Certificate in Bereavement and Loss – Learner Reflection by Niamh

Thank you, Niamh, for permission to share your reflection and written piece in response to Unit 6 and Task 4 on our Certificate in Bereavement and Loss course. You can undertake this course at your own pace and from home, commencing at any time during the year.

Unit 6, Task 4:
As your final task in this Unit, I would like you to spend time reflecting on your current life situation.
Use a ritual, custom, tradition to improve your situation. Decide what you are going to do, whom with, how, where, and when, be as creative and sensual as you feel is appropriate.
Please write 500 words on your experience and forward photos, material used etc. (Examples: a letter to self or other, a bath ritual, a dinner ritual with self or friends, a ritual in nature etc.)

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This task I really enjoyed! Over the years I have always felt thankful. I have mostly expressed gratitude in my thoughts. For this task I wanted to try something new and creative that would improve my life situation. I decided to create a gratitude jar for one week. Each time I experienced a poignant moment of gratitude; I wrote it on a piece of paper with the date and put it in my jar. I decided to write down 20 things each day. At the end of the week, I emptied the jar and reviewed everything that I wrote (Please see the contents of my jar below). Whilst I had decided to do this task by myself, by the end of the week my whole family were involved. “That is one for the gratitude jar” is the new phrase in my home – which I love! It immediately makes the moment more meaningful, and we are now always on the lookout now for more things to be grateful for! I plan to keep OUR gratitude jar going for the New Year ahead! This activity has become a positive new habit in my home.

Completing this task has reminded me that the benefits of expressing gratitude are endless. Taking the time to notice and reflect upon the things that I am thankful for has allowed me to experience more positive emotions, express more compassion and kindness, improved my well-being and my overall mood and life satisfaction. I really feel like a better person. It also positively impacted my whole family. While there are things in my life that I am grateful for every day, such as family and friends, I purposefully opened my eyes more to the world around me to notice new things every single day. Mostly it was just the simple things I felt thankful for, and it was nice to share these moments with others. 

This task prompted me to review the literature related to the impact of gratitude on our health. There is research to show that when we think about what we appreciate, the parasympathetic part of our nervous system is triggered and that can have protective benefits on the body, including increasing cortisol levels and perhaps increasing oxytocin, the bonding hormone involved in relationships that make us feel so good. The benefits of expressing gratitude in whatever way works for a person is an important resource that I will continue to explore when working when clients experiencing mental distress. I think that too often we tend to focus on things that we don’t have, rather than on the things that we have, and we need to purposefully take the time to be thankful for the many things that we take for granted.

My Daily Gratitude Jar