How the habit of gratitude can rewire your brain

One of the easiest and most simple things that has had the largest impact in my journey has been gratitude.

Gratitude is about showing appreciation, and feeling thankful for all the good things, experiences and people in your life, however big or small they are. You can be grateful for anything! It's about finding joy in the present moment and acknowledging the positive aspects of your life. It can have a really positive impact on your wellbeing, leading to feeling more fulfilled.

By building the habit of gratitude you are rewiring the brain towards having a different perspective of life and changing the way you think. If you are someone who ever struggles with overthinking or negative thoughts, then this blog article will show you how gratitude can help you with these things.

How gratitude can help to rewire your brain

There are so many reasons to start building a gratitude practice. It can gradually change the way you think and perceive the world, to something more positive This in turn helps you to start noticing more of the positives around you, such as abundance, opportunities and things that make you feel good. This is how the Law of Attraction works. The Law of Attraction suggests that the energy you put out into the universe, (through your thoughts, what you’re paying attention to, actions, emotions, or beliefs) will attract similar energy or experiences back to you. Focusing on the things you have and are grateful for in your life as opposed to the things you don’t have means you are in a receiving mindset instead of a scarcity mindset where you are focused on lack.

When you feel gratitude more, you are rooted in receiving mode for more of the things you want in your life. Regularly tuning into the feeling of gratitude in your life allows you to unconsciously notice more of the things that you want in your life that make you feel good. When you make time to be grateful, your attention is focused on all the best things in your life.

You are building a more positive, purposeful and present experience. You filter more positive information through your Reticular Activating System and start to focus on this more than the negative. Challenges and difficult times feel more manageable because you are connected to the feelings of gratitude.

The Reticular Activating System is like a door in your mind that only lets important information in. ‘Important information’ is basically what it already knows, and what you pay attention to. It filters out information that it categorises as unnecessary. So for example if you are someone who struggles with negative self-talk and you are trying to think more positively without working on your deeper beliefs, it’s probably going to be difficult for this change to stick because you are just working on the surface level and it isn’t familiar. Your Reticular Activating System won’t let it in because it doesn’t class that as relevant information.

When you focus your attention on something, you open up our unconscious mind to let that in. This is how you start to reprogramme your subconscious thoughts. When you become more intentional with what you’re paying attention to and start focusing on feelings of gratitude, you start to rewire your brain by programming that into the Reticular Activating System, and you’ll gradually notice more of the good things appearing in your life.

The subconscious mind runs around 95% of our lives - our habits, behaviours, beliefs, thoughts, emotions and how we live our life. This is why starting to work on the deeper, unconscious level rather than just on the surface can have such a big impact.

Building a gratitude practice

Starting a gratitude practice is very simple and doesn’t require you to take much time out of your day at all. The payoff of taking just 5 minutes a day for gratitude can be huge.

One of the easiest things you can do is to start a gratitude journal. You can do this in your phone notes, or in a notebook, or you can buy a gratitude journal. Then all you need to do is think of 3 things each day that you are grateful for. You can do this either first thing in a morning, to start your day. You can do it before bed, so you go to sleep feeling grateful, or any other time of day.

The things you write in your list can be anything, however big or small.

Once you get into this habit and do it for a while, you may start to notice the way you think is changing, you might feel more present. There are so many benefits to having a gratitude practice, some of these are:

• Improved mood

• Relieve stress and reduce anxiety

• Closer relationships and better communication

• More self-awareness and self-compassion

• Increased resilience

• Enjoying and feeling more in control of your life

• Feeling more relaxed

Although starting a gratitude journal is one of the most simple things you can do, there are other ways you can start to focus more on gratitude in your life. Here are a few:

• Setting reminders on your phone to think of something you are grateful for at different points through the day

• Tell someone you are close to that you are grateful for them and why

• Notice the glimmers throughout your day, and appreciate them.

• Write down a list of things you are grateful for yourself to

• Meditate on the feelings of gratitude, or do a gratitude meditation in the morning

Gratitude has personally helped me with anxiety and also helped with overcoming negative self-talk. It’s been one of the things that has supported me the most throughout my journey and really helped me to start changing my own perspective on life.

Now you know why gratitude is a simple yet impactful thing you can do to support your wellbeing and mental health. It's all about appreciating the good things in your life, both big and small. As you make gratitude a habit, you can even start to rewire your brain and shift your mindset through this practice, amongst other benefits such as improved self-awareness, less stress, stronger relationships and improved mood.

Take some time each day to reflect on what you're grateful for. Start a gratitude journal, set reminders, show appreciation to your favourite people, or simply be present with gratitude throughout your day.

I challenge you to commit to 30 days of practicing gratitude some way. Note how you feel before and after. I would love to hear all about it, so please email me or message me on instagram to share how you get on.

If you’re ready to step into your new reality and rewire your brain on a deeper level, this is exactly what we do in my 3 month 1:1 holistic life coaching programme. So if you want to find more about how I can support you 1:1, book a free intro call today!