- Melinda Grafton
Be Your Own Best Friend
Challenge: Join me in July to create a daily note of personal gratitude.
Is it possible to combine an active gratitude practice and our personal language (also known as, the voice in your head) to dramatically shift our lives, our voice, and increase our self-confidence and self-acceptance?
Having a gratitude practice can provide benefits in many areas, such as:
Improved physical health
Increased social interaction
Reduction in toxic emotions
If done before bed, better sleep
Resiliency
Higher self esteem
In 2011, an article in Applied Psychology Health and Well Being, “Gratitude and Well-Being: Who Benefits the Most from a Gratitude Intervention,” relayed the findings of a research project that found contemplating grateful thoughts resulted in increased physiological coherence, reduced stress and boosted well-being. The research also found those who had a gratitude practice experienced an increase in self-esteem, versus those in the control group who did not practice gratitude.
Last year, when I was facing some struggles and was feeling stressed and down I began a gratitude practice, within 30 days my outlook completely shifted and I found a new spring in my step. It didn’t change anything in fact, but shifted my perception.
Recently I was listening to the book Language and the Pursuit of Happiness, and I was struck when Chalmer Brother discussed the impact our language has on our personal happiness, especially the assumptions we make about “how things are,” which becomes the layer behind all of our actions, interactions and choices.
It occurred to me there could be deep power in changing our personal language by combining it with the act of gratitude towards our own being.
In a webinar I attended this morning it was mentioned the act of self-acceptance was the act of becoming a friend to yourself. How often does our internal voice drown our personal perception of our self in negative words? Words we would never use to our friends.
Pulling on these threads has led me to think through personal gratitude we could increase our own well-being and learn to become our own personal friend, which would result in improved self-esteem and self-acceptance.
Would you be willing to join me for a month of personal gratitude and see if it impacts how you relate to yourself?
Email me at 3DRenew@gmail.comif you are interested in joining this personal gratitude journey and I will put together ways to remind you (without flooding your inbox every day) about the journey and hopefully discuss any insights you may have while we walk this path together to become our own personal best friend.
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