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The pressures we face each day are real and impact us emotionally and physically.

Living with intention builds resilience under pressure.

The practice of gratitude can replenish and strengthen our mind and body.

You sit up at midnight, staring at your bank account. It doesn’t look good. You’re worried about car repairs, paying rent, and keeping food on the table. Earlier today, you heard talk of layoffs at work. The pressure is building. What will you do next?

Stress is real. It's not just that we're focused on negativity; challenges are simply everywhere. If you examine the main areas of your life—finances, work, relationships, possessions that break down, health, injustice, and time—you’re likely to find dissatisfaction and stress in some. Money can be replenished, but time cannot. Time is limited, and we only have less of it.

If we lack mindsets and habits that build our emotional and physical reserves, pressure will drain us.

Our minds excel at asking, “What if…”, which puts the spotlight on an uncontrollable future and draws imagined stress into the present, sometimes years before it might occur.

On the other hand, we are not so good at focusing on “what is.” Focusing on what is happening now, especially the good we find in this moment, can not only refresh our depleted emotional reserves but also change our outlook on the future.

Practicing gratitude, celebrating the gratitude and joy of others, and expressing thanks to those who help us lead to positive changes in the brain. Gratitude increases serotonin and dopamine, reduces negativity bias in the prefrontal lobe, and calms the amygdala, slowing our fight-or-flight response. Gratitude also helps manage anxiety and depression.

The Power of Intention

How we go through our day is influenced by many factors we often overlook. Our history, traumas, and failures push us from behind. To avoid more bad experiences, we put on armor and face life’s battles. Instead of staying defensive, we can choose a new mindset to guide our lives in a better direction.

Set an intention today: take a moment to look for the good in your life, be grateful for what is, celebrate even small victories, and use what you have to help others. Commit to this each day and notice how it transforms both your perspective and your well-being. You can shift your life from just surviving to thriving.

A great way to start looking for the good in your life is the G.L.A.D. exercise developed by Donald Altman (2014). This mindful practice is a great way to close your day before you go to sleep. Here are the four basic elements:

Gratitude—Name at least one thing you are grateful for today. Think through the people in your life, the things you have, the privileges you experience with where you live and work, your health, and opportunities.

Learn—Describe at least one thing you learned today. What insight did you gain, lesson you learned, mistake you benefited from making and learning from, and what wisdom did you gain? What is something you learned about a friend or coworker?

Accomplishment—Name one small or big accomplishment you had today. Examine your daily life and ask yourself if you ate some healthy meals or snacks, exercised, flossed your teeth, took time for a breathing exercise, solved problems, helped others, got dressed in the morning, or made your bed.

Delight—Name one thing of delight that touched you today. Did you laugh at a joke, read a funny story, see someone’s smile, hear birds singing, enjoy the blue sky, touch the hand of someone you love, pet your dog or cat, see a flower, or enjoy the warmth of water while you showered?

The GLAD exercise works well with journal writing. But don’t keep your gratitude to yourself! If you have a family at home, start a gratitude jar where each of you writes down GLAD events from your life and shares them with the others. Start a tradition of sharing one or two elements of the four elements of GLAD while having dinner together in the evenings. Meanwhile, the pressures of life will keep coming, but with gratitude, you will find it easier to bend without breaking under them.

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Altman, D. (2014). The mindfulness toolbox: 50 practical mindfulness tips, tools, and handouts for anxiety, depression, stress, and pain. PESI Publishing & Media.

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