Tag: history

The Benefits of Gratitude Journaling And History of Gratitude

Published on by The April Diaries1 Comment

Something that Hugh Jackman swears by every morning, before he even gets out of bed, is gratitude journaling. I can attest that this method of rewiring my brain to be grateful and blissful each day is not only a fun practice but can easily help you get out of a funk.

I’ve been recently trying to change my routine in which I am helping people in my nutrition counseling programs and volunteering my time at We Share Hope to overcome food insecurity. While these seem like positive changes upfront, the change of a routine actually causes cognitive dissonance within the brain. This is, unfortunately, the way for everybody. It’s the same concept when you are trying to change up your diet. Your body just freaks the freak out! (Not to mention give you excess flatulence — yikes!)

The tool(s) that have been helping me are not only keeping myself busy and knowing I’m making positive changes, but also gratitude journaling. Even by listing 3-10 things you are grateful for, you are already putting yourself in that euphoric state, which can set the tone for your entire day. How you spend your mornings affect how your day is going to be.

Now, where exactly did gratitude journaling come about? Well, first of all, gratitude journaling first came about thanks to author Sarah Ban Breathnach. According to a study reported by Mindful.org, gratitude journaling can lead to better sleep and lower blood pressure. With that said, just gratitude journal for health’s sake. And being the neuroscience nerd that I am, gratitude actually boosts serotonin and activates the hypothalamus to produce dopamine. Dopamine is what is known as the “pleasure chemical.” The hormone gratitude releases is oxytocin, also known as the “love drug.”

The word, itself, “gratitude” comes from the Latin word, “gratus” which means “pleasing,” “welcome,” and “agreeable.” The term “gratus” also relates to terms such as “grace” or “gratuity.” Gratitude has been practiced by Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu traditions. (Does anyone else find it strange how Catholicism is not mentioned? There must be some reason. 🤔) Gratitude was first used in the 16th century. The Bible actually mentions gratitude a whopping 157 times. Fun fact: the term “fear not” is used in the Bible 365 times, which as we all know is the same amount of days within a year. Think about this the next time you pray: fear not all year ’round.

With that all said, I invite you to pray and reflect with me: “One friend sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). Let’s be grateful for all that we have, even if it’s how our hair feels after a much-needed shower.

MORE LIKE THIS: 10 Dorothy Day Quotes For Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, Never Let Anyone Tell You That You’re Not Good Enough, Self Love In Bleak Times, Go Little Rockstar: It’s Ready, It’s Yours, You Did It

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BOOK REVIEW: “Choice” by Jodi Picoult | A stunningly perfect commentary on Roe v. Wade Overturn

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Content warning: Sexual Assault, Abortion

I used to avoid the news like the plague, but that’s similar to avoiding getting COVID in a worldwide pandemic, no matter how hard you try. I still know people who are getting Swine Flu after all these years.

If you’re living in the USA, you’d know that there had been a serious turn of events of Roe v. Wade. In American history, Roe v. Wade is a law that decriminalized abortion, arguing that that only criminalizing the termination of an unwonted pregnancy would be unconstitutional for women.

This blog post comes at the perfect time, when human rights are being challenged more than ever. But let’s be real, when are they not being challenged? So it seems, at least. Who better than profound author, Jodi Picoult, would provide a stunningly perfect commentary on this overturn on women’s rights. She thusly wrote an audible book called Choice, and I’m going to spoil it right now: a cisgender lawyer MALE gets pregnant, and he goes through every injustice that a cisgender, nonbinary, and transgender female goes through when they are pregnant. You’re probably thinking, that’s biologically impossible. It is impossible; this is a book we’re talking about, though. Literary commentary. The power of voice. Jodi Picoult ever so accurately depicts a lawyer named James who discovers he is, in fact, pregnant in a fictional world where no cisgender, nonbinary, nor transgender woman could get pregnant. Instead, it’s men who have to suffer the severe injustices that come with pregnancy. Unfortunately, in his state, there is nothing that medics can do about it because of the new law that overturned what is presumably Roe v. Wade.

One poignant scene, that traveled through my ears via Audible, was the scene in which James is passed up for the promotion that was promised to him months prior, but was given to his female colleague, instead. What was ironic, was that James had supposedly seen women get passed up for promotions. It reminded me of the time when my mother said that she had to go back to work just six weeks after giving birth to my older brother in 1987. “I went through every injustice a female executive went through,” said my mother over dinner.

I would argue what every woman argues on social media, “if you don’t have a uterus, you do NOT get to comment/make laws about a woman’s body.” Period. End of sentence. But here’s another argument that I make, in light of Picoult’s prominent story: imagine if it were you suffering your own consequences. As someone who worked in Title IX, I can easily argue that both men and women, regardless of how you identify, can both be victims of sexual assault and abuse, no doubt. That’s one of the reasons why I was conflicted about the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard case, while some people had stronger opinions on it. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t care. I did. I’m no lawyer, but I can easily argue both sides of a case.

When it comes to pregnancy, I can say that I’ve never been pregnant. But as Jodi Picoult said wrote in Choices, “[it’s a] twenty-first century Scarlet Letter, and a man will think twice before entering his victim’s bedroom at night.”

Cisgender lawmakers, if you’re reading this, I hope you will listen to Choices and think twice about your own choices, not just based on what your political party ostensibly believes.

If you, or any one you know is a victim of sexual assault, please direct yourself or them to: https://www.rainn.org/resources and/or dial 800.656.HOPE (4673).

Confessions Can Help | Women’s History Month

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CW: This post contains content about mental health and sexual assault. Resources are the bottom of page.

A lot of people are probably “still processing last March,” as the memes say. However, I think this month is already pretty monumental, especially for women. It is Women’s History Month, after all. With that being said, we should celebrate women every day. After a tumultuous year, and one year since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, we may have even more to celebrate.

On Sunday night, while chowing down on my bacon cheese fries from Classic Pizza, my mom and I were watching Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Harry. Simultaneously, social media was blowing up along with every word Meghan said. Mental health, I think, is something that wasn’t so much touched in the media, however. Mental health often goes unlooked, and I don’t know why I’m still surprised at the fact that people can be so inconsiderate to the topic. As a matter of fact, I just read an article about taking mental health days and why they seriously matter in terms of attaining clarity. You won’t get anything done with a clouded mind. And you definitely won’t get anything done when your mental health, at large, is going to sh*t. It’s even worse when you’re stuck in a toxic environment, like Meghan was. Markle begged for help, and the institution wouldn’t give it to her because it just “wouldn’t look good.” They lied to her when they said she’d be protected. Protection and security are ultimately what we, women, want in life, and that may look different for everybody. But needless to say, there are a lot of parallels to Meghan and Princess Diana. And boy, do I have a lot of opinions of Prince Charles. 😡 Harry was absolutely right when he said he didn’t want that (still) raw piece of history to repeat itself. So, he didn’t let that happen to his wife. Harry really is the husband that Diana needed.

In third grade, I had a fascination with Oprah. This began with a Black History Month book report. Oprah was interesting to me because she was a “troubled teenager,” but you really have to understand why. She was molested by her father as a kid, and she additionally grew up impoverished. It wasn’t until the age of thirty-two that she became a millionaire. Something I didn’t know, was that she opened up the doors to “confession culture.” Huh. That’s maybe because self-help was frowned upon in the ’90s, at least that what’s conveyed to Charlotte in a Sex and the City episode. However, what Oprah probably had in the back of her mind, was that these so-called “confessions” could actually help people. That’s exactly what I aim to do on this blog, too. Personal experience does help people.

Nevertheless, I idolized Oprah in secret. I wanted to be a journalist until I was whisked away by outside distractions. I realize, now, that it’s women like Oprah who inspire me to tell stories and women like Meghan Markle who inspire me to convey parts of my story that were left untold.

Resources:

https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline