How to Practice Gratitude in Your PT Practice this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving isn’t just another festival, there’s a lot of science that goes behind it, and every therapist will recommend you to celebrate it with a whole heart. A little appreciation can significantly improve your mood. When you express gratitude, you divert your attention from unpleasant feelings and sensations. Instead, you start to pay attention to the positive aspects that you might have missed.

For instance, you may not like getting up for work early in the morning, but when it’s time to buy an expensive accessory for yourself, you might thank your job for making your wishes come true. Or, on a bad day, you can be grateful for your family or friends who have your back, and the list can go on and on.

When you focus on the positive implications of life, your brain releases happy hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. Recognising gratitude also lowers stress hormone levels. An improvement in mood and a decrease in anxiety are the immediate effects. Furthermore, Long-term gratitude practice may also permanently alter your brain, preparing you to appreciate more.

Why Should You Celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Your Physical Therapy Practice?

If you are a physical therapist, practising gratitude becomes all the way more important. Not only because of the stressful job but because of your high-functioning who make it possible for you to carry on with your physical therapy practice.

How Can You Practice Gratitude?

#1. Have a Physical Therapy Session for Your Staff

Exercises that help people feel good emotions and focus on recognising the positive things in life are used in gratitude practices. It is all about celebrating each victory of your body, no matter how modest. These routines encourage people to focus on one positive emotion or action, which elevates observation to a new level.

Bonus point: This step can also be practised even with video physio consultation feature offered by the best software for physical therapy.
Wanna know how? Request a free demo today!!

Moreover, when you are together with all your staff in a room, it creates a sense of compassion among the employees. The feeling of togetherness will spread a sense of love and laughter all around, along with the exercise of the body. By bringing attention to the aches that we were too busy to pay heed to in our day-to-day lives. You can find ways to lessen them and understand where they come from by taking some time to perform a mental body scan. We all need to take a moment to relax and acknowledge our emotions occasionally.

#2. Maintain a Gratitude Journal

This Thanksgiving day, you can spend around half an hour each day or bi-weekly writing about the things you are grateful for in a gratitude journal. There is no right or wrong approach to take in this situation, and it is also not time-consuming.

• List five things for which you are grateful right now.
• You must document this exercise physically rather than just mentally.
• Give as many details as you can.
• Give depth more weight than breadth.
• Make it your own.
• Try subtracting instead of just adding.
• Good things should be viewed as gifts.
• Spend some time relishing surprises.
• Regular writing can be daily or weekly.

#3. Bless Yourself and Your Staff with Physical Therapy Software

Undoubtedly, you and your staff work really hard to make ends meet to help patients achieve their fitness goals and get a high client satisfaction rate. This Thanksgiving day, you can get your physical therapy clinic equipped with the best software for physical therapy.

The software will help you with the cumbersome paperwork and hefty documentation process, scheduling, digital patient intake, video physiotherapy consultations, boosting the patient activation and retention rate, getting to know your physical therapy clinic’s analytics, and much more. One of the best software for physical therapy is SmartPT Online which can shape and level up your clinic with its cutting-edge technology and easy-to-use interface.

#4. Take Walks of Gratitude

As said by Hippocrates, “Walking is the best medicine,” we can include this to practice gratitude on Thanksgiving day. Among other things, a walk can enhance the immune, brain, and cardiovascular health.

These advantages are combined with gratitude cultivation on savouring walks, also known as gratitude walks. When you walk in gratitude, you are basically calm and grateful. Practising this for just half an hour will significantly increase the happy hormones in your body.  Also remember that as you move, pay attention to your breathing and take in your surroundings.

#5. Practice Gratitude Meditation

The benefits of gratitude meditation for well-being are twofold. You are simultaneously engaging in two of the most effective happiness practices. Meditation isn’t always simple, especially when the mind is actively diverting your attention and wandering, but if you practise this type of meditation regularly, you can expect to notice remarkable increases in gratitude and joy.

During a gratitude meditation, as opposed to a typical meditation where you deliberately become aware of your breath and maintain mental clarity, you imagine all the things in your life for which you are grateful.

The Bottom Line

Whatever method you use to start, remember that the more gratitude you express, the healthier you will become. According to numerous studies, gratitude is strongly and consistently linked to greater happiness. So spread the word and be thankful and the team SmartPT wishes you a happy Thanksgiving Day!