V. Can I Use Gratitude and Savouring with other treatments to help with my anxiety?
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Gratitude and savouring exercises should be part of your total effort to increase happiness because they make you more resilient to stress and anxiety. As you have seen in this lesson, there are many ways that being thankful can help combat stress and address the negative effects that anxiety can bring. The mood-enhancing benefits of being grateful and savouring pleasure can improve psychological wellbeing which then also allows you to take advantage of other anxiety treatments. When using these exercises as part of your treatment plan for anxiety, you should keep the following in mind:
- Developing gratitude and enjoying life has been proven to increase happiness and counteract the negative effects of anxiety. For other positive exercises, please see Positive Thinking, Meaning and Spirituality, and Good Sleep.
- By simple daily or weekly exercises to generate more gratitude, it can change your view, not only of yourself, but others, and life in general. This can be combined with Cognitive Therapies, which employs an organized approach to diminish negative thoughts. It helps if you need to address negative or worried perceptions before using positive interventions.
- As greater gratitude is associated with better immunity, physiological health and increased physical activity, these interventions can be combined with Physical Exercise to maximise their anxiety-reduction benefits.
- Mindfulness Relaxation Exercise, or the ability to focus on the present and ignore criticisms, not only can help reduce stress, but it can also open the way for developing greater gratitude, savouring, and forgiveness. Please see Relaxation Exercises for ways to lower your level of anxiety, focus your mind and live for the moment.
After trying other therapies or combining them with these exercises, you may find that the exercises presented in this lesson are all you need for your level of anxiety. If you find these are sufficient, you can always use gratitude and savouring exercises by themselves without other therapies.