Nowadays, there are increasing concerns about mental health. More and more people find themselves feeling internally slowed, stymied, or even sabotaged by their own emotions, desires, hurts, hang-ups, and overall conditionings — all of which point to an unhealthy mind. 

Our mind is meant to be a tool for perception. While there may be many things wrong in our life both externally and internally, there are also many things that are right. Gratitude is the characteristic of the mind that realizes and relishes many good and right things in life and triggers a positive appreciative state of mind. Indeed, a grateful mind is a healthy mind.  

But what if our mind is unhealthy, and we neither see nor feel grateful for the things that are right in our life? That’s where we can tap the healing and restoring power of gratitude: it can be an exercise for making our minds healthy. Prominently, the Bhagavad-gita (17.16) urges us to cultivate contentment as a mental discipline. 

That means we consciously, even conscientiously, strive to look for what is good in life, even if such looking requires effort. Such a purposeful shifting of our consciousness from what is wrong to what is right will create the corresponding impressions in our mind. By noting and rejoicing in what is right in our life, we gain a steady foundation for working constructively: to protect what is right and to make more things right as per our capacity. 

Gradually, as we habituate ourselves to looking for what is good and right in our life, and as the corresponding impressions within us become stronger, then gratitude will become a more natural and easier emotion for us to cultivate and relish. Thus, our mind will become increasingly prompted, even propelled, toward a more healthy state. 

Summary: 

Gratitude is not just an expression of a healthy mind; it is also an exercise for making our minds healthy. 

Think it over:

  • What does a healthy mind do, as contrasted with an unhealthy mind?
  • How is gratitude the expression of a healthy mind?
  • How can gratitude be an exercise for making our mind healthy?

Audio explanation of the article is here: https://gitadaily.substack.com/p/two-connections-between-gratitude

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17.16: And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.

Two connections between gratitude and mental health

To know more about this verse, please click on the image