Note: for a great recap of everything we’ve talked about so far in the series, see last week’s post.

Gratitude is the best antidote for stress I have found. Not feeling nebulously grateful, or doing a three-item gratitude list every night, but finding gratitude for things within the stressors themselves.

• Has an old pattern reared its ugly head in some way? It’s an opportunity to heal the originating wound, or to do it differently this time!
• Is your partner stressing you out? Remind yourself of all the things about them that you are grateful for.
• Waking up in the middle of the night? Instead of getting more stressed out, use the time to work on a low-energy creative project you’ve been putting off.

Why do you stay in the situations that bring you stress? Remind yourself of them, not to make yourself feel trapped, but to see where the goodness is for which you can be grateful. Gratitude helps you refocus and can relieve stress better than any other tool. Stop saying you have to do things and start saying you get to do those things.

If all else fails, write a gratitude list. Not 3 or 5 or 10 items; write a 50 item gratitude list. Do it every night for 21 days. Some of the things can repeat, because you continue to be grateful for them. You can be grateful for good hair days, or forks (think about it – how awesome are forks?!), or the fact that you’ve got things you can try, so that you can make your life better. 21 days is the length of time most spiritual practitioners feel is necessary to rewire the brain, by the way.

So rewire your brain! You might find it’s actually easier than removing all the things from your life that are stressing you out…