The Benefits of Practicing Gratitude

But how grateful are you?

Are you grateful for waking up in the morning? Are you thankful for every patient you see and every successful case you do? Are you effusive with your thanks to your family for putting up with you? Are you grateful to the point where you get immense peace from your gratitude and people around you start to become annoyed with how grateful you are? Then, and only then, you are getting close to the right amount of gratitude.

Let’s explore exactly what gratitude is.

It’s defined as a feeling of appreciation or thanks. While gratitude is something that you typically express to others (“Thanks for the ride”), the vast majority of gratitude can be you expressing gratitude to yourself: “I am grateful for my health and the opportunity to serve others.” If you are anything like me, you are probably a little short on the gratitude selfies. Appreciate yourself and all you do.

Gratitude has levels of achievement or appreciation. Now that you can thank yourself, let’s expand the circle of gratitude.

The next level is gratitude toward others.

As simple as acknowledgment of the existence of someone doing a small favor or service for you, such as holding a door or pressing the elevator button for your floor. Thanking your office and OR staff every day and every case (as I do) for their work and efforts. Gratitude to your spouse and family for their understanding and humor. A simple phone call to your parents thanking them for all they have done for you. You decide, but demonstrate your gratitude to others.

The next level is gratitude to a Higher Power.

This does two things: you get to feel a connection to that Higher Power, Source Energy, or The Force, and you get to take a load off yourself and out- source some of the endless pressure you may be applying to yourself, thus reducing your burnout. With action, there is consequence, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. “Win or learn” is a phrase I like to describe any action and consequence pair. If there is an action with an unfavorable outcome, yes, that stinks, but what did you learn? Where is the lesson of gratitude in the bad consequence? “I had a car breakdown but got to spend time with my kids, learning about their lives, while we waited for AAA.” “I spent a year in a horrible job but learned everything I needed to make the next job my dream job.”

Use your gratitude to appreciate the lessons you learn from perceived negative consequences.

The Dalai Lama, kiss-your-enemy level of gratitude. When you can divorce the results and your emotional response to those results from the learning, then you have snatched the pebble from my hand. I can teach you no more. Go into the world, grasshopper. You have reached the highest level of gratitude.

Spare yourself endless mental gymnastics with harmful paradigms.

Instead, change your paradigms! Use the energy and stress from previous paradigms, redirected in a new positive direction. New ideas and new paradigms may provoke hostility, but that means you are on the right track. They will help reduce your burnout. You are now mentally fit. Does your body match?

~taken from: “The Doctor is Burned Out: A Physicians Guide to Recovery” – Jeff Moody, MD 

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