In life, there’s no way around it: Sometimes, things are bound to go wrong. It may be serious, like a health scare or losing a job, or it could be more minor, like stubbing a toe or breaking a dish in the sink. If quite a few of these setbacks happen at once, you might find yourself moving through your daily life stuck on focusing on what has gone wrong—and overlooking the good things in your life.
Intentionally and regularly acknowledging things you can be grateful for, however, can increase your gratitude. This can lead to healthier choices, a greater ability to bounce back from challenges, and make a big difference in your weight loss, health, and happiness. Here’s how.
Appreciating the benefits
Gratitude is about recognizing the good things in life and being thankful for the things that happen, both large and small. Taking time to practice gratitude has been shown in research to increase happiness—and science has shown that happier people make healthier choices.
In addition, studies have found that gratitude improves people’s ability to overcome challenges and cope with setbacks, while improving life satisfaction, optimism and feelings of overall well-being. Gratitude can even improve relationships with loved ones and strengthen feelings of connectedness, and even help us get more restful sleep.
‘Three Good Things’
How can you harness the power of gratitude? As your Weekly explains, a five-minute mental exercise can go a long way. The “Three Good Things” technique helps you remember to reflect on the good things that happen during the day, in turn instilling feelings of gratitude. Over the next week, choose three days to go through these three steps:
- Think about three good things that happened to you in the last 24 hours. They can be something small, like hearing a favorite song on the radio, or large, like going on vacation.
- Write down each thing and describe it with as much detail as you can. Consider where it happened, what time of day it was, what you were wearing, who was with you etc.
- Evaluate. Note how you felt during and after you experienced this good thing.
Depending on what is going on in your life, it may feel impossible to think of 3 good things, so remember, these can be small things, like having a cup of your favorite coffee. Continue to practice this five-minute technique in the coming weeks, and soon you should find yourself doing it naturally. No, it doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen, but your perspective will leave you better able to handle anything and everything that comes your way.