I’ve kept a gratitude journal on and off for several years, and I’ve found that it’s not hard to come up with five things I’m grateful for every day…

I do vary in what I write down, with some selections of a more superficial nature like an awesome pair of shoes I just found on sale, or deeper things like my friends and family. But what I have found in doing this practice for a while now is that it doesn’t matter what I write down at all, and it doesn’t even matter what I remember in my head as things I’m grateful for. What it comes down to is how grateful I feel.

It’s a very different thing to make a list of things you’re grateful for as a cognitive exercise, and to truly feel grateful down to your bones. But it’s the latter which is really life-changing.

Obviously, the point of the gratitude list is to hopefully inspire the feelings of gratitude. After all, you need to conjure up the name and image of what you are grateful for in order to fully acknowledge it. But once you’ve got that, I think it’s worth a few minutes of truly connecting to what gratitude feels like in your body. For me, I immediately feel a “swelling” in my heart area (gratitude-induced thoracic edema?) The feeling expands in my chest and rises into my throat, as if I am on the verge of crying or laughing. That makes sense to me, as often the outward signs of our somatic emotions is either laughter or tears. Beyond that, I find myself smiling and feeling a loosening of my muscles all over. I take deeper breaths, my shoulders relax and quite often I even feel a jolt of energy like I just drank a cup of coffee. Being relaxed and energetic at the same time might seem paradoxical, but this is a common effect of balancing out our emotions. When we connect inwardly to those things that uplift us, our bodies can release tension that we have been unconsciously holding onto.

Knowing where you feel certain emotions within your body is very important. Your body often reacts to your emotions before you might even be consciously aware of them. This body map shows the different areas of the body that are implicated in different emotional states. Every cell in your body contains receptors on its surface that receives information based on your feelings, and we tend to feel certain emotions in different parts of the body. By mapping out where you feel emotions in your own body, you can begin to reinforce the positive effects of positive emotions, and minimize the negative effects of negative emotions. (Although I use the words positive and negative as it pertains to emotions, I don’t mean to call the positive ones “good”, and the negative ones “bad”. Negative emotions like anger, sadness and frustration have their uses and are healthful to experience, but when indulged in for too long or too frequently, are associated with prolonged stress states that eventually wear down the body through excess inflammation).

With the knowledge with regard to the side effects are known to doctors and viagra price devensec.com the FDA, but still they are being prescribed and used by many people. Ajanta pharmacy with a clear vision to help such people has emerged as great help and provided viagra online store them great relief. The two herbal natural products Musli Strong capsules and Shilajit ES capsules are 100% free from any negative effects. 2 to 3 capsules twice daily for 6 weeks can be great for the best possible results. devensec.com order levitra online What I thought of as a comfortable sitting position could have led me to get more of the active testosterone into the blood therefore you receive more benefits. viagra professional uk Because feeling gratitude on a daily basis is life-changing, I created a meditation to connect more deeply to where these feelings arise in the body.To create your own gratitude body map, choose a time and place where you can comfortably devote at least 15 uninterrupted minutes to this exercise. You will want to be physically comfortable, so make sure you aren’t wearing any restricted clothing, and keep a blanket nearby in case you get chilly. For women, I recommend removing your bra, especially if it contains underwire. You want to minimize external physical distractions or discomforts so that you can really focus your attention on what you are feeling internally. Draw an outline of your body on a piece of paper. You might want some colored pens, markers or pencils if you tend to be the type of person who visualizes emotions and energy in colors. Complete the following meditation exercise:

1. Find a comfortable seated position, preferably sitting upright with your feet on the floor or cross-legged. You can also lie down if you prefer.
2. Take three deep breaths to center yourself, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.
3. Focus on one thing you are grateful for today. Pick something that is more concrete (for example, a pet or family member, rather than an abstract idea like being grateful for your awesome sense of humor).
4. Spend several minutes really visualizing in your mind’s eye this object of your gratitude with all of your five senses.
5. When you start to feel grateful, shift your focus to your own body. What region of your body captures your attention first?
6. Open your eyes, and mark on the body map where you feel this feeling and what it looks like. Use shapes or colors if they feel right to you.
7. Close your eyes, and now focus on this region of your body. If you need to, call up the image of what you are grateful for again.
8. Where does the feeling travel to next? Follow the feeling with your mind.
9. Open your eyes, and mark on the body map where the feeling moved to. Again, use colors and/or shapes if they feel right to you.
10. Continue this process until you sense you have completed your body map. You might want to add the date and make a note of what image you were focusing on.

This is a powerful exercise because it creates a multi-sensory experience of gratitude and provides ourselves with feedback. It fosters the mind-body connection, and allows for a more intuitive understanding of ourselves and how our emotions affect us. If you are up for a challenge, do this exercise daily for a week, and keep track of your body maps. See how they may change each day, or based on what image you are grateful for. I will be posting my gratitude body maps on instagram (#gratitudebodymap) starting today, so feel free to see what mine look like, as well as post your own!

And remember, as we (finally!) head into Spring…

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom, which springs from the Soul.” – Henry Ward Beecher

 

One of the most important people to include on your journey to wellness is a wellness coach.

These are professionals who already have an established background in the areas of healthcare, nutrition and exercise science and who have elected to undergo additional training and certification to help you reach your wellness goals. But a coach is not your nutritionist, trainer or your doctor. Unlike those other services, which some coaches might also still provide outside of their coaching business, you are not purchasing information or a program to follow. Instead, you are learning how to partner with your intuition through the guidance of your coach, so that eventually you can coach yourself. This is why coaching of any sort is so valuable and worth the investment.

Specifically though, how can wellness coaching benefit you?

1. Wellness coaching can change your past by changing your memories about the past. When we remember past events, our brains aren’t pulling out memories from a treasure chest. Instead, our brains actively recreate the memory in the present moment. This means that we can create what we need to remember. I’m not talking about deluding yourself to believe something happened that didn’t. But what I do mean is that through positive reframing, we can look back on past events that might not have gone so well for us and focus on how the event helped us learn and grow. Every situation we encounter, especially the negative ones, are ripe learning opportunities that teach us valuable information we need to develop as human beings. This can be difficult to do on our own because of our emotional entanglement with certain memories, which is why a coach is so valuable in helping you reframe your experiences so that you can learn the lessons that will propel you forward.

2. Your brain will literally alter its structure to allow for positive change. I’ve written about neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to adapt physically to your experiences. By engaging with a coach, you will slowly start to change how your brain is wired, which is ultimately what will help you stick to your wellness goals. The more you interact with your coach, the more your neurons will start firing in a different way than what they have been used to. Through consistent follow-up and accountability, you can be sure that you will be more likely to stick to your positive behaviors, thus allowing your brain the time it needs to re-wire.
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3. Each session will immediately decrease your stress. A coach is trained to listen to you deeply and hear the unsaid. For some of you, this might be the only time you experience this type of quality interaction with an empathetic and compassionate person who truly wants you to succeed. If you have ever experienced this type of conversation, you might remember how you felt “lighter” afterward, more emotionally balanced and able to handle the rest of the day. Imagine scheduling this time for yourself on a regular basis. One session alone can help decrease your stress immediately, but several sessions over time will improve your stress resilience overall so that you can conquer whatever comes your way.

4. Heal your mind, body and spirit. After years in medicine, one thing has stood out to me as the most important in living a healthy life. You have to be involved in healing you. No one can do it for you, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. Most of the chronic health conditions we face these days are preventable, reversible, and linked to our emotional and spiritual health. Wellness coaching goes far beyond helping you to lose weight. It is a holistic healing process. If you have consulted any type of conventional or alternative healthcare practitioner in your life, and felt like you could still benefit from more help, I strongly urge you to consider trying out wellness coaching for a minimum of three months as an adjunct to what you are already doing. It will teach you how to facilitate your own healing on multiple levels.

5. Unlocks your creative potential. Coaching is a conversation, which in and of itself is an act of creation. Think about it for a second. When you are engaged in conversation, you don’t have a script you are reading from. You are creating the dialogue in the present moment. This is very much like any creative artistic endeavor, where you bring forth something new and different that has never existed before. Coaches use several techniques to get you thinking outside of the box, to help flex your creativity muscle so you can find new solutions to the same old problems. Over time, you may find that your creative ability in other areas is enhanced because of this new skill.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about wellness coaching, feel free to visit the About page and leave me your contact information. And as always, drop a comment below if this article resonated with you!