A Grateful Mind

Christina Costa is a PhD student who studies the psychology of gratitude, specifically as it pertains to well-being. She also has a brain tumor, but she didn't like the narrative of being at war with her own body, so she practiced what she taught: she searched for ways to be grateful. She ends her TedTalk with a sentiment that essentially says practicing gratitude can rewire our brains and build resilience.

Science backs her up. Gratitude can dampen the negatuve effects of stress, improve sleep, and boost serotonin, a happy feel-good chemical produced by the body. Practicing gratitude habitually can rewire your brain.

It's not lost on me that less than two weeks after we spend a day focused on gratitude, we enter the season of waiting. Advent is the time we use to realign our hearts and our focus to prepare for Christmas. It's the time we use to remember and acknowledge the time of waiting for Jesus' birth.

Waiting takes resilience. Especially when you don't know when what you're waiting for is going to arrive; if you'll ever get to see it arrive. We don't build the resilience to go through waiting by fighting or ignoring our surroundings. Gratitude is how we build that resilience.

Philippians 4:6–7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Cheering you on from the sidelines,

SB