#btw goldkirk if you see this your 5 things a day gratitude posts are so good and important and inspiring

[anakinthetrashking]

Having thoughts, TLDR; explaining that Practicing Gratitude is just about learning to notice good things and retraining your brains focus area would be more helpful than simply saying "be grateful!"

I think a lot of the issue people have with being told to try like, gratitude journaling is that when people suggest it they never seem to give a good explanation?? Added to the fact that "self-care" and therapy terminology have been monetized, social media focuses on people's sanitized life highlight reels, and hashtag blessed out-of-touch influencers, and the frankly irritating Pinterest Perfect quotes and journals. I mean. There's just a ton to sort through there.

And like I've tried the gratitude thing!! And I know it's backed up by research!! But when you're in the depths and someone says something about being grateful, it is SO hard not to hear all the echos of "be grateful it's not worse", and the past shame of being cast in the light of "so ungrateful" when you're just having feelings and being upset about something, ya know?

But it finally clicked for me when I stopped using gratefulness language?? Because I also feel like that can be limiting, at least for me. The POINT of the whole exercise is to train your brain to notice good things around you, because obvs ur gonna be in a bad mood if all you notice is the bad!

Obvs it's taken a lot of work in a lot of areas to be at the point where I am, that life feels worth living more than not! But like, the more little good things you notice, the more it feels worth living. But like the gratitude language like I said just doesn't work for me lol

Especially like, the other day driving through the neighborhood I saw a woman going for a run, and she looked like she was struggling but also so determined!! And that was something that made me feel !!!!!! Like life is worth living and trying for!!

She's someone I've never met and may never see again, but seeing her living her life and trying made me want to keep trying too!

So for me trying to put that into a sentence for gratitude, it just takes the joy out I guess haha. "I'm grateful random neighbor was jogging"?? "I'm grateful I saw my neighbor jogging"???? It doesn't quite translate for me. But I could see it and focus on that feeling of fondness for a stranger, and inspiration to keep trying and that not everything is terrible all the time. Consciously focusing on something like that and letting it take up a big part of your day the way something bad might usually can feel really weird at first, but it's so nice once you lean into it??

#gratitude #mental health #mental illness #life is worth living #ok to rb #but keep ur negativity off my post plz and thx #btw goldkirk if you see this your 5 things a day gratitude posts are so good and important and inspiring #i just get hung up on the language of things sometimes bc i misunderstand things!! #and then when i figure it out and share what i figured out ppl are like oh thats what it was the entire time didnt u know? #and im like NO I DID NOT KNOW WHY WAS THIS NOT EXPLAINED CLEARLY #im so good at not knowing things i guess 😌 #ani rambles