Join this five-day gratitude challenge for wellness

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One-day efforts to celebrate gratitude, like Thanksgiving, certainly make us feel good. Practicing gratitude can increase feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life, while reducing depressive symptoms, many studies have shown. To continue experiencing the mood-enhancing benefits of gratitude, it is a good idea to make the practice of gratitude a constant practice in your daily life.

That said, it doesn't take a daily turkey dinner with all the ingredients to be thankful. It's more about exercising your gratitude muscles in your daily routine through simple activities that cultivate and express gratitude.

Like any skill worth mastering, gratitude takes practice to reach its full potential.

Scientists have found that daily doses of gratitude provide benefits that go beyond feelings of happiness, and extend to improving relationships, self-esteem, and overall life satisfaction.

To start honing your gratitude skill and making it an ongoing practice, try my five-day gratitude challenge.

Here's how to get started.

Day 1: start focusing on your 5 senses

Too often, people focus their gratitude on the material things they associate with status, like a fancy car or a piece of clothing.

Being glad you have these items isn't necessarily bad, but materialism has been linked in research to lower satisfaction and a lower ability to really feel grateful.

To focus on the simple but deeply valuable aspects of our lives, we begin our challenge by showing gratitude for one of our five senses: sight.

On a pad of paper or in a journal, finish this sentence:

Today I am grateful for these three things that I have seen ...

Your answers can be as simple as: my own reflection in the mirror, my partner, and the sunset.

Perhaps today you have had an experience that makes you grateful for your sight and your conscience, such as seeing the neighbor's dog loose near the road and alerting your neighbor before something tragic happens.

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During the challenge, take time each night to write down three reasons why you were grateful for one of your five senses that day.

Day 2: Cultivate gratitude with every breath

Do you want to feel grateful?

Take a breath, or in this case, ten.

We all know that without breath there is no life.

That is a great reason to be thankful.

To cultivate that feeling of gratitude for our ability to live and breathe, practice this simple 10-breath gratitude meditation, following the simple instructions below:

Sit comfortably with your feet on the floor and your eyes closed.

Let your hands rest in your lap or place them on the bottom of your ribs, like in this video.

Close your eyes and begin to breathe through your nose, lengthening and deepening your breath at a rate that is comfortable and sustainable for you.

As you establish your long, deep breath, take a moment to think about the miracle of your breath and how it literally fills your body with life.

When you're ready, on the next inhale imagine a color that you associate with feelings of gratitude and let it fill your mind as you fill your lungs with air.

As you exhale, imagine that color and that feeling of gratitude spreading through your neck, chest, torso and limbs, disappearing when you finish exhaling.

He silently counts the number "one" in his head.

Repeat this same visualization, synchronized with each breath, until you complete a count of 10 breaths.

For your five-sense gratitude practice for the day, end with this prompt:

Today, I am grateful for these three things that I have touched / felt ...

Day 3: reflect on the gift of adversity

There is no doubt that life can be challenging, as things don't always turn out the way we expected.

Unfortunately, we all experience adversity and suffering at different times in our lives.

It may seem difficult to reflect on difficult times and find a reason to be grateful, but by making our pain purposeful, we can find meaning in the experience.

In Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning", a Holocaust survivor, he wrote: "The way a man accepts his destiny and all the suffering that comes with it, the way he takes up his cross, gives him a wide opportunity, even in the most difficult circumstances, to add a deeper meaning to your life. "

For today's gratitude practice, follow Frankl's lead and reflect on an especially difficult time in your life that you perceive as a tragedy, a failure, or a mistake.

Identify three positive things that have emerged from that experience that you can truly appreciate.

Remember to also keep your gratitude focus on all five senses as you finish this exercise:

Today, I am grateful for these three things that I have heard ...

• Mindful eating can change your eating habits and your life in general.

  So you can start practicing it

Day 4: express your gratitude to others in writing

Who are the three people in your life that you really appreciate?

Send each of them a quick but thoughtful correspondence in the form of a handwritten note, email, or even a carefully worded text message.

Remind them why they are special to you and how much they are worth in the world.

Those who receive your notes will experience the benefits of being appreciated.

They will not be the only beneficiaries;

According to studies, writing thank you letters has a positive effect on the author, increasing feelings of happiness and perceived life satisfaction, while decreasing depression.

Don't forget to also write down three things for your five sense gratitude practice:

Today I am grateful for these three things I have tried ...

Day 5: observe and appreciate the little things

An important aspect of regularly practicing gratitude is becoming aware of the opportunities that present themselves throughout the day to express gratitude.

Today, notice and verbally acknowledge at least twice that someone has rendered you a service or done you a small act of kindness.

Whether they are service providers, co-workers, friends or family, there are many people in our lives who act to meet our needs.

These acts can be that a delivery man brings a package to your door, that a colleague offers you help at work or that your partner brings you a coffee.

Once you begin to recognize their efforts, you can better show your appreciation and respond in kind.

Additionally, studies have shown that the benefits of appreciation extend to both the giver and the recipient.

This can be especially true in romantic relationships, where experiencing and expressing gratitude for the little things increases feelings of connection and relationship satisfaction, according to research.

Finally, finish your practice of the five senses of gratitude by focusing on the sense of smell.

This is sometimes a bit more difficult because it requires you to really look at the positive scents in your environment, as opposed to the negative smells, which we all too often focus our attention on.

Finish with this exercise:

Today I am grateful for these three things that I have smelled ...

Enjoy the change in perspective and keep practicing daily

Once you complete the challenge, hopefully you will be inspired by the mood-enhancing benefits you have experienced and brought about in others over the past five days and will continue to actively practice gratitude on a daily basis going forward.

- Dana Santas, known as the "Mobility Maker," is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book "Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief."

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