Beating Burnout, Finding Balance

CHAPTER 8ON GRATITUDE AND COMPASSION

To regain balance in your life, one of the most powerful practices you can adopt is an attitude of gratitude. Practising gratitude simply means noticing and appreciating many of the good things that surround you in your life as opposed to all of the ‘not so good’ things. Ultimately, we all have a choice and it us up to us to decide what we tune into in our life. This not only affects our psychology but also our physiology. When we focus on the stress and negativity in our life our body releases stress chemicals. The opposite is true when we practise gratitude: our bodies release ‘feel-good’ chemicals and hormones. I know what I'd rather have swirling around in my body — how about you? Once you start tuning in to the goodness that surrounds you every day, it can have enormous wellbeing benefits, including boosting your physical and mental health, improving your relationships and your self-esteem, and many more benefits, which we will discuss in this chapter.

To regain balance in your life, one of the most powerful practices you can adopt is an attitude of gratitude.

Masai Mara, Kenya

How did I end up here? I can't breathe. I feel like I'm suffocating from the smoke and I'm trapped inside a small home, in the Masai Mara.

While travelling through the Mara national game reserve, a very kind Masai family offered me their bed for the night in their ‘manyatta’, which is a traditional Masai family home made from sticks, clay and cow dung. ...