Autumn is the season of gratitude, a natural transition time for gathering some things up, letting some things go and re-focusing your mindset on thankfulness and abundance.
Taking time to pause, reflect, and cultivate gratitude builds resilience and improves mental health. More specifically, gratefulness helps you grow in your personal relationships, your career and your personal development. It causes the release of oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin — the feel-good hormones that give us feelings of pleasure, happiness and emotional well-being.
Here’s how you can build a more grateful mindset.
- Take inventory of what you’ve accomplished. Whether they’re small steps in a larger plan or fully executed dreams, take time to celebrate your progress. Pausing to appreciate what you’ve worked for is important, so be sure to reflect on and feel grateful for your efforts.
- Notice what needs to go. You can find reasons to feel grateful even for the difficult lessons in life because they help you decide whether certain goals, aspirations and dreams are still important to you. Let go of any old habits, beliefs or routines that no longer serve you.
- Tend to the people in your life. Relationships change over time, so check in on family, friends and colleagues to figure out which relationships feed your soul and could use a little more attention and which might be better kept with a little distance built in.
- Count Your Blessings. Try starting each day with ‘thank you’ as your first thought. It really does help you begin to take notice of the good things in your life. Start a daily gratitude journal and write down all the things you are grateful for and see how that list grows over time.
When you practice gratitude consciously, it strengthens your neural pathways, creating a more appreciative and positive nature within yourself. Studies show that people who feel and express gratitude have more gray matter in their brain, the tissue that provides cognitive function, memory, emotions and movement.
Atlantic Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Services - 24-hour Hotlines
- Chilton Medical Center: 973-831-5078
- Morristown Medical Center: 973-540-0100
- Overlook Medical Center: 908-522-3586
- Newton Medical Center: 973-383-0973
- Hackettstown Medical Center: 908-454-5141
Additional crisis intervention providers:
- Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988
- The Trevor Lifeline for LGBTQIA+ Youth: 1-866-488-7386⠀
- Disaster Distress Helpline: Call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.
- Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988 and Press 1
- Dial 211: 211 provides callers with information about and referrals to social services for every day needs and in times of crisis
- SAMHSA Treatment Locator
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