Meeting Social Anxiety with Gratitude​

At The Steve Fund, we welcome every November as a time for practicing and expressing gratitude. With the Thanksgiving holiday and the closing of the calendar year, it is a good time to take account of all that we have to be grateful for—be it health, family and friends, or simply the sunrise.

• Count your blessings—every day! This is the easiest and most effective way to bring more gratitude to your life. Make an extra effort to notice or count a new blessing on a daily basis. This practice will make showing and feeling gratitude fresh, and help to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

• Create a gratitude jar. A small box in your backpack or a glass jar on your desk is a great way to capture the little things that make you smile throughout the day. On a scrap of paper, write down the things you feel grateful for, the things that lift your spirits, or the things that make you laugh. As a bonus, when you are feeling down, read what made earlier days brighter.

• Send a message of thanks. Reach out with a short text to a friend or family member thanking them for doing something that you appreciated–whether it was a thoughtful action or just being a text away. Studies show that this simple practice can help you feel better sooner when you are dealing with mental health issues.