6 Wellbeing activity for Week 7
Valuable and meaningful aspects of work and life are often overshadowed by problems. Expressing gratitude demonstrates appreciation for positives and allows you to ‘press the pause button’, enabling you to notice and acknowledge things to be grateful for. Showing gratitude can brighten your outlook and help create feelings of positivity in the face of challenges.
Practising gratitude helps shift your thoughts away from negative emotions and can boost mood. Stress hormones can be decreased, as the brain chemicals associated with happiness and pleasure, serotonin and dopamine, are released. In the long term, this may lead to changes in brain function which enable you to feel more grateful in the future.
Try creating a digital Gratitude tree [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] to regularly record your appreciation.