Gratitude is a simple concept that has remarkable power. As an Ayurvedic doctor practicing for over 20 years, I have seen many patients struggle with stress, low self-esteem, insomnia, negativity, and anxiety. No amount of therapy or medication seemed to help some of my most distressed patients. Then I discovered the transformative potential of practicing gratitude.
Let me tell you about one of my patients, Veena( name changed). When she first came to see me, Veena was overwhelmed by the stresses in her life. A struggling single mother with two young kids, she was stretched thin financially and emotionally. She worked long hours but could barely pay the bills. She had no family nearby and few friends she could rely on. Under this pressure, Veena developed insomnia, which left her exhausted during the day. She told me she felt like a “bad mom” and a failure in life, beating herself up constantly about her circumstances. Her mind was dominated by worries, criticisms, and negative rumination. She described herself as permanently stressed, joyless, and anxious.
The Vicious Cycle of Negativity
I could tell Veena was caught in a vicious cycle. Her stressful life caused her to focus almost exclusively on negative thoughts. This negativity biased her thinking, making her overlook any positive aspects or blessings in her life. Dwelling on the negative then drained her energy and motivation, worsening her situation and giving her more to complain about. It was a downward spiral that was making Veena more unhappy, stressed, and anxious day after day.
Many of my patients find themselves in this same trap. Nowadays society seems to promote negativity bias with its focus on fear-mongering news and comparison-driven social media. People dwell on criticisms and complaints rather than expressions of compassion or words of affirmation. We try to gather as much money and status as possible, overlooking the emotional richness already available to us through family, friends, faith traditions, enjoyment of nature, simple pleasures, and more.
I knew I needed to find a way to help Veena short-circuit her negativity bias. She needed practical tools to become more aware of the blessings already present in her life that she was overlooking. I remembered research I had read about the surprising mental health benefits of practicing gratitude. Could cultivating gratitude help Veena see her life in a more positive light?
Introducing Veena to Gratitude Journaling
I introduced Veena to the idea of keeping a gratitude journal. Every night before bed, I asked her to write down three things from that day that she was grateful for. To get her started, I suggested she could include anything she considered a gift, blessing, or positive experience – a nice conversation with a friend, enjoyment of a warm cup of tea, having electricity in her apartment, finishing an assignment at work, hearing her baby laugh, etc. The only rules were to write what she was genuinely grateful for rather than what she thought she should be grateful for, and to avoid repeating the same things day after day.
Veena admitted she thought gratitude journaling sounded silly, maybe even annoying. “My life is filled with problems,” she told me. “The last thing I want to do is pretend everything is rosy and perfect.” Still, she agreed to give it a try as an experiment.
Diligently Cultivating Gratitude Yields Unexpected Joy
I’m delighted to say Veena diligently kept up her gratitude journaling practice over the next three months. At first, she told me writing three things wasn’t easy. She had gotten so accustomed to dwelling on problems and negatives, she struggled to identify positive things in her day. But gradually, the more she looked for small gifts and graces to appreciate, the more she noticed them.
Veena began expressing gratitude for simple pleasures – morning birdsong, the laughter of children playing outside, the taste of a ripe peach. Some nights she wrote about accomplishments at work and time spent enjoying hobbies. Other entries mentioned people who had helped her in some way. Most of all, she wrote about sweet moments with her own children.
Within a month of daily gratitude journaling, I noticed a remarkable transformation in Veena. In our sessions, she seemed calmer, more energetic, and more positive. She smiled and laughed more easily. She reported sleeping better and having fewer anxious thoughts racing through her mind.
“I can’t believe this simple gratitude journaling works,” she told me. “It’s changing how I see everything in my life. I’m starting my days remembering all these little reasons to be grateful from the day before. It makes me feel happier right when I wake up. I find myself looking for even more blessings everywhere I go now!”
Expanding Gratitude’s Transformative Power
After seeing the dramatic impact gratitude journaling had on Veena’s mental health, I started recommending this simple practice to all my patients struggling with negativity, anxiety, and depression. Time and again, I have witnessed powerful improvements in their mindset, outlook, and quality of life.
Now I always start treatment by teaching patients how to cultivate gratitude. Just like a disciplined exercise routine can transform someone’s body for the better over time, regularly “exercising” gratitude seems to reshape my patients’ brains to focus less on perceived lacks and problems and more on counting blessings. This directly counteracts the brain’s tendency to prioritize negative thinking. I also find when patients start noticing small graces throughout their day, it makes them kinder. They become less self-critical and more self-compassionate. They also extend more compassion to others around them.
3 Tips for Keeping a Gratitude Journal
Based on years of recommending gratitude journaling to patients, I have the following tips.
1. Designate a consistent time. Take two minutes at the end of your day to write down three unique things you are grateful for from that day. Having a routine helps make gratitude journaling a healthy daily habit.
2. Remember the “little” things. Big blessings certainly deserve gratitude, but so do small delights – a warm dessert, a fun text from a friend, finishing a workload, hearing a child’s laughter, seeing butterflies outside. Train your brain to notice the little graces in your day.
3. Get personal. Avoid vague notions like “I am grateful for my family.” Instead, share specific details to help recapture the moment’s pleasantness – “I am grateful for the way my son patted my back today when he could tell I was stressed”. Details will deepen your level of gratitude.
When practiced consistently over months, gratitude journalling rewires how your brain processes experiences. You begin to take more frequent notice of reasons to be grateful amidst the inevitable problems and stresses of life. This fills each day with more positive thinking, more compassion, and more joy. I witnessed this firsthand with my patient Veena, and it continues to inspire me.
Of all the things I have learned and practiced over decades as an Ayurvedic doctor, I am most grateful for discovering the simple yet radically transformative power of gratitude.
Now I conclude most patient visits by asking with a smile, “What are you grateful for today?” The answers I hear in response continue to give me hope and fill my own heart with gratitude. Perhaps we would all be wiser and kinder if we ended each day asking ourselves this same question. What do you think you will include in your gratitude journal tonight?
