Gratitude has become a buzzword in recent years. More and more people are talking about its benefits and for good reasons.
Studies suggest that people who regularly practice gratitude experience reduced stress, recover from negative experiences faster, and even have healthier immune systems than those who do not. There are many different ways to incorporate gratitude into your everyday life, whether by keeping a journal, putting up posters around your house, or even just saying thank you more often when someone does something nice for you.
So, how can we go from being grateful once in a while to feeling it often? Here are some brilliant ways to practice gratitude every day.
Living Your Best Life With Gratitude
Gratitude is a powerful force that can have a meaningful impact on your life. When you practice gratitude, you open your eyes to all the good in the world and make conscious efforts to notice it more often.
Making it a habit to practice gratitude can impact your life in many positive ways; research shows it has real benefits for your mental health, happiness, and overall well-being.
Here’s how to fast-track your way to practicing gratitude every waking day.
#1 Practice Present-Moment Awareness
One way to practice gratitude is to become more aware. So look up from your device screen and watch how the flowers bloom, birds fly, leaves rustle, and people interact.
Take the time to savor the taste of your food, actively participate in conversations, and even appreciate the clothes you wear and how they look on you. Soon enough, you’ll feel gratitude towards your friends, surroundings, and, most importantly, yourself.
#2 Get a Gratitude Journal
Before you go to bed, have a mental review or playback of your day and pen down anything you were thankful for in a gratitude journal or jar. And if your day didn’t go as planned, don’t burn your gratitude bridges yet.
Keeping up with a gratitude journal or jar will help you appreciate what you usually would ignore in your day. The result? You’ll develop a greater sense of gratitude even for the little things.
#3 Show Gratitude Towards others
What’s even better than practicing gratitude towards yourself? – Practicing it towards others.
Remember how I said one way to practice gratitude is by actively participating in conversations? Here’s how. When you pay attention to what people tell you, you can learn their likes, dislikes, and what makes them tick.
Now, you can give them genuine, relevant, and thoughtful gifts to surprise them or celebrate the milestones in their lives, showing you’re grateful towards and for them.
When it comes to practicing gratitude, it’s the little things that really matter. You don’t have to wait to get a job in a large company, seal a huge contract deal, or hit some striking achievement before you can practice gratitude.
Start showing gratitude for where you are with what you have, and watch how your life becomes more meaningful and full of zest.