Before I even say anything I want to say this-

Being thankful does not 'solve' or 'fix' ANY mental illness. You cannot tell someone with depression to just be grateful for what they have, because that does not help anything. Most people struggling with depression are actually thankful people, but they are thankful people that are struggling with chemical imbalances in their brains. I will never tell you to be thankful and it will just fix all negative thoughts. It never works like that.

But what I do want to tell you, is that specifically counting each thing your thankful for at a certain time every day can be beneficial to your emotional and mental health. Making it a habit to have a list of thankfulness, can help some to ground themselves into reality, and also helps to fight the negative demons in our heads.

What do I mean by grounding yourself?
Some mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, can force an individual into a stressful, overwhelming reality where everything and everyone is out to hurt or take something away. When I go into a panic attack, I know I am not thinking straight and that my mind is freaking out over some tiny thing, but I cannot stop it. I know that I am being unrealistic, but I cannot stop myself from hyperventilating and rocking back and forth. Now, in those moments doing something that grounds you, that brings you back to whats real and whats not can be the difference between having a panic attack and not having one.

So listing things you are thankful for in your life, it can be used as a distraction. Distracting your mind from focussing on what is freaking you out means you can take the first step in maybe avoiding that panic attack.

Listing what you are thankful for can untwist the generalised lies. Lies in your head such as 'Ill never be pretty', but then you are saying you are 'thankful for that new dress you bought' because you actually do feel a bit pretty in it. It means the lie changes to 'sometimes I am not pretty', but it is not 'all the time I am not pretty'. Can you see how that would help?

Finding what you are thankful for also helps keeps the negativity from taking over. It is cliche, I know, to focus on the silver lining on every dark cloud. But I am not saying that its all happiness and rainbows and sunshine, I'm saying you can keep the negativity from taking over. It is still there, and it will always be there in our lives to be honest. But if you can keep the positive thoughts, the thankful thoughts as your focus it means that at that moment, the negatives don't have control over you.

In the past I did a thankfulness challenge. For a month, every day I posted on Facebook three words, three things to be thankful for. Some days it was easy. Other days it was a lot harder. But they dont have to be big things, just simple small things.
Some days my list was: 1. rain, 2. coffee, 3. breathing.

I recommend starting a thankfulness journal. Everyday, write in three small things you are thankful for. You cannot repeat and say the same thing twice. And when you feel like the negativity and the overwhelming demons are coming, open it and read all the things you are thankful for. It will bring back happy memories, and times when you felt okay.

Sometimes all we need is a happy memory to bring us back to why we fight to have more good days than bad days.

Keep struggling <3