How does gratitude influence in your mental health?

Author: Jeannette Meléndez. Estudiante de Maestría de Trabajo Social Clínico de la Universidad Ana G Méndez, Tampa FL.

When we analyze the daily lives of human beings, we can realize that most of the time people live highlighting the negative things that happen to them. Have you ever thought about how much time a day you spend remembering those bad or negative things that happened to you or perhaps as a result of that you imagine a devastating future. The reality is that the mind gets used to always looking for or detecting problems and obstacles. Now, how much time per day or week do you use to enjoy and think about all those positive things that surround you or happen to you? Many times it is thought that they must be great achievements or events to classify them as good things. The truth is that, even if it is small or even if you think it has no meaning, start visualizing it in a different way and your mind will get used to highlighting the positive and not the negative things.

Gratitude is nothing more than knowing how to be grateful, appreciating the (non-materialistic) aspects of life, and recognizing that others play a role in our emotional well-being. Gratitude is strongly linked to mental health, life satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem, social relationships, and happiness that lasts throughout life. Gratitude helps you achieve self-knowledge and self-management.

Grateful people tend to be happier and satisfied with their lives, family, and close friendships. Gratitude can increase essential neurochemicals. An optimistic mindset releases feel-good neurochemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. Gratitude predisposes us to more easily identify all the good that is in us and in our environment. Thus, by perceiving ourselves and our lives from a more positive prism, we will experience higher levels of happiness and satisfaction. On the contrary, when we focus on the less favorable aspects, we can feel uncomfortable and dissatisfied with who we are and the circumstances around us.

If you want to experience how gratitude helps improve mental health, it is not enough to practice it for a couple of days. You must get into the habit and adopt this new perspective on a regular basis. Take some time or space to analyze all those good things you have experienced. You can make notes and when you feel like your mind is just thinking or looking for where the problem is, you can look up your notes and remember why you should express gratitude. You must remember that possibly when you start this new habit you feel that you don't feel like it or that it is something forced or perhaps you think that you can't find anything positive in your life. However, when you do it repeatedly you will notice that you can achieve it naturally and you will begin to see the changes. Expressing gratitude will benefit you and your mental health.