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3 Ways Gratitude Can Help Manage Stress
It’s a new year, and with that, a new opportunity to know better, do better and be better. As we get back into the day-to-day routines, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Stress, if left unchecked, could leave you on New Years Eve physically drained and wondering where the time went.
Remember What You’re Grateful For To Eliminate Stress
In our latest podcast, we talked about a friend of mine who had become overwhelmed with the stressful things in life. We took a moment to remember the things in his life that were going well.
It’s easy to forget about gratitude, to lose sight of how far we’ve come, and how much we’ve been helped by others. To get down on ourselves because we’ve forgotten about the things we experience day-to-day.
Consistently Setting Time to Be Grateful Will Eliminate Stress
In five or ten minutes, maybe after working out or while on the way somewhere, make a mental list or write on paper the things you’re grateful for.
Think about the challenges overcome, goals reached and the people in your life. What’s going great? What have you done in the last six months? Even if we can start by being grateful with the computer or smartphone we’re using right now to read this post.
High on the list of what we can be grateful for: family.
As firefighters, we already have an advantage. There are so many people who want to be in the service, but for whatever reason can’t. And in a world that is very focussed on self: self-esteem, self-gratification, self-satisfaction, etc., we actually have the opportunity to save others and get paid for it.
Gratitude is Stress Like Water Is To Fire
Here’s why gratitude is so powerful:
- Staying in gratitude isn’t just about feeling good. It’s an automatic antidote to feeling fear, worry or letting concerns overtake the mind.
- Being grateful puts a person back in their power – it’s like a good, direct fire attack on your fear or stress. And being in our power is where we’re at our best.
- Because being grateful puts us in our power, we can really help others or take care of whatever was worrying us or stressing us out.
More Resources
At FirefighterToolbox, we’re planning a year packed with great interviews and even more resources to help us stay motivated to reach our goals and build our communities.
Please share this if you found it useful, and if you found any of our tips useful, please share with us how they’ve made an impact in your life in the comment section below.
