There is life-changing power in being thankful! We often only focus on it and celebrate it in November, but if we have a heart of gratitude in every moment of our lives, we will be shocked by the results! These are the 21 incredible mental health benefits of being thankful that you need to know about!

The benefits of gratitude are overwhelming when it comes to your mental health! Being thankful can shift the entire trajectory of our lives if we embrace it.

Have you ever met someone whose incredibly happy and wonder what on earth makes them that way? If you look at their lives, they are unbelievably thankful for everything.

Their happiness is not because they are rich, and they are not always swimming in perfection, but instead, it’s a heart of thankfulness that makes them so full of joy. Gratitude is the unmistakable common denominator in every person’s life that is full of contentment and happiness!

This list is not exhaustive or clinical, but an overview of the mental health benefits of being grateful!

Here are the top 21 life-altering benefits of being thankful that will give you the encouragement you need to turn every moment into an opportunity for growth!

Mental Health Benefits of Being Thankful

1. Gratitude Shifts Your Focus

Life is what we make it, for the most part. Sure, there are hard things that happen, but the reality is they happen to everyone. The sun shines on us all, just like the rain hits us all. Life is full of good and bad days.

Being thankful makes us more aware of the sun despite the rain. Focusing on the positive can help you find joy in even the bleakest of circumstances.

What is important to you? Those are the things you should focus on. Love. Family. Friends. Professional success. Leaving your mark on this world.

Being thankful is crucial to keeping what you value most at the forefront of your goals and aspirations. Remembering what we are grateful for keeps us grounded where it matters most.

3. it Helps you get over the past

Ugh, this one is so important. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen live a life of victimhood and never truly enter success in their lives because of it. Being a slave to your past will absolutely ruin your life.

Being thankful helps you eliminate excuses. As you focus on how blessed you are, it’s impossible to remain in a place of feeling sorry for yourself. When seeing yourself as “blessed beyond measure,” there will be no time to sulk in the past.

4. being thankful Helps steady your emotions

At the center of every good pity party is a person who is full of all the feels. Feeling sad, sulky, angry, emotional, all the things, except gratitude.

When we are in a full-on pity party, there is only one thing we can do to turn things around, begin being thankful! Gratitude will steady your emotions; it will balance out all the negative emotions with positive ones.

Try creating a list of things you’re grateful for during a highly emotional situation. Being thankful can clear your mind and put your emotions in check.

5. Gratitude Pushes you to progress

Quite simply put, not all successful people are grateful, but all grateful people are progressing. It is impossible to stay in the same place when constantly looking for the good in everything. Your positive attitude will advance you naturally.

Gratitude will push you to progress in life and keep your joy intact all at the same time. You can be successful without it, but it won’t be nearly as fulfilling.

Being thankful is the key to happiness on the road to success.

6. it Provides rest in your weariness

Are you ever just tired? Tired of striving? Tired of the mundane life? The reality of being unsettled and weary comes from a lack of contentment. A life absent of satisfaction is a life depleted of gratitude.

When we make being thankful a habit, we find rest in the daily tasks of life. We feel secure and fulfilled in the little things. Our minds and hearts find rest.

7. Being Thankful Promotes peace

When fighting for mental wellness, it often feels like a war inside your head or within yourself. Peace is almost always the goal that feels unobtainable.

We all desire mental clarity, serenity, and calm. Being thankful can be the first step in that process. Gratitude provides a way out of the war, an alternative route to fighting or becoming weary.

When we focus on what we have, what we are blessed with, who is on our side, our minds begin to rest in the peace of knowing we are valued and loved. Not only is peace obtainable with gratitude, but we can bask in it.

One of the notable lies of anxiety is hopelessness. Feeling despair is often recorded by people dealing with depression, panic, anxiety, and the like. Living with hope seems like a pipedream for most.

Hope is the belief that good is coming and having an expectation of more. When you begin being thankful and meditating on the things you are grateful for, something miraculous happens… it ignites hope.

Gratitude ignites the tiniest spark of hope into the dead places of your life. As the sparks begin to fly, the fires of your heart begin to be ignited with hope. The beauty of it all seems so supernatural, almost as if it came straight from God, and that’s because it does.

When feeling hopeless, try gratitude and watch the fires of hope swell, take over and warm your soul!

Many are living with a heart full of aspirations that are perceived by them as “dead.” I am convinced that most people don’t even attempt to accomplish their dreams because they don’t believe they can. They don’t see themselves as capable. Their resources are limited, and they refuse to try.

The reality is this, almost everyone who accomplishes anything exceptional in life had plenty of reasons why they couldn’t.

So, what does gratitude have to do with this process? Well, everything. Gratitude shifts your perspective on what you have and what talents you possess. As you begin being thankful, you will notice that your limitations aren’t as colossal as you thought.

Dreams are revitalized as you see yourself through the eyes of gratitude. What you really have to offer the world will become crystal clear.

10. Being Grateful Strengthens you in trouble and increases your joy

When you are feeling at your lowest, NOTHING pulls you out of despair like gratitude will. There are days and moments in life that just do not feel good, and nothing you do or say can make them better.

The loss of a job, a friend, a relationship, the grief of death, whatever it may be, bad days are inevitable, and sadness is inescapable for us all. How you respond to those days can be the difference between moments of pain and years of heartache.

One of the things I’ve always admired most about those who were able to overcome the deepest traumas in life is that they all seemed to have this attitude of gratefulness despite their loss.

Being thankful can lift you out of a pit. If you’ve recently suffered loss, find something to be grateful for in it. Maybe it’s the blessing of knowing the person. It could be the opportunity for the experience you gained. Whatever it is, being thankful will inspire you with joy in the deepest darkness.

If you are going through grief and want help overcoming it with gratitude, check out this article! 

Simple as it may sound, being thankful can increase your productivity and work and at home.

When we get into a place of disillusionment with the mundane, we often start grumbling about it. Complaining gives us the complete opposite result as that of gratitude. It’s only natural for the negative energy to slow us down.

Productivity increases as we focus on what we have, what we have done, and who is on our side. As we accomplish tasks and celebrate those wins with gratitude, there will be more to follow.

For more in-depth info on the topic of gratitude and productivity, check out this article! 

Stress triggers a hormone called cortisol in our bodies. Higher cortisol levels are linked to many mental health issues. Studies have shown that the stress hormone, cortisol, is lowered when we express a feeling of gratitude.

Phycology experts often advise people in highly stressful environments (such as caregivers for those with medical issues) to keep gratitude journals to help reduce stress.

Check out this article for more on the topic of gratitude and stress!

If you are ever headed down the road with a GPS on, and you take a wrong turn, you will hear it say, “rerouting.” There’s a sense of nervousness that you missed the road, but also comfort in knowing that this lady in GPS-land is going to help you out of the mess you find yourself in.

Gratitude is that voice that says “rerouting” in our lives. When we find ourselves drowning in sorrow, depressive thoughts, panic, and anxiety if we start to think of things we are thankful for during that, it will subside. Our internal GPS will redirect us and refocus our minds on the good.

It’s not that gratitude causes success, but that it helps you succeed in all you do. Being thankful focuses on a positive perspective of your life.

Our minds tend to look toward what is wrong in our lives and what needs to be fixed. When we focus on those things, we highlight our weaknesses. However, when we are thankful, acknowledging our blessings and strengths, we are accentuating those. This will give you the confidence needed to succeed.

Though there aren’t many studies that show confidence is linked to professional success, some show that a lack of it can hinder you.

It’s no secret that happier people are captivating and fun to be around. The more joyful you are, the more others are attracted to your life.

It’s a simple concept. Being thankful makes you happier. Happier people draw others to them effortlessly.

Here’s why being happy makes you more attractive!

As we just stated in our previous point, gratitude makes you more alluring to others. Naturally, being thankful is attractive, and therefore increases your influence.

Positive people have more of a voice in the lives of others because they are viewed as wiser and successful.

This benefit of being thankful is based solely on cause and effect. Complaining about your life equals unhappiness and ingratitude. Whereas a grateful heart brings about a sense of fulfillment and contentment.

We should be incredibly fulfilled in our lives, overflowing with joy and contentment. I firmly believe this all starts with our attitude toward gratitude and the value we put on it.

An obvious symptom of anxiety is irrational thoughts. The two go hand and hand and really feed on each other. Some examples of irrational thoughts can be:

• People hate me.
• I am not loved, just tolerated.
• No one appreciates me.
• I look disgusting.
• I think I might be crazy.
• If I died, no one would care.
• I suck at life.
  

The list goes on and on. If you have ever dealt with these thoughts, you know how toxic they can be. What if I told you the simple act of gratitude can shut those down? It’s true. Being thankful will take a sledgehammer to these thoughts, crushing them with the truth.

The next time you feel these thoughts coming up, try grabbing a sheet of paper or clicking the notes app on your phone and start a gratitude list!

If we let the lack of happiness and flood of irrational thinking infiltrate our minds, we begin to drift into the world of self-hatred. I have included this because I know some of you may be like me at one point in my life, wayyyy past the irrational thoughts and into the land of hating yourself.

When we hate ourselves, we do not see any value in our lives. We don’t think anyone else sees it either. It’s the place just before suicidal thoughts. Anxiety and depression start digging a pit for us to fall into.

How can we even begin to pull ourselves up out of that?! The answer is simple, start with being thankful. Get a gratitude journal where you painstakingly think of just 3 things a day you’re grateful for and focus on those.

I can’t promise that you’ll be out of that pit of despair quickly, but I can tell you that you’ll begin to see some light shining through the depths. Possibly just enough light to think your worthy of seeking the help you need.

Because, beautiful human, you are loved and valued, made uniquely by your Creator for a purpose in this life beyond yourself!

Here are some online counseling options, if you need them:

• better help

• talk space

Being thankful puts value on everything you are grateful for, including the relationships you’ve been blessed with.

If you are in a long-term relationship with anyone, you know it can be easy to point out all the things you don’t like. Seeing what needs to be fixed is so much clearer once the rose-colored glasses come off and comfort sets in.

Writing down what you love about the person will help you to focus on their strengths. If you tell them what makes you thankful for them, they are even more likely to focus on the things they love about you too.

Being thankful encourages meaningful and lasting friendships and relationships. Meaningful relationships equal better mental health.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THIS ARTICLE: BEST 9 TIPS FOR POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Regret is a feeling of disappointment or sadness over past events. Living in regret is toxic to mental wellness and will halt any progress you are trying to have in life.

Regret over past relationships or missed opportunities, or professional failures keep you from moving forward. Living in regret can drive anxiety to its heights. How can you overcome a life of regret? Begin with being grateful for certain parts of your past.

For example, if you were in a bad relationship and have regrets of time wasted, try to redirect your mind to what you learned. Being thankful for the hard lessons learned in those moments can help you drive past regret onto your future!

Applying gratitude to every area of your life can significantly impact your mental health and wellness journey. These are just 21 of the incredible benefits of being thankful! As you start living with gratitude daily, you will find many more!

Let me know in the comments below how this article helped you! What are some of the benefits of gratitude that you’ve found in your own life?

Saying Goodbye To Anxious,

Kristina G. 

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