Gratitude Challenge

Gratitude is an acknowledgement of the positive things and goodness in our lives. It may be expressed through an act of kindness or an expression of appreciation.

Gratitude activates positive emotions such as happiness and contentment and combats depression by releasing 'feel good' neurotransmitters in our brain (serotonin and dopamine), acting as a natural anti-depressant. By consciously practicing gratitude we strengthen these neural pathways, ultimately making it easier for ourselves to feel happy and positive. Gratitude practice is also associated with increased energy, vitality, empathy, compassion, and enthusiasm to work harder.

Practicing gratitude helps to reduce stress and anxiety by down-regulating our stress hormones (e.g. cortisol), which helps our immune system flourish. Through the release of dopamine, gratitude also helps to reduce subjective feelings of physical pain. Through its impacts on the hypothalamus, gratitude practice improves quality of sleep; sleeping deeper and waking up feeling more refreshed.

Gratitude has a social component to it as well. Expressing gratefulness for what others have done for us and acknowledgement of what we have done for others helps to build and strength social connection and social bonding. It also helps us create deep relationships because knowing how to give and receive thanks is crucial to relationship satisfaction and maintenance.

Please consider joining us in our 14-day gratitude challenge. You can keep a private gratitude journal, integrate gratitude into your daily routine, or get creative with it by making a gratitude jar filled with personal notes of gratitude or create a gratitude poster board or collage with images of gratitude. If you would like to share your gratitude journey with others your can post your days of gratitude on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other forms of social media. We would love to follow along on your gratitude journey so please feel free to tag us! @stillarpsych

"With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals..."

– Harvard Medical School

14-day Gratitude Challenge

Day 1 - Think of someone who makes you laugh. Reminisce about a meaningful or funny memory you had together. Share it with them over phone, text message, video conference, or social media.

Day 2 - We are all feeling the loss of travel as we are temporarily grounded. What trip are you grateful you were able to go on? Find a picture from that trip. Think about what you loved about that trip!

Day 3 - What is a food you are grateful for? @stillarpsych

Day 4 - What tradition are you grateful for?

“Enjoy the little things. For one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

Day 5 - What is a "little thing" you are grateful for?

Day 6 - What role model are you grateful for?

Day 7 - What part of your day are you grateful for?

Day 8 - Something that you like about your home, neighbours, and/or community?

“It is not happiness that brings us gratitude. It is gratitude that brings us happiness.”

Day 9 - What is your most prized possession? Express why, think about what it means to you, what it gives you. Share a post with us about what possession you are most grateful for. @stillarpsych

Day 10 - Think of a sound you are grateful for!

Day 11 - Reach out to someone you think could use some extra appreciation today.

“Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey

Day 12 - Think of someone who makes your day or life better. Tell them how much you appreciate them.

Day 13 - What about your body are you grateful for?

Day 14- This is a very difficult time for our society. Express appreciation for someone or something that is helping you or us get through this very difficult time.

“Gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow” – Melody B.

Stillar Psychological

Counselling and Assessment Services

Gratitude

14-day Gratitude Challenge

You did it! Congratulations on completing our 14-day gratitude challenge!

Stillar Psychological

Counselling and Assessment Services

Gratitude

14-day Gratitude Challenge

You did it! Congratulations on completing our 14-day gratitude challenge!

This website uses cookies.