The Ways Gratitude Can Change Your Life
We all know what it is to feel grateful but many of us don’t realise just how good feeling grateful can make us feel.
We often feel grateful when someone surprises us with a birthday present or your friend goes out of their way to do something for you.
Showing gratitude on a daily basis for all the little things in our life can actually make you a much happier person and can improve your overall quality of life!
One of my favourite quotes that sums up the power of gratitude is, being grateful only gives you more things to be grateful for!
It is a powerful force and here is why we all should be expressing a little more gratitude in our day to day lives!
You’ll realise that life actually isn’t that bad
Now life can be tough, there is no denying that. Often things are thrown our way that we probably don’t deserve. However, we tend to give a lot more attention to the bad and forget about the good. When you make it a habit to think about the positives in your life, you start to realise how blessed you really are. There are many things in our lives that we easily forget how lucky we are to have them. Little things such as our health, or a place to call home. They are things that not everyone has, yet it is very easy to forget that. So when things are bad, which unfortunately we all have bad times, try to remember the good and it might make you feel a little better.
It is very hard to feel unhappy and grateful at the same time
Gratitude is one of the highest forms of happiness you can feel. It can be an overwhelming feeling, but in a good way. When you are feeling extreme happiness, what you are really experiencing is extreme gratitude. You just don’t realise it. When you are feeling grateful, any problems you have feel a lot smaller. You have a realisation of what it is that really matters and is important to you in life and that is a really nice, warm feeling to experience.
When you are grateful it is very hard to feel unhappy. This is why putting time aside each day to think about what you are grateful for, or what went well in your day, is so beneficial to your overall mood for the day and attitude towards life!
Gratitude is like a miracle magnet
It could be a law of attraction thing, but it seems that the more you are grateful the more things you end up having to be grateful for. Gratitude improves your mood tenfold, even writing this article I can feel myself becoming more relaxed and content. It is a lovely way to navigate life being grateful, because you appreciate the little things and feel joy over things that you might have once over looked. By being grateful you give yourself more things to be grateful about and become a happiness magnet along the way.
Easy ways to practice gratitude:
Now gratitude won’t wave a magic wand and get rid of all of your problems but it will improve your mood, give you a better perspective on life and help you navigate the hard times a little easier. Here are some easy ways to express gratitude on a daily basis:
- Keep a gratitude journal – get a little journal to keep by your bed and first thing in the morning or just before you go to bed write down a few things you are grateful for, or some simple things that went well that day.
- Get the three good things app – Three Good Things is a great app that you can use every day to take note of three good things that happened during your day and how they made you feel. It is a great way of helping you realise that no matter how bad the day may have seemed, there were good things that happened that you can be grateful for!
- Try Gratitude Meditations – Gratitude meditations are a great way of just being present, relaxing and focusing on the good in your life. They are great at rising your vibration and improving your overall mood. Do gratitude meditations first thing in the morning and it will set the tone for your whole day. There are a great number of gratitude meditations on YouTube and Netflix.
- Say Thank You! – Make a conscious effort to say thank you at every appropriate opportunity. To your server, to the person who let you in front of them in the que, to your mum for doing things that she wouldn’t think twice about doing! Showing appreciating for those around you will keep you in a state of gratitude and remind you of all the kindness that does exist in the world.