Hi there! My name is Rachel Cohen and I am the owner and therapist of Seaside Counseling Center in Jacksonville Beach, FL. Today I want to talk to you a little bit about something that I think can change our life. I know that is a BIG promise, but if you are like me, or pretty much any one else in the entire freaking world, you might struggle with maintaining a happy life. You don’t feel like you are getting joy and fulfillment out of each day, maybe you have a good day here or there, but not consistently.
Maybe that is because you don’t like your job, or you are in a relationship you aren’t happy with, or you don’t have the finances to do the things you want to do to. It doesn’t matter where it is coming from, this will still work. W are going to talk about one practice that you can implement into your daily life to start to change that mindset and feel that you are getting where you want to go and maintaining a happy life. And that practice is gratitude.
To start, let’s talk about what is gratitude?
Gratitude, to me, is the feeling of thankfulness, appreciation, focusing on the good things in our life; rather than pulling from the negative things. It is always going to be apparent that not everything is perfect in our lives. Gratitude is the practice of noticing the good things.
So this one activity that I want you to try each day is write down five things that you are grateful for, or that you are happy about, that you enjoyed, things that you didn’t expect, things that were a positive influence in your life that day. I want you to write 5 of them down, each night before bed, that way you are ending your day on a positive note.
If you do this you are so much more likely to wake up in the morning in good spirits, focused on the good of the day, rather than ending the day with, “wow that was a shitty day!”. It really can’t get more simple or less time consuming, so TRY IT!
Try using my technique of five things you are grateful for and let me know how it goes for you. Let me know if it changes anything in your life. If you’d like any other tips or suggestions, or if you feel like you want to dig in deeper to anything that is in your life please reach out to me (call, text, email, on my website) I’d be ecstatic to talk about what we can do for you. Have a great day!
Rachel Cohen, MSW, LCSW is the owner and therapist at Seaside Counseling Center in Jacksonville Beach, FL. Rachel works with lonely, frustrated, and overwhelmed teens, 20 something’s, and new (or soon to be) mothers throughout Florida.