“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off movie)
As we approach Thanksgiving, I thought it would be timely to review how the practice of gratitude can have a positive impact in living our every day lives.
It can be easy to get swept away in the every day routine and forget to realize how good your life is – Today.
You may find yourself caught up in the latest news (which is almost always negative), the next To Do on your list and/or your next deliverable for work.
On top of this, you may find yourself stuck in the past or, planning for the future.
But what about Today – right now, what are you grateful for?
We are currently living the COVID-19 global pandemic and there’s a lot of things we would like to be doing and, we can’t.
Now, more than ever, it is important that we recognize what is good in our “Today” life because I am sure you have a lot to be grateful for. Your health, home, family, friends you can reach out to via video/text/telephone, etc.
So, how do you practice this thing called gratitude and why should you bother implementing this in your every day life?
Being grateful is a habit.
It is about appreciating the good things/people that are in your life.
At first it might feel awkward because you might be thinking “of course I’m grateful for this, who wouldn’t be”.
But, that’s not what this is about – – this is about you intentionally speaking and/or writing specific items that you are thankful for. The key here is specifics.
It can be something that you might take for granted – – for example, your morning cup of coffee that your partner brewed and is ready by the time you wake up.
3 Ways Gratitude Improves Your Every Day Life:
1. Gratitude will increase your self esteem and resilience.
Studies have shown that self-esteem and resilience increase when we emit the frequency of gratitude. It is a positive emotion that triggers feel good feelings. And right now, during this pandemic, we could really use more of this.
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. – Willie Nelson
2. Gratitude will attract abundance into your life.
Gratitude attracts abundance by focusing on the positives that you have in your life and bringing more of it into your life.
Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things. – Rhonda Byrne
3. Gratitude will result in you living a happy life.
Adopting an attitude of gratitude increases positive emotions and, it helps to sustain it.
“If you want to find happiness, find gratitude.” – Steve Maraboli
3 Ways to Incorporate the Gratitude Habit into your Every day Life
Of the research that I did on the topic of gratitude, the following are my top 3 key take aways for introducing gratitude into your everyday life:
1. Gratitude Affirmation Statements. See How to Use Affirmations to Improve Your Life for details on how to write affirmation statements.
2. Gratitude Journal. Write in your journal or on a sticky note daily morning and/or evening. You may want to use a trigger to remember to do it daily – in your calendar app on your phone or a sticky note.
3. Say “Thank You”. To your family/room mates/friends. To the front line workers who are working during this pandemic. To yourself, for living another day with hope that you will come out the other side of this pandemic stronger because of it.
“With a sense of gratitude, I see the world in a new light. Each day is an opportunity and, a gift. “
I am grateful to you for reading this post. Thank you. I hope it inspires you to start a gratitude practice that will lead you to living your best life, today and in your future.
Remember,
