When we have difficult times in our lives, it’s easy to get caught up in the negative, which is why it is important to remind yourself what you’re grateful for. This is a common exercise that therapists give their patients because it is simple, quick, but really helps you connect with your emotions. By addressing what you’re grateful for and truly recognizing it by writing it down, you’re introducing positivity into your life. You will start to gradually focus more on the good than the bad, which will help you get through whatever you may be going through. This can also help improve self esteem because it allows you to recognize achievements or advancements that you have made. It becomes really easy to put ourselves down and sometimes we forget what we’ve accomplished. Forcing yourself to reflect on your own life will allow you to bring these accomplishments to the surface and will make you feel good about yourself. Stress is usually caused by feeling that you haven’t been doing enough, so by drawing attention to the fact that you are putting your best foot forward, you will be less stressed. Generally speaking, writing, especially if done before bed, can help you sleep at night. One of the main causes of insomnia is having stress from the day, so if you focus on positives and making yourself feel good before bed, you will sleep better. All in all, this simple exercise will make you a happier person. A piece of advice I would give you if you start doing this is to make it as specific as possible. If you write “family”, elaborate on what about your family you’re grateful for. Additionally, there is nothing that is too specific or small for this. You could write that you’re grateful for chocolate covered strawberries and this task would still be effective. Additionally, try and make this a daily habit. Set a small reasonable goal for yourself everyday that you can definitely attain. I think 5 is a reasonable number because it’s short enough that you can find time to do it everyday, but still enough things to reflect on to improve your mental health. I know that it might be difficult at first, but if you force yourself to do it when you’re down you will see improve
Writing about what you’re grateful for
