The human mind is wired towards negativity. That has been a very adaptive feature of our operating system during most of our evolution – after all, if you live somewhere where there might be sabre-tooth tigers or bears who want to eat you, it’s a good thing to be alert for warning signs of danger. The same might be true if you are living in a war zone.

Most of us are privileged to live in places where we are not constantly in danger, but our nervous systems have not caught up. A gazelle being chased by a lioness is highly stressed for a short time, but if it gets away, it is soon peacefully grazing again. Humans, on the other hand, have a nasty habit of replaying scary or upsetting things in our mind, bringing us into that zone again and again. As a result, what we think of as the everyday stress of modern life can keep us in a constant fight-or-flight mode, with our stress hormones always elevated. This is really bad for our health, both physical and mental. 

What to do?

Since our minds are creating our stress, our minds can also settle it down. One excellent way of reducing our mental stress is gratitude – by counting our blessings, we are actually sending messages to our bodies that it is ok to dial back the cortisol and adrenaline. Deep breathing at the same time as we think of all the things we are grateful for can really double down on that process.

Creating a daily gratitude habit can actually improve our markers of chronic stress – there are clinical trials that have shown it can reduce blood pressure and improve immunity. Who wouldn’t want that in these times?

Are you in on this with me? Let’s do this together. Let me know!

P.S. Sending love, light and warmth to my friends who are living in places with unusually cold weather. It might be harder to find things to be grateful for under these circumstances, but it might be even more important to give it a try!