28 Days of Gratitude Challenge and Why Gratitude Works
28 Days of Gratitude Challenge
My FREE 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge launched this past Friday, and there is still time to join! The month of November is traditionally when we are already reflecting on giving thanks, so I decided to create the 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge to help us celebrate Thanksgiving this year.
But it’s not just for Thanksgiving. I set up the challenge in a way that you can start at any time and each day for 28 days you will get an email sent to you with a daily gratitude prompt or activity that will take no more than 5-10 minutes to complete. The idea is to spend time each day reflecting on the things you are grateful for as a way to shift your mindset. If you’d like to sign up for the FREE 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge, you can do so through this link.
Are you in a funk? Are you struggling to feel happy and tired of being so stressed out, anxious, and depressed? Practicing daily gratitude is scientifically proven to change your mindset, lower your cortisol levels, and bring relief from anxiety and depression. Getting into the habit of daily gratitude is especially helpful for moms, to help them through the sleepless nights, the worry, and the pressure. Take the FREE 28 Day gratitude challenge and start feeling more like yourself so you can live your best life! #DailyGratitude #Gratitude #Challenge #GratitudeChallenge #GratitudeForWomen #GratitudeforMoms #GratitudeChallengeForWomen
Benefits of Gratitude
Gratitude is so often overlooked and not utilized, but it is actually one of the most powerful tools we can use to live our best life. Not only is it powerful, it’s free to use, it can be practiced in a multitude of ways, it doesn’t take much time, and it is easy to incorporate into you daily life. If you want to take part in the 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge, it is completely free and it might just change your life. You can sign up here.
Here are just a few of the benefits of using gratitude:
Improves self-esteem
Improves overall mental health
Decreases levels of stress, worry, anxiety and depression
Improves PTSD symptoms
Shown to help with trauma recovery and healing
Improves physical health
Builds connections with others
Strengthens relationships
Improves sleep quality
Reduces levels of anger and aggression
Helps create empathy
Cultivates emotional maturity
Research about Gratitude
Dr. Robert Emmons and Dr. Michael McCullough are two psychologists that have done a great deal of research on the practice of gratitude and its effects. In one of their studies, they asked a group of participants to write a few sentences once a week about different topics.
The participants were split into 3 groups for the study. The first group was told to write about things that happened during their week that they were grateful for. The second group was instructed to write about things that irritated them or upset them each day. Then the third was asked to write about various events they felt affected them during their week without specifically being positive or negative.
At the end of the 10 week study, it was noted that those who wrote about gratitude were overall more optimistic and felt better about their lives. They also reported having engaged in more frequent exercise, they had engaged in more self-care activities, and they had less aches, pains and illnesses requiring a visit to a doctor than those who focused on the negative and irritating things in their lives.
Gratitude as a Daily Practice
The practice of gratitude can be incorporated into your daily routine quite easily, and there are so many ways to start using this powerful tool. The 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge is a way to help you develop consistency with your gratitude practice by giving you a variety of gratitude activities to try out. That way you can get familiar using gratitude in your daily life, and you will have 4 weeks of experience to look back on and then decide how you’d like to continue to use gratitude in your life. I hope you will give the practice of gratitude a try, and I would love to know about your experience with it as we go through the challenge. Here is the link where you can sign up.
Are you curious to know if the daily practice of gratitude really can help your mindset and improve your life? Are you wanting to give it a try but are lost on what to do, needing ideas and inspiration of how you can practice gratitude? Take the FREE 28 Day gratitude challenge and start feeling more like yourself so you can live your best life! #GratitudeForWomen #GratitudeForMoms #GratitudeChallengeForWomen #PersonalDevelopment #SelfHelp #SelfCare
What You Will Need For the Challenge
The only thing you definitely need is a journal, 5-10 minutes per day, and a willingness to shift your mindset to focus on the good things in your life. If you are wanting to have a few supplies on hand to help during this challenge, I share some links to my favorite journals, writing instruments and books about gratitude, and thank you notes below:
This book is a great foundational resource all about gratitude and ways to practice it. I will be using it as a reference throughout the 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge, and it would be a great companion to the challenge. It is written by the researcher Dr. Robert Emmons I talked about earlier in the research section.
Journals
I love using my Moleskin journals, because they come in all sizes and colors!
XIDUOBAO Writing Journal Notebook, Leather Colorful Journals Pack of 4
Colorful Personal Notebook Set of 6 with Lined Pages, Elastic Band and Ribbon Bookmarks
Pens, Markers & Highlighters
Here are some links to my favorite pens and markers that I use in my own gratitude journaling:
Thank you notes
***This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for helping me out.***
Why Writing Your Gratitude is Recommended
I get asked all the time if it is really necessary to write down the daily gratitude versus just thinking about it or using a phone or computer to keep track of each day. Although, just doing the daily activities is great, it will be a much more powerful experience if you actually write them down with pen/pencil and paper. The process of writing helps solidify the thoughts and anchor the in your brain.
Join the 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge
If you’d like to sign up for the FREE 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge, you can do so through this link and I cannot wait to see how it helps you shift your mindset and connect to the joy in your life.
Are you working on personal development? Did you know one of the easiest and cheapest ways to boost your personal development is to practice daily gratitude? Are you a mom, an entrepreneur or small business owner, freelancer, or just a stressed out woman trying to find something that will help get you in the right mindset so you can thrive in whatever you are pursuing? Sign up today and start your FREE 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge and feel the difference. #GratitudeForWomen #GratitudeForMoms #GratitudeChallengeForWomen #PersonalDevelopment #SelfHelp #SelfCare
Work with Me
If you are interested in setting up an appointment for therapy, life coaching, or consulting or if you would like more information about ways to start the process of using gratitude in your life, you can call my office directly at 314-485-9189 or feel free to send me a message. My direct email address is lindsay@lindsaywalden.com and you can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more life and relationship tips!
Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge at this link!
I will be launching a number of new workshops and coaching groups in the next few months, so there will be many ways to connect and work with me! Stay tuned for details on them coming soon!
Therapy Thoughts with Lindsay Podcast
Each new podcast episode is uploaded to my Therapy Thoughts Podcast Blog on the website Thursday afternoons at 2:00pm CST, and then it is shared to all the podcasting sites from there. It is also available on the Apple iTunes podcast site, and you can subscribe so you never miss an episode!
In last week’s episode we talked about the 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge, and I discussed the concept of the 3 R’s: Reflecting, Recharging and Resetting. I talked about the 3 R’s in a previous blog if you’d like to read more about it, you can do so here. If you want to check out Episode 11, here is the link.
I really am so grateful to all of you for your continued support, and I hope you’ll tune in this Thursday for Episode 12. Remember to make sure you are following all my social media platforms so will know when each new episode is available. And, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel, so you will be able to watch the episodes once we start recording them on video as well as audio!
What’s Your Word?
For the past few years, I have decided to pick a yearly theme or word/phrase as a way to guide my goal setting and vision for the next year. I start that brainstorming process in October during my reset phase, so that I have a lot of time to give it a lot of thought. I talked about the 3 R’s: Reflect, Recharge, and Reset in a blog a few weeks ago if you’d like to check it out here to learn more about what I mean by the reset phase.
My theme/word for 2018 was self-care and I spent the entire year finding ways to create, attempt, practice and establish my self-care routines. It was such a transformational year, and I loved that I had a guiding concept to keep me on track through the year.
My theme/word for 2019 is unalome. Basically it is the concept that the journey to your destination is not straight. In fact, it’s quite curvy and bumpy, but it’s all headed towards forward progress and reaching goals. I received the word unalome on a What’s Your Word? bracelet in my December CoachCrate. I love my bracelet so much, and it’s with me everyday.
In fact, I love it so much I decided I wanted to be able to make my own and offer them to others looking to create a word/phrase to guide them. I am offering a kickoff discount for anyone wanting to get their new What’s Your Word? MyIntent bracelet, necklace or keychain from me. Send me a message to my email lindsay@lindsaywalden.com and include the code: WORD2020LW to save 20% off your order. If you’d prefer to order directly from the website, you can find my shop link here and save $10 off your order!
CoachCrate
Not only did I receive my first What’s Your Word? MyIntent bracelet from my CoachCrate last December, the monthly subscription service has helped me stay regular with my self-care in so many ways. I would love to have you join me on the CoachCrate adventure. November’s theme is Vulnerability, and I cannot wait! If you want to join me, you can save money on your first order using my link and the code FIRSTBOX at checkout! I stalk my mailbox waiting it to arrive each month!
