Written By: Libbie Fang
Introduction
Recent wellness trends have emphasized expressing gratitude through affirmations, journaling, and meditation. Dedicating time to reflect upon one’s life and feeling grateful can come with various benefits, but how can this really be done? Essentially, the approach to gratitude matters because chasing after certain results would be toxic positivity instead of genuine gratefulness; thus, it is important to be aware of your intention when showing gratitude and ensure that the feeling is authentic.
The Effect of Gratitude
Gratitude, in simple terms, is being thankful and appreciative of what one has and can be either an emotion or an overall personality trait. Being grateful could look like spending time reflecting on little details that bring you happiness, appreciating the beauties in life and nature, celebrating victories, and expressing your thanks to people in your life.
This positive state of health benefits our well-being by lowering stress levels and risks of illnesses like depression and anxiety. In addition, gratitude has been shown to improve self-esteem and even one’s immune system, strengthening individuals’ overall health. This is the case because gratitude lowers the stress hormone cortisol and allows the brain to release “happy chemicals” like dopamine and serotonin. Altogether, this means that practicing gratitude regularly has positive effects on one’s overall well-being.
Expressing Gratitude
Simply stating that one should just “be grateful” is not especially helpful as one cannot force themselves to just do so. Therefore, individuals need to understand how they can personally find ways to incorporate genuine gratitude into their daily lives. While gratitude shows up in many forms, a few practices to implement in your life and express more gratitude include: using a gratitude journal to write about what you are thankful for, taking note of the good things in life despite how big or small it is, and expressing your gratitude to loved ones around you – either through actions or words.
Toxic Gratitude
Although gratitude comes with various benefits and increases an individual’s overall happiness, forcing gratitude and doing so through toxic positivity will not bring out those effects. Inauthentic gratitude tends to be caused by individuals who use toxic positivity to gaslight themselves into being “grateful” while simultaneously neglecting their negative emotions. Not acknowledging the imperfect parts of one’s life and convincing oneself that everything is without flaws is ineffective in the long run because the “joy” that comes from living in a lie is temporary.
Instead of forcing yourself to constantly feel grateful for everything in your life, you should appreciate what you are truly happy about without lying to yourself about enjoying every aspect of your life at all times – since this is simply unattainable. At times, we feel uncomfortable emotions and label them as “bad” – such as when we are sad, angry, disappointed, etc. However, all emotions are a part of human life, and pushing them away or covering them up with toxic positivity and gratitude will only invalidate you more. Ultimately, to avoid spiraling into a toxic cycle of forced gratitude, it is important to express gratitude about what you are truly happy about and not pressure yourself to express joy with something you do not like as uncomfortable emotions and situations are a part of life.
Conclusion
As gratitude benefits one’s health both mentally and physically, it is crucial to differentiate between forced and genuine gratitude. Keeping this in mind, learning to find a balance between being thankful for little things in life and processing tougher emotions or rough circumstances is the key to finding true joy in appreciating life.
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