It is above all an emotional exercise that requires opening up to your feelings and your heart. It is divided into two large dimensions.
THE PERCEPTION OF APPRECIATION
The first dimension goes through perception. The idea is to “intellectually perceive something that is of value to you like the decoration of house including paint’s color, carpets, and the wooden floor all the necessary things which make your house adorable the flooring stores near me where you can find, both big and small things. The principle is to recognize in your life what brings you benefits and happiness,” describes our psychologist.
THE EMOTION OF GRATITUDE
The second dimension centers on the emotional. “The emotion of gratitude is allowing you to feel, in awareness, what gratitude can do for you. All this while considering and feeling a good child as a privilege. But also by realizing what a generous act or gift brings you. This requires going beyond the simple observation ‘ah, it’s nice, it’s positive’. It is to realize the value and the consideration of something”.
MAN AND HIS NEGATIVITY
Exercising gratitude will inspire you to look to things that make you feel good and that allow you to view life in a more positive light. However, by virtue of his constitution, man is predisposed to first see the risks in order to face the danger for his survival. It is therefore quite natural that for humans, perceiving the positive is to linger. “We are ‘negative’ oriented, guided by our survival habits and our security needs. We are almost always on the strategic side. This is a shame, because the emotional field is very important”. But be careful, when we talk about gratitude and therefore positivism, it is not a question of veiling the face on the reality of life which is sometimes hard.
HOW DO YOU BRING GRATITUDE INTO YOUR LIFE?
First of all, it’s important to make it clear that gratitude won’t fall on you overnight. It is a faculty to train, a bit like a muscle to develop. “For that, you have to get out of your way. And although you don’t need any material, this exercise will take some personal effort”. From a practical point of view, “there are not necessarily instructions, just guidelines to frame the practice”.
THE BEGINNING OF THE PRACTICE
“At first, you may feel uncomfortable and you won’t find any direct benefit. And then, little by little, it will fall into place and you will more easily be able to connect to your positive emotions”.
RHYTHM
To begin with, for one to two weeks, the gratitude exercise should be done every day to become familiar with it. And when the habit is more established, you can switch to once to three times a week. “Studies show that if this exercise is done too often, it lessens the effects. You get used to it, it becomes mechanical, you will no longer feel the good around you so much ”. If you keep doing it every day, you will feel like it is an obligation. You will simplify and trivialize things. You will no longer take the time to feel them.
THE PLACE
The best is to settle down comfortably, in a calm place with peace of mind. “If you have to do this exercise between phone calls, a shopping list and an email, it will stress you out and you won’t be able to concentrate. It is important to stop all activity. At first, I also recommend taking a notebook to write down the benefits and why you are satisfied with it. It is also a way to reconnect with your emotions later, during less easy times or just for pleasure”.
BREATHING
Hard to connect with you, ask yourself, think…? “To help you, you can connect to your breathing (a few seconds or minutes), it allows you to open up to your body. It is a good way to leave the mind to go towards the emotional. It is essential to take the time to slow down and reconnect with sensations and feelings.
PSYCHIC ADVICE
“It is essential to be able to tell yourself that this is an appointment that you take for yourself! And the first thing is to feel good about you. It is not essential to look into complicated things; it can be recurring activities, as long as it remains sincere. And then, above all, it is not because these are simple things that they are banal… Nothing is banal in life. If after some time, you feel that your motivation is lower, that you have trouble finding something positive, do not hesitate to go back to the notebook of your beginnings”.