How to increase feelings of happiness and decrease stress

Life the past couple of years has been strange, crazy, and often anxiety-inducing.

Until the beginning of 2020, most days were fairly predictable. The virus and the reaction by the government has made life unpredictable for much longer than anyone anticipated.

From one day to the next thing changed. Stores were open, schools were in, and the next day, businesses were shutting down because of mandates.

Your children had to “attend” school online while you’re also working from home. Maybe you had to move back in with family because of being let go “temporarily.” Or were you someone who worked from home and didn’t see another person in person for weeks on end.

All of this is enough to increase anyone’s stress level.

Stress, anxiety, and depression can lead to physical problems and a decreased quality of life. It also prevents you from living your life at a higher level. It prevents you from enjoying yourself every day.

No matter how well you’ve been able to handle it, stress and anxiety have risen throughout the country.

How do you deal with stress in your life?

A study from 2020 by the American Psychological Society notes how 78% of Americans say the “coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life.”

Gratitude is one way to recognize what you have and to appreciate your life and surroundings.

The traditional way to practice gratitude is to make a list or give thanks for the people and things you have in your life.

Give thanks for things such as your family, friends, pets, your house, a smile from a stranger, a door held open, finding the last hot cocoa bomb on the shelf, the opportunity to chat for a few minutes with a friend, and your job or a fulfilling activity in your life.

This gratitude practice is a wonderful way to remember what you have in your life. To remember the positives and how lucky you are to have even the smallest things.

There are days when valued people and your surroundings may not be enough to overcome the stressors or anxiety from your day.

There’s a new gratitude method that has been proven to decrease your stress level and increase your satisfaction

In the study, Effects of gratitude meditation on neural network functional connectivity and brain-heart coupling, by Kyeong, et al, they find a regular gratitude practice decreases anxiety and fear activity and increases the feelings of well-being and motivation.

Instead of reacting to a situation by wanting to run away, feeling uncomfortable, or becoming frustrated, you’re able to handle it much more easily due to the feelings of well-being being more active, and the default.

Gratitude with a twist

You may have heard, “be thankful for what you have.” To practice gratitude, you say something like, “I’m grateful for my kids, pets, house, and so much more.”

It’s important to appreciate what you have. To be thankful. If you don’t recognize the benefits of what you do have, you may start to take it for granted. To feel like you’re owed. To be lazy when it comes to family and friends because you feel like they’ll always be there.

Feeling lucky, fortunate, or blessed to be where you are, who you’re with, and what you have in your life helps you feel good about your life.

This “new” gratitude practice increases that feeling even more. Like Kyeong indicates in his research, it increases your feelings of well-being and motivation and decreases anxiety and fear.

Remember a time when you were appreciated

In his podcast, The Science of Gratitude & How to Build a Gratitude Practice, Dr. Andrew Huberman, talks about a new way to practice gratitude.

1- The appreciation from the other person must have been genuine. The key is to use a time when you truly felt the appreciation and connection to the person displaying the gratitude.

2- If you don’t remember a time when you felt this was true, think of a story you heard about or remember being told about someone else being truly appreciated.

There are stories on social media and in the news regularly. Maybe it’s a story which leaves you laughing or even crying. Something which you feel connected to and feel the appreciation and goodness of the story.

It could be the story of the young child being saved by the fireman. Maybe it’s about when the two meet again. Everyone in the situation appreciates the heroic work of the fireman and the effort it took to save the young child.

The appreciation doesn’t have to be that long ago, or so distant from yourself. It can be a neighbor helping another neighbor. A co-worker checking on a sick friend. An act where you feel the kindness of the person making the effort for someone else.

3- Once you have a situation or know the story, you can shorten it to the main points. Those points must evoke the feeling of appreciation you felt while thinking of the whole event.

A story I like to recall is one where I received praise from co-workers for a lot of hard work I had done. I didn’t realize anyone had noticed until it was brought up at a meeting. I don’t think of all the work, just the moment when my name was brought up and I realized they appreciated what I had done.

4- Recall this on a regular basis to reduce fear and anxiety and increase your ability to feel positive emotions for longer amounts of time. A bonus to recalling the event is it also increases motivation.

The more you practice this the better the benefits. Do it daily or a few days a week.

From personal experience, I do it several times a day. I’ve found that different situations call for different memories.

If I’m feeling irritated at an interaction with one of my kids, I recall a time they did something special for me, like making me a picture, or a time when they said something funny.

When my day isn’t shaping up what I want it to be, I recall a time when I was rewarded at work or praised by a co-worker.

5- The increased positive aspects of gratitude also caused a reduction in the stress and inflammation responses.

If you don’t already have a gratitude practice, this is a fantastic reason to start one.

It may take months or years for stress to build enough inflammation to the point you notice negative health effects. Starting a gratitude practice now can help decrease the stress and hopefully prevent and reverse any inflammation already building.

If only I’d known this long ago. About five years ago I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder caused by inflammation. It was a particularly stressful time in my personal life when the symptoms started. It was preceded by several years of ongoing stress.

Appreciation and gratitude work to improve overall health

The mental aspects of a gratitude practice are enormous. The physical benefits are essential.

All it may take to improve your health are a few small adjustments to your current gratitude practice. Keep the one you have and tack on the

Improve your outlook on life. Feel appreciated, loved, and grateful. Enjoy yourself from moment to moment.

You may find the more you enjoy your day, the more you have to appreciate.