Michael J. Fox recently said, “With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.” If you don’t know about Fox’s battle with Parkinson’s Disease, I highly recommend you read about his journey, but I want to focus on this specific quote for a moment because I haven’t been able to forget it since I first heard the beloved actor say the words.

“With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.

Micheal J. Fox

This quote hit me right in the soul.

Even when I’m afraid of losing all that I have, I try to be grateful for what I’ve been given. I recognize the magnitude of those gifts, and while I hate the term “blessed,” I know that I am a privileged person who has so much for which to be thankful.

After I started to journal consistently this year, I added a gratitude list to my practice. It’s a simple statement: “6-10-2022 Today I am grateful that…” The list is full of small things (I took a walk with Indy Dog) and big things (my family is healthy). Here are some reasons why this gratitude list is helping my mental health.

Three Reasons I Keep a Gratitude List for My Mental Health

1. Take a moment. Gratitude can easily go by the wayside when I’m not mindful of it. Writing down one thing I’m grateful for every day forces me to stop and think. That pause gives me a moment to reflect and choose what is meaningful for the day.
2. Dig deeper. My gratitude list isn’t meant to be repetitive. I will always be grateful for God, my family, my job, my home, and the stability I’ve been given. Thinking about what I’m grateful for each day means that I have to look at the whole picture and find something that stands out. I take a quick inventory of the big and small things, and acknowledge something that stands out at the moment.
3. Log and reflect. Keeping a list of those gratitude moments gives me a chance to reflect on what I’ve been given and what I’ve been grateful for over the past few months. The list is there as a daily reminder that life has goodness, even when the darkness creeps in.

Has my gratitude list turned me into an optimist? No. I still have negative thought patterns, even sometimes catastrophic thinking that assumes the worst is going to happen.

Writing in my gratitude list gives me a time to pause and delve deeper into my life and to keep a record of the goodness. The more I practice gratitude, the more mindful I will become of all the reasons to be grateful, and I have to believe that by cultivating more gratitude in my life, I will be able to sustain more optimism, just as Fox said.