieve stress, anxiety, and pain.

Benefits of Gratitude

1. It’s a motivator

2. It reduces stress

3. Reduces worry and frustration

4. Helps override negative thinking

5. Improves our sense of value and worth

6. It improves social connection

Who can you be grateful for?

Be thankful for yourself for getting through challenges and doing your best

• Be thankful for others for helping you out. Even the story clerk or the stranger who opens the door.

• Be thankful for Mother Nature for the bounty of the earth, the sunshine and even the rain.

• Be thankful to the higher power in whatever form you worship

Gratitude turns what little you have into abundance.

Gratitude is so much more than saying thank you.

Gratitude changes your perspective of your world.