Benefits From Living Your Life With A Grateful Heart And Thankfulness
Live With A Grateful Heart
Licensed Professional Counselor, Taylor Draughn shares 3 ways to live with a grateful heart and thankfulness.
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a child, my fond memories were of us sitting around a table eating way too much, watching football, playing outside with my cousins, and finishing the day with decorating for Christmas. I loved the food, the family time, and the excitement for the next season to celebrate.
Thanksgiving was created with the mindset of setting aside time every year to be thankful for the blessings in our own life. The problem with this is that simply recognizing gratitude and thanksgiving one time a year will not give us the overarching benefits that a grateful heart and thankfulness has been found to give us.
According to an article by Psychology Today actively utilizing gratitude in our lives rewards us with many physical, emotional, and mental benefits. Research has found that gratitude leads to improvements in your physical and psychological health. They have actually found that living with a grateful heart actually reduces individual’s levels of depression and improves sleep.
There’s much more research statistics I could give you about the benefits of practicing thankfulness more than once a year, but I don’t want to bore you with statistics. The fact is, it has been proven over and over the necessity of gratitude for a healthy and resilient life.
I love combining research and Scripture. If you know even a little bit about Scripture, you know how often Scripture encourages us to live from a grateful heart and thankful spirit.
A Couple Of My Favorite Thankful Scriptures
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Colossians 3:15
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
Do you notice two similarities with both of these passages?
Both Scripture passages connect peace with thanksgiving. This connects to what research finds. When we utilize a grateful heart and thanksgiving, we experience a higher degree of peace, less fear, and less depression.
This is why focusing on what we have to be grateful for once a year is not enough. We cannot wait until our life is what we want it to be thankful and engage gratitude. Thankfulness involves being grateful in every situation. However, this doesn’t mean that our situation is perfect, but we choose to see the good in our circumstances.
Three Ways To Integrate A Heart And Life Built On Gratitude And Thankfulness:
1) Focus On Your Thoughts
Having a life built on thankfulness begins with our thoughts. We cannot hold onto thoughts ridden with self-contempt, unbelief, negativity, and expect our words and lifestyle to be one of gratitude and thanksgiving. Therefore, we must be able to identify these thoughts prior to changing them.
One of the best ways to begin insight into your thought life is through journaling. Many times, we don’t recognize the unhealthy, negative thoughts we allow or carry in our mind. Once we take the time to intentionally sit in silence thinking about our thinking, we can then begin the process of changing them.
2) Look For The Small Moments
We cannot be grateful for big moments in our life, such as a new car, a promotion at work, or a new addition to our family, and expect those to last us until the next big moment happens. The small moments matter too. We must look for the small moments in between the big ones. This means, in the midst of having a teething, crying infant who hasn’t slept through the night yet, we look for the beauty even in those moments.
One way I often encourage clients is to start a gratitude list and try to add to it every day especially during a difficult season. Once you start this practice, it gets easier to see the gifts and treasures in the small moments.
3) Praise God Even When You Think You Can’t Find A Reason
This is not an easy one for me. When I am struggling, the last thing I want to do is praise the Lord when He is the very one who could snap his fingers and get me out of my struggle. Can I get an Amen!?
Although praising God in difficult times is not easy, it is necessary. When we are able to focus on His goodness and grace as well as His faithfulness in our past, we are then able to take our eyes off of the problem and begin to see the bigger picture. Once focusing on the bigger picture, God begins to reveal His purposes and plans.
Although this is most definitely not an exhaustive list in order to begin a life of thanksgiving and gratitude, it still is a good place to start. I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family, but even more than that, I pray that we all begin to live a life of Thanksgiving.
By Taylor Draughn, LPC, LMFT
A Word From Pat
As I read through my daughter’s encouragement to daily live with gratitude, I was reminded how thankful I am for each and every one of you who takes the time to read these blogs, to listen to my podcasts, and watch my videos. You bring me so much joy and inspiration to continue in God’s calling. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
May God bless Your Thanksgiving with His presence, love, and blessings. May Your response to God’s good gifts be a grateful heart and thankfulness in every aspect of life that you may experience the rich rewards and benefits each and every day.
Much Love and Blessings!
Pat Domangue
