[bourne]

Something I have been doing, and it really seems to work much to my initial skeptisism is keeping a gratitude journal. What I have been doing is to once a day, usually before bed, is to sit down and write everything I am grateful for on that particular day. I write it in the format "Today I am grateful for..." I have been doing it everyday now for 3 weeks and am beginning to experience some good results. I have a tendancy to have very negative self talk, but now I am finding that I am experiencing more positive self talk when faced with difficult situations, or situations that would ordinarily cause me to beat myself up. I highly recommend this simple excercise to anybody. Some days it is more difficult to find things to be grateful for so when faced with that I focus on the simple things: grateful for my bed, for having had enough to eat, or grateful for having a roof over my head. Once I get rolling the things I find I am grateful for begin to come more easily. I have read, and believe it to be true that we need to write the things that we genuinly feel grateful for. I have also found myself feeling grateful for somebody else's misfortune, this I have decided is not a positive, and have since stopped writing about gratitude with any sort of negativity associated with it.
I am posting my experience because this is a simple, and very effective way to challenge's one's negative self talk, and begin to develop a more optimistic outlook on the world. I also think that the very act of taking some form of action to combat our depression is a big step in helping to feel more empowered.

[Liberada]

I did this once with "Five things I'm grateful for today". I didn't follow through and did it for only a week but I can go back now and look at it and it gives me good feelings. I think I should start again.

[bourne]

Originally Posted by Liberada

I did this once with "Five things I'm grateful for today". I didn't follow through and did it for only a week but I can go back now and look at it and it gives me good feelings. I think I should start again.

Yes, I am very surprised, and pleased with the positive things I am experiencing. I have allways been highly skeptical of any sort of self help excercises, but I have decided to put my skeptisism aside and and give some of the ideas a try. It is actually difficult to do every single day, but I believe that that is the key to any sort of success, make it a part of your everyday routine like brushing your teeth.

Best of luck.

[AdamAW]

Originally Posted by bourne

Yes, I am very surprised, and pleased with the positive things I am experiencing. I have allways been highly skeptical of any sort of self help excercises, but I have decided to put my skeptisism aside and and give some of the ideas a try. It is actually difficult to do every single day, but I believe that that is the key to any sort of success, make it a part of your everyday routine like brushing your teeth.

Best of luck.

A good idea for developing gratitude is to redefine how we understand 'kindness.' If we limit our appreciation of kindness to only those situation where others have done something to try to help us, without any possible element of self-interest, which we have derived unceasing benefit, then we may find little to feel grateful for.

If we try to view as kindness in terms of anything that we have derived benefit from, regardless of whether the person responsible for providing it had any wish to benefit us personally, then we will have plenty to feel grateful for, and will soon find oureselves occupying a happier and kinder world.

Does this sound reasonable?

[bourne]

Originally Posted by AdamAW

A good idea for developing gratitude is to redefine how we understand 'kindness.' If we limit our appreciation of kindness to only those situation where others have done something to try to help us, without any possible element of self-interest, which we have derived unceasing benefit, then we may find little to feel grateful for.

If we try to view as kindness in terms of anything that we have derived benefit from, regardless of whether the person responsible for providing it had any wish to benefit us personally, then we will have plenty to feel grateful for, and will soon find oureselves occupying a happier and kinder world.

Does this sound reasonable?

Hi Adam.

Yes, absolutly we should feel grateful for everything that benefits us. I think that sometimes we cant, or don't see some things as benefits right away for a variety of reasons. I think that is the benefit of keeping a daily gratitude journal because something we don't feel grateful for today may become a gratitude tommorow.

Merry Christmas.

[LynD]

You know, I keep coming across the 'gratitude list' idea. I don't do it, but I believe someone is trying to tell me something....

[bourne]

Originally Posted by LynD

You know, I keep coming across the 'gratitude list' idea. I don't do it, but I believe someone is trying to tell me something....

Hi LynD.

Yeah, is'nt that funny when we feel we need to begin doing something, and we keep recieving subtle little messages from different places reinforcing our feeling. We get that "somebody is trying to tell me something" feeling. I hope you begin keeping a gratitude journal. I have had great results. I have now begun a "my good qualities" journal where everyday I try to focus on my good qualities, or accomplishments and write them down. It really does work. Oh and one other thing that I have begun doing, and it may seem kind of silly, but I now tell myself "I love me"

Happy new year

[Beholden]

Hi Bourne,

I started the grat. list once. Didn't keep it up since I started feeling good again. But I think I too will start one again.

Today I'm grateful that the sun is shinning, even though it was only 3 degrees this am.


As for the good qualities list - my negative thinking doesn't see much to put on that list right now. Even though my anitdepresant is working - I've been isolating since my visit to my adult daughter's house. I'm not lonely just not motivated to do much. Part of the problem is lack of good quality sleep I know.

Here's another for my gratitude list:

Today I'm grateful that I can go to the store and buy bread and milk just to get out of the house for a while and to have the money to be able to buy it. Even though I don't have a job right now, my husband does and I'm very grateful for that.

Tomorrow I have something to look forward to: I'm grateful that I have a "play date"' with my only friend. She is good for me because she knows how to make me feel good. We hit it off from the first time we met.
And I'm good for her as well-so that needs to go on my qualities list as well. When I told her I felt like a burden to her sometimes, she was surprized and told me that she really enjoys my company "warts, bah humbugs, and all" when I'm having a bad day. And I feel the same way with her-though I have yet to see any warts. Something we've laughed about though is her true phobia about batterys or is it batteries? i don't seem to be spelling well today. I know it isn't nice to laugh about that, but we are really friends and she knows I'm not laughing at her. We get each other. And we both know we are a bit off. Plus she loves my dog. (I only like hers - a lot - but she really loves mine!).

Today I'm grateful that I have one of the best friends around!

I'm grateful that the weather is supposed to go up by 50 degrees for the weekend! All the way to up to 48F maybe! I am tempted to get the kayaks out and take a paddle on the lake, if it isn't frozen over yet!

etc, etc, etc, .....

Thanks for your post, I'm grateful for something positive right when I needed it.

Pex

PS good qualities: I think I have a good sense of humor. It has been hiding lately -