And 3 simple actions to boost your mood and energy
When you have extreme fatigue or just feel tired most of the time and your lack of energy means you can’t do all the things you want to do, it can leave you feeling downhearted, exasperated and possibly a bit angry at yourself and the world.
You may have unhelpful thoughts running through your head like, “Why am I so tired all the time?" or “When will things get better?” All of which makes being told you should practice gratitude seem thoughtless, unkind and very unfunny.
And if you’re thinking at this point, “How can I feel grateful when I feel tired, fed up annoyed with myself and the world Melisa?!” I hear you. I’ve been there too. When it feels like your life is on hold thanks to CFS, the last thing you can imagine helping is a gratitude practice.
What even is gratitude?
Well, in a nutshell, gratitude is being thankful for the good things in our life, and being appreciative of the people and world around us, often the things we over look, but more of that later.
In this blog, I will show you 3 reasons why expressing gratitude as a daily practice can help your wellbeing (and yes this has been scientifically proven!) and how you can bring gratitude easily into your daily life. Once you discover the many benefits a gratitude practice can have for you, perhaps you may be enticed to give it a go.
Practice gratitude to cultivate a loving awareness of your life and yourself
I know that when you feel unwell and/or you are plagued by unhelpful thoughts of not being good enough, worrying why you feel so tired all the time and frustrated that you can’t seem to get better, it can feel like you don’t have a great deal to feel grateful for.
Mindfulness practice encourages us to let these negative feelings of frustration and anger to pass through and not to hold onto them. They can still be there, but we aren’t attaching so much emotion to them.
Clearly if these feelings are overwhelming, then talking to your GP or other medical clinician to obtain professional support is vital.
Once you attach less emotion to the feelings, (yes it can feel difficult to start with) we free up headspace to look at what we have in our lives.
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Discover what’s in your own gratitude treasure chest
We all have very different lives, but I found some of these as good starting points, for my gratitude practice. They may not all be appropriate for you, but you may some have additional experiences to be grateful for.
A loving and considerate partner
Loving family
Good and supportive friends
A garden to enjoy seeing the bounty of nature
Enough good and nutritious food to eat.
Somewhere comfortable to live
The beauty of a summer’s day.
When you reflect on what you do have in your life, you may find (like I did) that you have more to be thankful for than you initially thought.
I love this quote from Charles Dickens:
“Reflect upon your present blessings of which everyman has plenty, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some”.
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What a difference a little bit of gratitude can make...
We’ve looked at what we may have in our lives to be grateful for, let’s look at the benefits.
1. Improved health and wellbeing
Negative thoughts about yourself, your fatigue, illness understandably leads to feelings of stress and anxiety. Unfortunately, your body interprets these thoughts as danger signals and it triggers the fight or flight response, where your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.
This can lead to an array of physical symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and digestive disturbances.
When we start to feel gratitude, studies have shown that this practice brings our bodies out of the fight/flight mode and more into rest and digest, with a reduction in stress hormones. It was shown that maintaining a practice of gratitude can help to build resilience to emotional challenges and setbacks, a valuable tool in these challenging times.
2. A mood boost
Being unwell and stuck in a spiral of unhelpful thoughts can get you down and feeling miserable.
The great news is that studies have shown that recognising things that you are grateful for can leave you feeling better about your life.
This, as a part of a mindfulness practice, can help here. Mindfulness teaches you to be willing to shown acceptance for things that may be out of your control to change and not to blame yourself – show yourself some compassion. This reduces the burden you place on yourself and by recognising and being thankful for what you do have in life, it may help you to see that things aren’t quite as bad as you feared, which can leave you feeling a whole lot better.
3. A better night’s sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep can be a challenge for people experiencing fatigue and unhelpful thoughts.
Studies have shown that by focussing on the good and positive things in our life before going to bed, our mind will consider the positive things that have happened that day rather than the not so good experiences. This may help us to stop worrying about what has happened and get to sleep quicker.
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Creating that positive circle of loving awareness in your life
Let’s start by being honest here. Developing a practice of gratitude takes effort and commitment, it’s not always that easy to move to focussing on the good things in your life (which may not be initially obvious) when things have not been going ‘your way’.
I found it to be challenging initially and sometimes I still do – we’re all human! However, I think cultivating a practice of gratitude is worth it for the benefits it gives.
So how can you get started?
1. Keep a gratitude journal
I know quite a few people who keep a gratitude journal every night before going to bed and they find it really supports their wellbeing. This anecdotal evidence is backed up by findings from scientific study.
2. Prayers or thoughts of gratitude
If you have a religious or spiritual practice you could start to or you may already be expressing gratitude in this way, which some people find helpful to their wellbeing.
You can also send out thoughts and words of gratitude to the ‘universe’ if you feel uncomfortable with a religious or spiritual practice.
I think this quote from Buddha is so true and one to remember when sending out prayers or thoughts or writing in a gratitude journal. I try to remember this when reflecting on what I have to be grateful for each day.
“Always be thankful for what you have, many people have nothing”
3. Mindfulness and meditation practice
Mindfulness and meditation offer an opportunity to bring gratitude into your life alongside self-compassion and becoming more aware of yourself and your surroundings.
Developing a daily practice can provide you a way of bringing these thoughts and feelings into your daily life to support your wellbeing.
It can also help us on a deeper level too, if you are open to exploring further.
feeling gratitude for my good health and wellbeing
For me, having been unwell gave me a greater insight into what it means to be unable to do the things I took for granted when I was feeling fit and healthy. It has taught me to be more empathetic and following my recovery, to feel gratitude for my good health and wellbeing.
Taking the next step forward
I hope this blog has prompted you to think about taking up a gratitude practice. Whilst it does seem counter intuitive when you feel unwell and you feel life had dealt you an unhelpful hand, feeling gratitude can help you to feel better about yourself and recognise what you do have in your life. I really do recommend trying it for a few weeks as I have found it can make such a difference to how I feel – more positive and energised.
Have you been inspired to start a gratitude practice and to see how it could positively influence your energy and wellbeing?
Your top 5 takeaways
1. Once we take the time to look more closely at our lives, the majority of us will have something (or perhaps many things) to feel grateful for.
2. Research has shown that gratitude can improve your health and wellbeing.
3. Cultivating a gratitude practice has been shown to improve your mood and how you feel about yourself and help with sleep. Something that could be really helpful for you if this is something you struggle with.
4. You can practice gratitude in a number of ways – in a journal or as a prayer for example
5. Showing gratitude could be a challenge at first, but can become a positive habit that has lots of great benefits that could help you further on your road to recovery.
Has this given you food for thought but feel you need some support?
If this is the case for you, I may be the person to help you on your recovery journey.
As someone who has used gratitude as part of a mindfulness and meditation practice to support my recovery from CFS and reduce negative thoughts, I am in a unique position to understand what you may be feeling. I am committed to supporting your recovery by providing you with a safe space to express your feelings in in an environment where you will not be judged but will be treated with care and empathy.
From my experience I believe that recovery requires both physical and emotional support. I do this by using a combination of herbal medicine, nutritional advice and supplements, mindfulness and meditation practices and flower remedies.
I help people on a one to one basis, so if you’d like to discuss how working together could help you to kick start your recovery journey from persistent fatigue, do get in touch.
I offer a free 30 minute discovery call for us to chat about the help you are looking for and how I may be able to help you to feel like yourself again.
Important information
This article is for educational purposes only. If you have experienced trauma, have a mental health condition or are taking medication to support your mental or emotional health, you should always consult your doctor or other medical professional before undertaking any mindfulness or meditation activity, to ensure it will be suitable for you.
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Want to know more or how I can help you?
If you would like to know more about how I could help you, do get in touch by completing the contact me form and we can set up a free 30 minute discovery call to explore how I can help you.
