Journey to Health: Gratitude

January 9, 2011 By Leanne Vogel July 21, 2015

In last week’s post we talked about ingraining positive eating habits, personalizing our nutrition to fit our body type, and expanding our body-mind by embracing gratitude, love, breathing, relaxation, and awareness [referred to as growth values]. Many of us are consumed by what to eat and what foods we should avoid. But choosing healthy food and making sound nutrition choices is only half the battle. Being in a healthy and balanced state to assimilate and digest our foods; allowing our bodies to make the best of what we’re eating, is the other half. In my experience, these growth values are presented to us in no particular order, but rather pop up during our journey to health  depending on what we’re ready to deal with. It is up to us however, if we chose to embrace these opportunities for growth. My goal today is to make you aware that these opportunities exist and leave it to you to look inwards to what resonates with you.

Welcoming Gratitude

Each of these topics will most likely lead to many blog posts in the near future, but for today I’d like to go into detail about gratitude. Gratitude is something many of us have misplaced over the years, especially when it comes to healthy living. Why? I think because many of us have become so hard on ourselves, we push ourselves to our outer limits, never satisfied with the progress we’ve made. We rarely take a chance to step back and review where we’ve come from, what accomplishments we’ve made, and what we’re truly thankful for. Appreciating what we have, be it big or small, should be an essential part of our journey to health. Tracking back on our progress and reviewing our achievements will allow us to maintain a positive attitude around our health goals. It is this positive energy of reflection and thankfulness, that sets us up for attracting new, and positive experiences. The last thing we want to experience is a negative reflection of self based on a projection of falsified thoughts. What I mean by this is, don’t always get caught up with where you want to be, how far you are away from your goal, or the ‘cheats’ you’ve had over the holidays. Instead, take a moment to review your last 3 months. What foods were you eating? How was your attitude towards food? Were you active? Chances are you’ve changed,  even if it’s a couple of updates,  you’re in a different place than you were 3 months ago. You should be thankful for this, and truly appreciate the steps you’ve taken to better yourself.

Practicing Gratitude

• Before you get up in the morning, give yourself a moment to stretch in bed, wiggle your toes, take a big breath and think happy thoughts [Peter Pan really had a good thing going]
• Keep a “Gratitude Journal” where 4 times a week, you write some­thing you feel grate­ful for.
• Chose a day of the month, say the first Sunday of every month. Take a couple of minutes to review your progress. If you keep a food journal, flip through the last few months of your meals. Notice changes to your choices, moments of strength, and the evolution of your journey to getting to know yourself.
• After reviewing your progress, write a “Gratitude Letter” to yourself where you thank yourself for the steps you’ve taken to improve your well-being. Place it in your gratitude journal and go to it in a time of defeat or struggle.
• In a moment of defeat, when you feel overwhelmed with feelings of insufficiency, switch the record and begin to note things that you have accomplished and  are grateful for.
• Before falling asleep, review your day beginning from the evening and working your way backwards. Once you’ve reviewed your entire day; ending with the moment you woke up, take a second to be thankful for the positive things you’ve experienced. After this, let your day go. [You many find you even sleep better as a result!]

Coming from my own experience, you’ll be surprised at how fantastic you begin to feel when you take a moment to “fill your gratitude tank” as I like to say. It is a challenging task, but is well worth it! What accomplishments have you made in the last three months that deserve a dose of gratitude?

This entry was tagged: journey to health