It’s not uncommon to hear people touting the benefits of a creating a gratitude list each day.  It’s has become pretty mainstream – especially after Oprah talked about it years ago in one of her shows.

But have you actually ever done it?  And what if you don’t feel gratitude – how do you actually find something?

Cultivating gratitude is a practice I HIGHLY recommend and it’s one of the things I recommend my clients do early on while working with them.  Not only will help them begin to see all of the things they have in their lives that are positive but it actually changes their brain chemistry!

People who struggle with overeating behaviors do so mainly to because it stimulates the pleasure center in the brain by  the release of dopamine.  Dopamine is a ‘feel good drug’ which does just that – makes you feel good.  It gives you that hit of pleasure.

Unfortunately this is fleeting, which is why one will keep going back for more food – to re-stimulate this pleasure.

It’s also dose dependent – meaning that each time you stimulate this pleasure center, you need more dopamine the next time to get the same level of pleasure.

Ugh.

BUT – here’s the good news: Being grateful stimulates the release of dopamine AND serotonin.

And what does serotonin do?

Serotonin is a mood stabilizing and a lack of it can lead to depression – so this too is also very important in feeling good.

What’s even better is even the act of THINKING about creating a gratitude list increases serotonin production because it forces you to think about the positive things in your life.

So just the simple act of writing down 3-5 things in the morning and evening can have a profound impact on your emotions and general outlook on life.

And here’s the thing about pleasure – it’s fleeting and it’s stimulated from the outside.  But with JOY – I mean true JOY – that comes from within.  It is divinely inspired and when you are feeling grateful, you will begin to feel more and more joy because no only will your brain chemistry be helping you out with that but you will begin to truly appreciate all that is good in your life – and this goes deep.

It’s hard to be depressed and unhappy when you truly see all the good that is happening.  So focusing on these things that you are grateful for only continues to bring you more joy.

AND when you focus on the people in your life that you are grateful for – this  will spill over into your interactions with them and others bringing more and more goodwill to you.

It’s just one big happy feedback loop and it’s such a simple and easy task.

When you are feeling grateful and joy-filled, you are also much less likely to overeat.  And when you don’t overeat, you become even more grateful and joy-filled because you have begun to stop the madness around food.

So the one thing that you can start right now that can begin to have a profound impact on you, your life, your relationships, and your relationship to food and your body, would be to take 5 minutes in the morning before you start your day and 5 minutes in the evening as you get ready for sleep and write down just 3-5 things for which you feel gratitude.

If you’re not feeling it? Start simple.

I have a roof over my head.

I have a place to sleep.

My heart is beating and I don’t even have to think about it. It just does it anyway. And how amazing is that??

Pretty soon you will realize that you have so many things that fill you with gratitude and the list becomes easy.

Let me know what you are grateful for today.  Write a note in the comments below and tell me what brings gratitude to your life.

And start to feel the joy.