Finding Steadiness Through Gratitude

How Small Moments of Appreciation Support Mental Health and Healing

1. When Life Feels Unsteady, Gratitude Can Be an Anchor

During seasons of loss, transition, or uncertainty, it can feel impossible to notice what’s still good in life. When everything familiar shifts—after the death of a loved one, the unraveling of a relationship, or even quieter changes like retirement or relocation—our nervous system longs for something steady.

Gratitude can become that anchor.

It’s more than simply “being thankful.” Gratitude is a mindset, a gentle practice of returning our attention to what sustains us. It softens the edges of anxiety, depression, and emotional overwhelm by helping us orient toward connection and safety in the present moment.

In somatic grief healing, gratitude allows us to reconnect with the body’s natural rhythms. With practice, we begin to notice that safety and goodness still coexist with our pain—and that awareness is deeply regulating for the nervous system.

Each evening, write down three small things that brought comfort today. Over time, these moments become anchors of resilience.

2. How Gratitude Nourishes the Mind and Calms the Body

Science supports what many of us intuitively feel: focusing on appreciation rewires the brain. Gratitude activates positive neural pathways that release serotonin and dopamine—our “feel-good” hormones—while lowering stress hormones like cortisol.

Over time, this shift in attention supports emotional balance and enhances resilience. It becomes easier to access moments of calm, even when grief and anxiety feel close at hand. In trauma-informed grief support, gratitude can serve as a bridge between survival and restoration—helping us experience the possibility of joy again, one breath at a time.

3. Gentle Ways to Welcome Gratitude Into Your Day

There’s no single “right” way to practice gratitude. What matters most is consistency and authenticity. Here are a few gentle ideas to begin:

• 🌿 Morning Moments: Before getting out of bed, place a hand on your heart and name one thing that brings you comfort—your dog’s steady breathing, the warmth of sunlight, or a favorite memory with a loved one.

• ✍️ Evening Reflection: Write down three things you appreciated about your day. They don’t need to be big—sometimes “a quiet cup of tea” is enough.

• 💛 Body-Based Gratitude: Notice how your body carries you through the day. Offer thanks for your breath, your feet, your heart. This is body-based grief healing in motion.

• 🌸 Ritual of Remembering: If you’re navigating your first Christmas without a loved one, light a candle and say their name. Allow gratitude and grief to coexist.

These small practices help regulate the nervous system, grounding you when grief during the holidays feels heavy or isolating.

4. How Coaching Creates Space for Gratitude to Grow

Sometimes gratitude feels out of reach—and that’s okay. This is where emotional wellness coaching can help.

In grief coaching online or within Zoom grief support groups, coaching offers a compassionate structure to explore what’s getting in the way—perhaps unresolved trauma, burnout, or the inner voice that says you don’t deserve peace.

A skilled coach helps you slow down, listen to the body, and reframe experiences with compassion. Through trauma-informed grief support, you begin to rebuild trust with yourself, transforming gratitude from an abstract idea into a lived, embodied experience.

Many clients who join an online workshop or grief healing retreat discover that gratitude becomes a doorway—not to bypass pain, but to integrate it into a fuller, more compassionate life.

5. When Gratitude Feels Far Away

There are days when gratitude feels like a foreign language. When you’ve lost someone dear, when your body is weary from caregiving, or when you’re simply exhausted from holding it all together—it’s natural to feel disconnected.

Practicing gratitude in those moments isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about gently choosing presence over numbness. Over time, this slow returning shapes the mind toward possibility and steadiness.

Gratitude, like grief, is a practice of returning—again and again—to what matters.

6. Honoring Both Pain and Beauty: Gratitude Is Not Toxic Positivity

It’s important to name that gratitude is not toxic positivity. Toxic positivity denies pain and demands that we “look on the bright side.” Gratitude, in contrast, honors the full spectrum of human experience. It says: I can hold sorrow and beauty at the same time.

True gratitude invites honesty. It makes space for tears, fatigue, and longing alongside appreciation. In this way, gratitude becomes a pathway to integration—a gentle balancing of the nervous system through awareness and acceptance.

7. Begin Your Own Gratitude Journey

If you’re ready to explore how gratitude can support your grief and trauma healing, you don’t have to do it alone. Coaching offers a compassionate container to help you reconnect with joy, appreciation, and your own embodied wisdom.

✨ Schedule a discovery consult today to begin your journey toward greater peace and presence through somatic grief healing and body-based grief support.

Together, we’ll explore simple practices to nurture emotional balance, regulate the nervous system, and rediscover the small, quiet joys that make life feel meaningful again.

Dawn M. Geoppinger, Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach

Dawn M. Geoppinger is a Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach based in Portland, Oregon, with a strong foundation of over two decades of professional experience in public administration, education, and the nonprofit sector. She specializes in grief education, somatic movement, breathwork, and mindfulness, integrating evidence-based approaches such as somatic practices, post-traumatic growth and woman-centered principles to help clients reconnect with themselves, regulate their nervous systems, and honor the full spectrum of loss and healing. Through her practice, The Embodied Grief Journey™, Dawn provides compassionate, expert support both in person and online—creating safe, nurturing spaces for individuals to explore grief, resilience, and embodied healing.

As the days grow shorter, this is a season for slowing down and noticing what still warms the heart. Gratitude doesn’t erase grief—but it can bring light to the spaces it touches.

If you’re longing for support, you’ll find gentle offerings waiting for you: the First Christmas Without workshop, the Grieving Through the Holidays course, and the Holiday Support Circles—each created to hold your heart through this season.

May these spaces remind you that gratitude and grief can coexist. That healing happens softly.
And that you don’t have to walk this path alone.

✨ Schedule your discovery consult to begin your own gratitude practice and reconnect with steadiness, warmth, and peace.