Gratitude is another great way to incorporate mindfulness into your life. It involves taking note of the positive aspects of your life, which allows you to better cope with difficult times. When thinking of the blessings in your life, you do not have to limit them to big things–they can also be as simple as your daily 10 minute walk to work or your favorite latte that you get each day. We tend to focus on the negative aspects of our lives, but being aware of the positives can greatly improve overall health and happiness. Gratitude has also been scientifically proven to help us better regulate our emotions, thus helping to ameliorate pain and stress (Khorrami, 2022). Although it may seem hard at first, your mind will begin to notice the positives more naturally after you start to focus on them. Writing in a gratitude journal is an excellent way to practice this–by making a list of the things you are grateful for you can cultivate positive feelings and emotions (Khorrami, 2022). Overall, gratitude is a valuable tool for pre-med students as it can help bring out beauty in tough times.
Source:
Khorrami, N., Bayes-Fleming, N., Abdullah, M., Suttie, J., Newman, K. M., & Rossy, L. (2022, February 4). How to practice gratitude. Mindful. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.mindful.org/an-introduction-to-mindful-gratitude/
Written By: Mariam Trichas
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