What does daily gratitude with your dog? How on earth does it improve health? Gratitude may seem like a simple thing. We all hear it a lot in different forms, “I’m grateful for…” Or maybe “I have a gratitude journal.” Perhaps in a genetic form like, “I practice gratitude.”
But do you know what it means to be grateful or have gratitude for something? Do you know the benefits of practicing gratitude? Let’s explore all this and learn how to practice daily gratitude with your dog.
What does it mean to practice daily gratitude?
It simply means you are expressing a sense of thanksgiving for a person or thing. Whatever you find to be thankful for during your day or at a moment. Such as a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning dog walk. Or it can be more complex or intimate. Perhaps something like “I’m grateful for my partner’s love and support on the days when I don’t love myself.”
That sounds easy enough. But is there any real benefit to having a sense of gratitude or expressing your gratefulness?
Budget Tip:
There’s only an upside to practicing gratitude with your dog daily. It helps you to be more positive and there’s no money spent. Plus, you get to bond with your dog. This is a major win-win for you and your dog!
Benefits of Daily Gratitude
Yes, there are many benefits to being grateful. They generally fall into five main categories:
- Emotional – a greater feeling of happiness
- Social – improve relationships
- Personality – better outlook on life
- Career – reduces stress
- Health – overall better physical health
Intrigued by the positive impacts of gratitude? Here’s one more to think about.
Daily Gratitude Changes the Brain
“It is not happiness that brings us gratitude. It is gratitude that brings us happiness.” ~ Positive Psychology
By being grateful, having an optimistic outlook, and activating the “feel good” hormones, among other positive impacts, the chemical makeup in the brain is changed. And for the better. Amazing, huh? Now, how’s that for some good medicine?
The Mindfulness Awareness Research Center of UCLA stated that gratitude does change the neural structures in the brain, and makes us feel happier and more content. Feeling grateful and appreciating others when they do something good for us triggers the ‘good’ hormones and regulates effective functioning of the immune system. ~ Positive Psychology
What are the benefits that a dog provides to its human?
Dogs provide a multitude of benefits for their owners. Here are just a few of the top ones:
1. Keep dog parents active and moving
2. Never alone and dog parent is needed
3. Provide a bouncing board and someone to talk to, which can enhance brain power
In this article, I talk about how self-talk with your dog helps strengthen your brain.
4. Social butterfly for the dog parent – make friends with people otherwise dog parent wouldn’t know
5. Reduce dog parent level of stress
In this article, I talk about how to destress with your dog.
How to practice daily gratitude with your dog
Have the benefits of practicing gratitude piqued your interest? Want to learn how to practice it? While gratitude isn’t limited to just your dog, it is a good, and easy way to include your dog in your daily gratitude practices. Plus, as just described dogs provide their own unique benefits to their humans.
Besides, most of us see our pets first thing in the morning with a wet nose alarm greeting. So it’s easy to be grateful to them first and then expand our gratitude list and practice.
Here are a few dog gratitude examples:
I’m grateful …
- for your wet nose alarm in the morning.
- you picked me to be your family.
- we get to walk together every day.
- you show me how to see joy in simple things such as throwing a ball.
- for petting your soft fur.
- you don’t pee in the house anymore.
- for your carefree attitude toward life. I learn a lot from you.
- you’re willing to share your life with me.
- that when I need you somehow you’re always around.
- you love to be hugged and loved.
Of course, you don’t need to use any of these. Think of these as a sort of brainstorming list of gratitude thoughts. You can create your own and then expand on it. I like to use at least three statements of gratitude to start my day. But you could use a lot more. I often do even, especially if I’m feeling down and need extra help. I’ll specifically look for things that I’m grateful for to remind myself of everything that is amazing in my life. It’s a trick I use to shift out of a little dip into a blue state.
However, don’t forget all the other things even beyond your dog and pet that you are grateful for each day. It could be the sun beating on your face. The wind whips through your hair. Your child’s drawing. The touch of your spouse as you run out the door. Or even your favorite song on the radio as you run errands. These are all things to be grateful for every day.
How do you express daily gratitude?
There are many ways to express gratitude. Each is valid. You will need to find what works best for you.
1. Verbal
Basically, this means saying what you are grateful for out loud. It doesn’t necessarily have to be to the person. It just has to be out loud so YOUR brain hears it. However, there are added benefits when said to the person or thing. Such as you feel the gratitude returned to you.
2. Journal
Writing what you are grateful for allows your brain to absorb your gratitude on another level. Plus, the other great part of journaling or writing your gratitude is that it’s a recording. You can then go back and see what you were grateful for at any point in time, which can also add a boost to your self-esteem when you’re feeling low.
3. Thank you notes
This is a combination of verbal and journaling. You are writing gratitude to one person. While you can’t go back and review it later or receive additional gratitude from writing it, the person that receives it can get a deeper sense of your gratitude. It will provide that person boost to their self-esteem.
4. Gratitude jar
Personally, I love gratitude jars. These are little time capsules. If you write what you are grateful for on a small note and put it into a jar (like a mason jar), then you can pull it out anytime you feel down and need a pick-me-up. It can immediately bring a smile to your face remembering all the times you were grateful.
A gratitude jar is especially great to open on New Year’s to review the year in gratitude. I also make a note of how many times my dog or other animals pop up in my jar. It always makes me giggle.
Whichever way you express your daily gratitude the key is to be consistent. In other words, do it every day. If you opt for a journal or gratitude jar, I always recommend reviewing them at least at the end of the year.
Most people get melancholy at the end of each year, but a quick review of your gratitude journal or jar will make you realize that the year wasn’t so bad. It will also give you added hope for the new year. Even a review of a difficult week will show you that you had a lot to be grateful for during the week.
This article details how to create a gratitude jar or dog journal jar.
Should kids practice gratitude daily?
The benefits to children who practice gratitude daily with their parents are amazing.
Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, is considered an expert in the scientific world of gratitude. Dr. Emmons notes that children who practice gratitude experience significant benefits, including being optimistic, kind, physically healthier, less stressed, able to handle stress better, sleeping well, and can live up to 7 years longer. Those are some amazing benefits! This is certainly a ringing endorsement for kids, even young kids, to practice daily gratitude.
Still, stumped where to start? No need to worry.
Here’s a very easy way for you and your family to begin a practice of daily gratitude with your dog.
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Summary of Practicing Daily Gratitude With Your Dog
When you combine daily gratitude benefits in general, with those benefits of a dog, you have a powerful combination. There is no age limitation to practicing gratitude. In fact, the earlier you start with a gratitude practice, the better. The benefits are wide and long-lasting.
While you don’t need to limit yourself to being grateful for only your dog or pet, it’s a good jumping-off point each day, especially since the wet nose is generally most of our alarms. At the end of the day, take a couple of minutes to reflect on all you were grateful from the time your furry buddy woke you. Help your children begin their practice. They can start with as simple as pictures and talking. Gratitude is free, has no negative side effects, and it’s easy. What more can anyone want?
Do you have a daily gratitude practice? How has being grateful worked for you?
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