“Why should I count my blessings?” Well, your quality of life depends on it. At the very least, look back at how you were when you had a bad mood or were in low spirits. It prevented you from enjoying many of the events around you, right?

Look at why you should count your blessings instead of sheep when sleeping.

Negative thoughts can also cause one to skip out on opportunities and even affect relationships close to one. Angry outbursts caused by strenuous conditions can strain interactions with one's close friends and family.

On the other hand, positive thinking changes your emotional state and gradually sets you up to be more emotionally stable. This will have a net positive effect on your day-to-day life.

Counting your blessings also helps to give you reassurance. Jotting down the things that you are grateful for will enable you to realize that you have so much more than you think and allow you to see things in a new light.

Value Of Counting Your Blessings

Plenty of psychological literature has gone into the study of the benefits of being grateful:

A 2003 study by Emmons and McCullough had participants maintain a diary with a list of gratitude for the different events in their lives. They would jot down the various items routinely. The patients with an assortment of neural diseases reported that they experienced fewer pains and aches by the end of the study.

In 2011, Nancy Digdon carried out a study involving gratitude journals. Here, every evening, the students took 15 minutes to write what they were grateful for. This resulted in the students enjoying their sleep for longer hours and having fewer day-to-day worries.

In 2016, a study by Prathik Kini and other Indiana University researchers had participants writing letters expressing their gratitude. Brain scans were used to study this impact on its functioning, such as with the medial prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain is involved in retaining memories and making decisions.

After three months, this specific area was affected, though more research is still required to pinpoint the relation in which gratitude improves a person’s thoughts and reasoning capacities.

Needs vs. Wants

One of the main problems affecting people today is the difficulty of differentiating between what you need and what you want. Some things in life are necessary, like water, food, shelter, and clothing.

These necessities should not be taken for granted. Remember that not everyone has them and that alone should give one more perspective.

However, in the current day and age, people want to get onto the next best thing—from the latest gizmo or product release, high-end computers to fast cars—and get caught up in the wave, becoming frustrated when these desires are unmet.

While it’s good to have them, your survival does not depend on them. Feeling miserable because you aren’t living the glamorous Insta-life that your friends are will negatively impact your quality of life in the long run.

When Life Deals You A Tough Hand

Then there are those cases where a series of unfortunate events has pushed you to the edge. Cutthroat competition at the workplace, business failures, layoffs, illnesses—these understandably put a strain on you.

We face challenges such as relationships not working out, mounting debts, and income issues that prevent us from achieving financial stability. Ignoring the blessings causes us to focus on our problems rather than our solutions.

When your mind dwells on the difficulties, it makes them appear larger than they are. You build up despair, resentment, and anger and find yourself in a situation where you’re frustrated, discouraged, and stressed.

This is as opposed to listing the blessings you have in life from the people, places, and experiences. As your list grows—item by item, you will radiate. This puts you in a better position to make decisions and take concrete steps to handle your problems.

Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep—Irvin Berlin

Does the title sound familiar? This popular song was written by Irvin, an American composer and lyricist, and used in the 1954 film White Christmas. The song advances the relationship between the film's characters with a material theme that urges you to remember how much you are blessed instead of focusing on short-term problems that rob you of your joy and mental peace.

The song was drawn from Irvin's personal experience. He was struggling with insomnia that had been brought on by stress. His doctor visited him and suggested that he should try counting his blessings.

Here is a snippet of its lyrics that point to the peace that comes with focusing on your blessings amidst the daily struggles that many of us face:

“When I'm worried, And I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep, And I fall asleep, Counting my blessings.

When my bankroll, Is gettin' small, I think of when I had none at all. And I fall asleep, Counting my blessings.”

The song “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” got a nomination for the “Best Original Song” Academy Award, which is presented to songwriters for their work explicitly done to feature in films. This award is given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Counting My Blessings—A Reminder To Be Grateful

What are you thankful for? Is it friends or family? Are you in good health? Are you making ends meet?

Whichever the case, it is essential to be grateful for your blessings instead of taking them for granted.

Sometimes, people don’t appreciate things, taking good fortunes and blessings for granted—until they are gone. “Well, you only need the light when it's burning low; only miss the sun when it starts to snow.” 

So count your blessings instead of sheep whenever you tuck in for the night. Whether small or large, we need to be thankful for the blessings in our lives.