Gratitude.

Gratitude is the key.

Very simply put, gratitude is a state of thankfulness or a state of being grateful.

I want to explain a little bit of the science behind gratitude because If we don't understand the actual biology and the science behind it, we're less likely to take on, embody and practice it.

Research and studies show that at the brain level, ‘our moral judgments involving feelings of gratitude are evoked in our right anterior temporal cortex’. People who express and feel gratitude have a ‘higher volume of gray matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus’. Practicing gratitude ‘wires and fires’ new neural connections to what is called the bliss center in the brain. It enhances our dopamine and serotonin - the neurotransmitters responsible for our levels of happiness. Practicing gratitude also reduces fear and anxiety by regulating our stress hormones. And the last point is that it fosters cognitive restructuring by evoking positive thinking overall.

So gratitude isn’t not just a “woo woo” term, and something that coaches and people in the industry like to throw around for fun, there is genuine science and research behind the benefits and the positive impact that practicing gratitude has.

I'd always heard of gratitude. And I obviously knew what the word was and meant, but I guess I was more formally introduced to it as a concept, through the book, The Resilience Project by Hugh van Cuylenberg. People who are close to me know that I'm a huge, huge fan, I just find him so inspiring and feel very aligned to what he's doing and what he's all about. In his book he dives into gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness (GEM). Hugh went through how to implement gratitude through journaling. Again, journaling is something I very much preach on my social media and with my clients and with my loved ones. So here you can combine the two, practicing gratitude and journaling together. And the way that I started to practice gratitude in my life was to write down three things that I was grateful from the day and the reasons why I was grateful for them. What I really want to emphasis emphasize here is the why behind what we are grateful for. Because I think for a while there, I was almost caught up a bit in autopilot of listing what I was grateful for, without actually anchoring into the feeling and why I was grateful for these things. So rather than kind of jotting down, you know, a list of three things, really think about, okay, so why am I grateful for this thing? Why am I grateful for this person? Or why am I grateful for this experience. And so I would really encourage you to literally just start like I did and write down three things that you're grateful for, at the end of your day.

If you don't quite align with journaling, there are other ways that you can do it. You could write it down in your notes app on your phone or text it to a friend. I think when we're trying to create new habits and create change, it's so powerful to bring our people in on the journey with us.

Don't try and come up with these big elaborate things that you're grateful for every day. Often for me, I'm grateful for my coffee. I'm grateful for my coffee machine, my beautiful Breville. So just start really small, you could even start with writing down one thing, or sending one thing to a friend that you're grateful for.

So that's gratitude in a really small nutshell. Start right now, today, tonight.

I want to leave you with a quote from Oprah: “the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased. That's because for sure what you focus on expands. When you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it.”

Not only can you increase feelings of positivity and happiness, but like Oprah says, what we focus on expands. So if you focus on the good, the good will get better for you.

So go out there, start practicing gratitude. Focus on the goodness in your life so that you can create more of it.

Matilda x