How to Cultivate Gratitude During Adversity

When life feels heavy, the platitude of "just be grateful" can seem far-fetched or even insensitive. It's often hard to identify what you appreciate during hard times. However, cultivating a gratitude practice isn't about trying to suppress the pain or minimize negative emotions. Instead, it's about learning how to use gratitude as an anchor to embrace small glimmers of connection, beauty, or meaning in daily life.

Reframing Gratitude as a Gentle Practice

When you're hurting, gratitude shouldn't be this forced exercise that undermines your feelings. Rather than demanding that you be grateful for everything, try to shift into focusing on just one small appreciation at a time. It might be as simple as the feeling of sunshine on your face or a funny text from a friend.

This makes the concept of implementing gratitude more approachable. You're not trying to sugarcoat adversity or make meaning out of every part of your life. Instead, you're just spending some time reflecting on things that do feel good.

Ground Yourself With Your Five Senses

Although it may seem paradoxical, committing to spending more time in the present moment is a form of internal gratitude. When you engage in grounding exercises, you're telling yourself, I deserve to be here. I deserve to be in my emotions and needs, even if they feel overwhelming or difficult.

Sensory awareness tends to coincide with more gratitude. You start noticing all the overlooked beauty in life. Try to slow down more and more. Drink your morning coffee intentionally, taking in the aroma and the taste. Watch how the sunset changes the sky, focusing on the different colors.

Maintain a Gratitude Journal

Some people find it easier to practice gratitude through writing. A gratitude journal can help you cultivate a habit of expressing gratitude regularly.

With writing, it's less about focusing on quality and more about maintaining consistency. You can start by simply identifying three things that went well at the end of each day. As you write, focus on why you're grateful for those specific things. For example, maybe you appreciated having lunch with your coworker. The why could be that it made you feel more connected to a friend, and it boosted your well-being throughout the afternoon.

Prioritize Lowering Your Stress Levels

Our fast-paced society that prioritizes 24/7 hustling makes it hard to slow down and notice all the little moments of good fortune. Many of us are racing through the hours, trying to get everything done, hardly taking time to breathe.

While some stress is inevitable, living in a constant state of heightened alert floods the body with stress hormones, increasing anxiety and hypervigilance. The antidote is to notice when stress reactions arise and respond with care.

If you feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, pause and write a to-do list. Identify the tasks with true urgency, and practice accepting that it’s okay if non-essential items wait until later. Even brief breaks to stretch, breathe deeply, or step outside can help lower your stress baseline and create more space for gratitude to grow.

Implement Small Acts of Kindness Regularly

Research shows that regularly giving to others reduces stress and boosts happiness. Furthermore, grateful people tend to make a more conscious effort to volunteer and help others. The best part is that acts of kindness don’t have to be grandiose to make a positive impact.

Offering a genuine compliment, holding the door for a stranger, or sending a thoughtful text to a friend can shift your focus away from stress and toward connection. When you make kindness a habit, it benefits the recipient, and it also reinforces your own sense of purpose and belonging, even in challenging times.

Attach Gratitude Interventions to Daily Routines

If life feels overwhelming or far too busy, attaching gratitude to something you already do each day can make the practice easier to sustain. For example, you might:

• Think of one thing you appreciate each time you brush your teeth

• Pause to acknowledge something good before starting your car

• Reflect on a gratitude moment while making breakfast.

This is a way to practice mindfulness and bring a more positive light to the things you already do. Over time, this can shift into a more positive mindset throughout your daily routine.

Strengthening Your Mental Health and Gratitude With Resurface Group

At Resurface Group, we understand the nuanced connection between mental health, physical health, and how you cope with everyday life. Certain mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, or substance use disorders, can blunt positive emotions and make it challenging to feel gratitude.

We are here to offer an effective treatment roadmap. We support people in learning how to look after their mental health, strengthen relationships, and live more authentically.

No matter your circumstances, it is possible to harness a more positive outlook and feel more grounded as you move through the day. Please contact us today to learn more about our dynamic programs!