How Focusing On Gratitude Can Help With Anxiety

Focusing on gratitude can really help you with Anxiety. As a Mental Health Professional, I tend to start off most sessions by asking the client to speak with me about the positive things that have happened within their week. I do this for several reasons but mainly so I can get them to focus on the positive things rather than putting so much energy on things that are negative and things they can’t control. Stopping to reflect and thinking about positive things allows you to be grateful within that moment. When we’re telling someone about our day, and we start off with the things that are negative, we’re not allowing ourselves the space in our minds to focus on anything that’s positive.

Before speaking with my clients about their mindset and gratitude, I typically do a few things within myself to test it out to see if it works for me as well. As many of you may know, I keep a prayer journal but in addition to that journal, I also have a gratitude journal. Just about every morning or sometime throughout my day, I take time to write in my gratitude journal. Listing things that I am grateful for helps me to stay in the flow of gratitude and it also helps with managing anxious thoughts.

Journaling on the beach in Los Angeles, California.

“Our anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but wanting to control it” -Khalil Gibran

Think about it, we tend to want things to go a certain way and that’s normal because we are human but when we put so much pressure on ourselves is when we begin to develop anxious thoughts. Depending on how deeply we imagine the scenario we have conjured up in our minds is when we start to experience severe anxiety.

Let’s all learn to be grateful for moments whether big or small, for time spent doing what you enjoy and for the ability to create moments with those who you love. We may not have it all but I’m sure you and I can take a look at our lives and see at least 3 things that we are grateful for that we probably didn’t have 6 months ago. You have to give yourself grace. You have to give yourself time to grow. Learn to be gentle with yourself because you’re doing the very best that you can.