Epi 68: Build Heartfelt Appreciation Within Minutes Each Day - Mini Mindset Reset
In every action, experience, in every being, there is something for which we can be grateful. In fact, did you know that genuine appreciation and the practice of such in our lives can facilitate healing within our mind, body, and spirit?
It’s been scientifically studied and proven, as we know now, heartfelt appreciation uplifts our mood, creates mental balance, inspires our creativity, drives us toward our goals, helps us emotionally regulate our system, creates a mindset of self-control, and ultimately develops an attitude where we are reminded that what has been and what is arrives in our lives to serve us, not work against us.
In today’s mindset reset, we are leaning into four quick and easy gratitude exercises that take only a few minutes each and have incredible results when practiced. Think about how much your day-to-day would shift if you took a moment to count your blessings instead of glazing over them.
You can begin shifting into a heartfelt appreciation and gratitude-centered mindset by asking yourself a quick series of fundamental questions or statements at the start of your day.
These questions should be changed or shifted to meet your needs, but when you bring your mind into an appreciation and gratitude focus at the start of the day, it sets the tone for your thought process, emotions, and the overall day itself.
So, those questions could sound like this:
How do I want my day to go?
No one will say, I want to have a bad day. Right? But go deeper than just answering – good. I want my day to go well. Instead, I want to feel happy today. I want my day to be a collection of small victories. You get it; get detailed.
The following statement is:
Today I get to (fill in the blank), and I’m excited about this because…
We have a habit of getting up in the morning and taking for granted that we have new opportunities before us. So, stop, today I get to, not have to, but get the pleasure of doing, blank and I’m excited about it because…
This brings the mind to a state of positivity and appreciation.
The next statement is: What I am most grateful for right now is (blank), and then offer yourself why you are most thankful for what you’ve listed.
You can do this exercise verbally or written. This can even be done while in the shower if you are short on time.
Let’s move on to a few more exercises to help you increase your life satisfaction.
This next technique is done through mindful pauses throughout your day, but the collective time of each break is literally just a few minutes each time.
You have ten minutes of wasted time in your day that could and should be shifted into an appreciation break.
Here’s how an appreciation break works:
Look at your schedule for the day. These breaks do not need to be done at the same time each day, but there are benefits to constancy, of course. But look at your schedule. Create several blocks in the day – whether that’s early in the morning—I will pause and say, if you are using the first exercise, this could count as break one. You know, a two-for-one kind of deal! Back to the schedule, these breaks can be during lunch or between meetings; if you are a mom, during naptime would be excellent. On the way home in the car, while you are alone, at bedtime, it doesn’t matter; simply carve out set time and give yourself a moment to focus your attention on the moment.
Often, I will ask someone I am working with to place their hand over their heart area and breathe a little deeper than normal. This is because we are regulating our nervous system through the breath. Those deeper breaths would be taken in as inhales to the count of five or six seconds and released to the count of five or six.
With the slowed breath, you simply allow your mental, emotional, and physical self to slow and focus on feeling good. When you are there, recall a time in the day that made you feel good inside. When it comes to mind, try to re-experience the moment, the thoughts, and the feelings. We are activating our appreciation focus while feeding our bodies with good hormones and stimulants—pick-me-ups, if you will.
If you can’t think of something good that day, go to the day before, or even last week. The focus takes two minutes (120 seconds) to complete and helps us appreciate and find gratitude for what is happening around us.
This simple practice is a game-changer when it’s turned into a habit.
When you are finished, ask yourself: how do I feel now? Am I more relaxed? Do I need a bit longer to reset?
Another simple way to create greater gratitude in your life is through an appreciation list.
This is a weekly practice, but it can be done daily.
Personally, I prefer to do this practice on Sunday, but make it work for you!
What you’ll do is make a list of the thing you appreciate in your life right now. The list should include people, places, experiences, feelings, activities, pets, and small things that help you create a happier life. Anything that’s a positive that comes to mind put it on your list! If you do this one Sunday or Monday, you can then use the list as a focal point throughout your week. You could incorporate these pieces into your appreciation breaks by taking two items off the list and place your hand over your heart. From there, you would offer more profound thanks and gratitude for the thing or experience.
This again is a straightforward, simple practice. There are no rules other than writing what comes, don’t judge yourself, and feel the joy of your appreciation.
And the last easy practice is a journaling tool that helps flip the gratitude switch on in your brain.
I’m going to give you a list of prompts to get you started but write what comes to you. I promise you have more fitting questions that apply to your life—you simply need to focus on them.
So, question one:
Name one highlight of your morning or week – depending on whether you are doing the exercise daily or as a weekly wrap-up or week starter.
Number 2: Recall something that you are grateful for that happened this past week.
Three: What’s one skill you possess that you are thankful to have?
4. What made you laugh today?
5. What do you most love right now and why?
6. Name one thing you wouldn’t want to live without today.
Again, you can write down anything you wish, but these questions and statements are meant to get you started.
We often think of gratitude as something challenging to practice, but hopefully, now you see how simple it truly is. All it takes is focus and desire. Each of us has something, actually many somethings, to be thankful for. When you give daily thanks, your experiences change. Why does this happen? Because you are changing the filter through which you are thinking. So important. If your mind is healthy, your life is healthier. If your mind is focused on appreciation, you’ll find more to appreciate. Your brain works in patterns. Wouldn’t it be far more beneficial to think in the positive?
Gratitude and heartfelt appreciation are all around you. I challenge you to look for it.
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