I say it often “ I am a work in progress.. And I always will be.”

No longer ashamed to admit it, but my journey from a “hot bariatric mess” to pretty darn successful did NOT come easy to me. I was resistant to change which led to me plateauing my weight loss with 40-50 more pounds to lose. It took me over a year to figure out that I needed help WAY beyond just a bariatric surgery in order to have transformation. And yet another year to find the right therapist and lifestyle coach to help me make my goals a reality…

Not all of their advice and recommendations landed well with me. But, I DID try it all. 

• Reiki

• Journaling

• Meditation/prayer

• Exercise

• Planning my days/week

• Trying new activities in pursuit of finding joy (I have an impressive list here!)

• Gratitude journaling. 

Now, 5 years later… I have some things that REALLY helped me be calmer, happier, more focused on life and less on food and alcohol. I still dabble in them all, but what I have found to be GAME CHANGERS were: exercise, planning my days/weeks, and GRATITUDE JOURNALING!

So, it being Thanksgiving tomorrow, I wanted to be intentional about my gratitude today, and share it with others. 

For the last 5 years, every Thanksgiving, we go around the table and tell everyone what we are grateful for.  It’s my way of influencing my children that gratitude feels GOOD. Even when you might not. 

Because by keeping a gratitude journal on my bedside and a “gratitude note” on my phone, I make it a point to add 2-3 things to the list everyday. By building this habit, it has created an “attitude of gratitude” in my daily life that took me from a perpetual “glass half empty” girl to a “glass half full” woman. 

Being appreciative and positive is a win for everyone.

Action Task: A Gratitude Journaling Practice

This week, start a daily gratitude journaling practice. You may keep it simple and dedicated 5 minutes each morning to quietly reflect on your blessings and specific things you are grateful for. You can record it in a journal or on a note on your phone. As you advance in your practice, try to refer back to your gratitude list and add to it in times of stress or negativity. This is a great way to improve your perspective when you are in a moment of negative thinking and feeling sorry for yourself or the way things are going. 

The Benefits of Gratitude Journaling:

 We know the saying, “ Our experience of life is determined only 10% by what happens to us, with the other 90% by how we choose to react or respond to those events.” This means that our perspective to our life events is our choice, and plays a very powerful role in our perceived stress and life satisfaction. 

We train our “go-to” perspectives in times of stress throughout our lifetime by how we respond to more normal, everyday events. If we cultivate the habit of focusing on the negative and upsetting aspects of our everyday lives, then we are much more likely to react similarly (or worse) when we are faced with major, unexpected life events. As with any habit, we CAN begin to practice an alternative response. Over time, we strengthen our stress response “muscles” until it becomes our new habitual response. 

We can choose to make an effort to focus on positive, affirming, uplifting, and heartwarming aspects of our everyday lives. Simple pleasures such as a good cup of coffee, a cozy blanket, a snuggle with a pet can be consciously acknowledged, making us aware of our everyday joys. When we practice mindfulness such as this, we can more easily resort to these thoughts when we are provoked into a stress response. This creates not only a change in perspective, but an actual physiologic response of a lowered breathing and heart rate, essentially telling the body you are safe. When we practice acknowledging the positive things in our life on an everyday basis, we learn to instinctively take a pause between stressful events and our reaction. This allows us to self correct our thoughts from a downward spiral into more helpful ones. If our aim is to spend less time in sympathetic stress mode, and more time in parasympathetic rest and digest mode, then gratitude journaling may just be the simple, easy, powerful practice that gets you closer to this goal. “Small steps taken often still get the result!”

Tips to get you started:

• Choose your time: First thing in the morning with your first cup of coffee, or last thing at night before you turn off the light are both good choices. (I also do it in the parent pick up line at my kids school..)

• Choose your journal: A simple journal works great. When on the go, a note on your phone is also an option.

• Get started! Write down one very specific thing (person, feeling, personality trait, event, opportunity, pet, nature) that you are grateful for at this moment. Now list five detailed reasons why you are grateful for it. Be specific. Include detail that will invoke warm positive emotions. If you have time and motivation, write one more. 

• Gain momentum! The goal is to truly and deeply experience gratitude for at least one thing every single day. Writing it down is critical. Repetition is critical. Detail is important too. Try to become aware of how this practice is impacting your mood and stress level as you continue to practice it this week.