Giving Thanks for Small Things Can be Powerful

It’s impossible to register both intense gratitude and intense anxiety at the same time.

Emerging brain research is showing us that walking in a state of gratitude is powerful in part because it helps us to ward off anxiety – an emotion that can deeply damage us both mentally and physically.

According to this research, the part of the brain that registers anxiety cannot remain lit up – or engaged and in use – when gratitude is also being experienced.

How can we apply this research to our day-to-day lives?

By being grateful and giving thanks for both the ordinary and the extraordinary.

So, next time you are stressed out and worried, begin to make a list – either in your mind or on paper – of some of the things you have to be thankful for. You will find, as you focus on gratitude, that fear and anxiety will begin to fade away.

If you think you do not have much to be thankful for, answer some of these questions: Do you have food? Shelter? Someone in your life who cares about you? A pet? Clothes on your back? A mind that is functioning well? A body that allows you to complete the tasks of the day?

Giving thanks for small things can be powerful.

This exercise, of course, is no replacement for medication in people who have been determined to need it by a physician.

But for many of us, it can be a very helpful, liberating exercise. And s we release our sense of fear, we can move forward into the full lives we are meant to live.