Tag: tip for stress reduction

The Benefits of Gratitude As a Spiritual Practice

On By jennaferfmIn Spiritual Growth

A spiritual practice is anything that helps us feel connected – to ourselves, to others, or to something bigger than us – to give us perspective and peace. But these practices don’t need to be elaborate or take a ton of time. In the fall, our thoughts turn towards gratitude because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but gratitude can be something we value and incorporate simply into our spiritual practice all year long.

Here are some of the benefits to cultivating gratitude as a spiritual practice. It:

-asks us to pause and reflect, developing a mindful approach,

-shifts our focus from what we lack to what we’ve gained, giving us more peace,

-brings us perspective beyond what’s happening right in front of us,

-deepens our connection to something bigger than us, whether it’s to community, a sense of purpose, or to the divine,

-fosters compassion as we recognize how interconnected we all are,

-invites us to see obstacles as opportunities to find meaning, changing challenges into lessons learned,

-elevates our mood and energy, bringing more joy,

-promotes acceptance and a feeling of being supported by others and the universe, and

-helps us develop a mindset of abundance and attract more positive experience into our lives.

Aside from the spiritual benefits, practicing gratitude also has emotional, mental, and physical health benefits, according to Mas Health, as seen in the visual below.

Embracing a practice of gratitude has many benefits and can greatly enhance your health. Try it for yourself and see!

2 Tips to Help You Enjoy Each Moment

On By jennaferfmIn Spiritual Growth, Stress Reduction

liveinthemoment

By nature, I’m a planner, list maker, and goal maker, so it’s not uncommon for me to be working on or thinking about more than one thing at a time. With my brain going in different directions, I often miss living in the present, let alone enjoying it. I’ve been working on improving this, and I’ve found that I’m a lot less stressed and much happier when I do. But it’s easy to slip back into multi-tasking mode. So how do you live in the moment when there are so many things demanding your time and attention? Here are two tips you can try today to not just live in the moment but enjoy it too.

1. Try doing just one thing at a time. Enjoying the moment means focusing on it, and that’s difficult to do when you’re doing more than one thing at a time. Try leaving the multitasking madness behind just for an afternoon or evening. Let go of the need to do a few things at once, and focus on each task individually. Relax and relish the moment simply by focusing on it. You’ll find yourself enjoying even the most mundane tasks more, and you’ll find that attention makes the end results all the better for your efforts. As Todd Henry says, “The greatest efforts in life are done with singular attention.”

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2. Shut out thoughts about the future temporarily. Even if your body is only doing one task at a time, that doesn’t mean your mind is following suit. It’s pretty normal for our thoughts to wander. But to truly enjoy the now, your mind needs to be there as much as your body. How do you keep that mind on the now? According to Richard Moss, when we recognize we’re not in the present, concentrating on what we see, hear and experience in that precise moment will bring us back. This is also the way we can tame our egos and not let them take us out of the present into Worry Land. Once our brains are experiencing the moment, it’s much easier to enjoy it. Try it once or twice today when you catch your mind wandering or concentrating on worries. See if it helps you enjoy the moment more.