Let’s start with Gratitude
Gratitude; the optimum way to be successful and live a happy life.
Are you grateful for your existing life? – I am only taking YES for this question. Let’s quickly list down first 5 things strikes to you that you are grateful about or could be 5 people to whom you would like to say ‘thank you’ for making your life a bit more happier or convenient:
What is gratitude?
The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. It means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures and acknowledging everything that you receive. For some people praying is the highest form of gratitude and for others it’s simpler like appreciating the things you have. Gratitude is focusing on the good in our lives which constantly reminds us about the great things all around us to be thankful for. Gratitude is not forcing positive emotions aka toxic positivity or telling ourselves others have it worse. When you are grateful, you are happy & you become magnet to happy people, happy situations & happy events in your life. As the law of attraction author Rhonda Byrne says Gratitude is the bridge from misery to happiness and from despair and loneliness to a life filled with love, joy and amazing relationships.
It’s also defined as a concept than simply expressing thanks, ‘gratitude’ can be defined as a positive emotional reaction, it’s to look out for the good things in life and appreciating the valuable and meaningful things in our lives.
Now, with the help of a small exercise you will be able to find how gratitude helps us in analyzing life from a different perspective:
- Thank yourself for three things that happened to your life recently.
- Thank the people who have helped you to overcome a difficult time.
- Thank your existing or past job/business opportunities that has provided you whatever quality of life that you are leading right now.
Why should I practice Gratitude?
– Positive psychology research demonstrates that gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.
– Gratitude will boost physical and psychological health, improve sleep quality, raise self-esteem, reduce aggression, increase empathy & social connection and upgrade your mental strength.
– Inevitably gratitude gives you lasting happiness.
– It is something that leads to much more sustainable forms of happiness, because it is not based on immediate gratification; it’s a frame of mind. This helps you build a grateful mindset.
– People who regularly express gratitude for the positive things in their life are shown to be happier overall, leading to lowest rates of stress and depression.
A generic example to express your gratitude every morning:
- I am ALIVE! Thank you!
- Thank you for this new day!
- I am blessed to have people who love & care for me.
- I am grateful for my family & friends.
- I’m filled with happiness & gratitude.
- I am a grateful person everyday.
- Thank you for the blessings this day will bring.
Once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack. We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude, isn’t it? Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions, it helps even if you don’t share it. If you are being thankful to someone or for something you do not need to be all out & loud about expressing it always. Just knowing and acknowledging that you are grateful is enough to push away the adversities. It immensely benefits mental health & drifts you away from the low-vibe emotions taking you to high-vibe high frequency emotions & thus you would attract all good things in your life. By nature, humans have a negative bias. You might have heard a dozen good things about you, but just one moment of criticism however becomes the show stopper, doesn’t it? For that one not-so-good comment or compliment we start validating ourselves & might run out of confidence too. This is that exact moment where your low-vibe emotion could be transitioned to higher frequency emotion by saying thank you to all your good qualities you believe you have within. P.S – Introspect harder within if in these low-vibe moments you are struggling to find what’s good about you!
Do you know the difference between the words thankful and grateful? – Gratefulness is an active expression whereas being “thankful” is a passive form of feeling. Gratefulness is independent, deep, and long-term, while thankfulness is dependent, surface-level, and short-lived. Being thankful is a response while being grateful is a choice.
How a simple practice of gratitude could enhance your life!
How to start practicing Gratitude everyday?
- First easy step could be to start noticing good things, at times you might need to look for them. If you could think as of now what is the best thing in your life? Think deeper please if you need to!
- Make a mental note of it or if you feel the need write it down, some maintain a journal logging in their thoughts while you are reading this.
- If you can think of someone you are thankful for (we already did this activity while you started reading this blog, now let’s proceed further) Focus on that person & think of all the good things about that person. In your mind say out loud all these good things you thought about that person as if you are telling that person. Thank him or her for all these good things through a quick phone call or a text message or could be meeting personally, whatever is available to you.
- Could we thank you for our existing health? You might be in great shape health wise or might be ill due to some disease. Whatever situation you might be in right now, could you think of something good about your health? Let the thoughts flow & say thank you to that good part about your health. I am Alive! Thank you!
- Say thank you for your past – all lessons learned, say thank you for your present – present is your gift & say thank you for what is coming to you in near future – see that desired happy future, imagine that future, visualize that future and just say heartiest thank you again!
Ready? Let’s play a Gratitude Game!
Lets make your own list of ‘gratefulness’ that will help you understand what you are grateful for:
- Name a movie that touched your heart and why did you like it?
- We all admire someone, note down the person you admire & the qualities that make you look-up to that person.
- Look around and list down things that help you in your day-to-day life.
- Write about a device that you feel grateful was discovered.
- What privilege do you enjoy that others might not have?
- What aspect of your health do you feel grateful for?
- Describe a stranger that you saw was helping someone in need.
- Write about something that you are most proud of yourself.
- What is the funniest video you’ve watched recently?
- Be proud of yourself and write about a time when you challenged your comfort zone.
Dos & Don’ts while giving gratitude.
The art of “gratitude” is very personal and it involves “thanking” with only one rule that is say thank you without any ifs or buts. “I thank you but…….” is no form of expressing gratitude. There are no other conditions applied for being grateful so just say thank you to everything around you, it may be your phone, it could be your car, it may be your wardrobe, or so many little things that are useful to you in everyday life. Build that gratitude mindset for the long-term benefits that you are unaware of. It helps in building a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, improves sleeping patterns, boosts level of positive emotions, you feel more alive, you become more helpful, generous, and compassionate, and many more benefits.
Could you promise me to actively practice gratitude now? Possible?
Let me help you create a gratitude habit through either of these two activities:
- Gratitude jar that you can proudly place and create a positive corner in your home. Take an empty glass jar, colored papers and a marker. Write down your goals and thankful notes, fold them and place it inside the jar. Keep this jar in a corner of your house & celebrate many beautiful grateful moments in life.
- Gratitude journal is another easy option through which you could start everyday gratitude habits. This has been my way to practice gratitude everyday. I have a dairy/notebook in which I write down what I am grateful for everyday.
Practicing gratitude allows us to recognize those who bring goodness into our lives and humbles us in order to give credit to those we are grateful to. The more you are thankful for things & people in your life that exactly more you will receive. Don’t forget to savor these moments in the process; because as we all know success is a process never a destination.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
— Oprah Winfrey
