The old saying tells us to count our blessings, but sometimes that can be difficult to do. It doesn’t have to be any great occasion for you to feel grateful and express that gratitude. Every now and then, it doesn’t hurt to take stock of how good you have it. 

• It is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.
• It helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
• It can have a lot of advantages to our personal as well as social life.
• People who are grateful tend to not stress out a lot. In other words, people become considerate and never leave a chance to say thank you to others. Thus, it helps society to progress in the right direction with the right tools needed for the development of it.
• When we become grateful, we do not compare ourselves to others. Thus, it helps us to acknowledge our own achievements and blessings and remain content.

HOW TO PRACTICE BEING GRATEFUL

1. Gratitude Meditation

By meditating, you are able to appreciate the present and be in the moment. Focus on something you are grateful for each time you meditate and spend your time in thinking about how thankful you are for people, events, and moments in your life. 

2. Morning Gratitude Affirmations

Morning affirmations are positive statements of gratitude you say to yourself at the start of the day. 

It is ideal to say/listen to them daily when you are in a relaxed state of mind after you wake up in the morning.

• You can play an audio or video and repeat them yourself.
• You can make posters and stick them where you can see them.
• You can just write them out or say them aloud or in your mind. It is entirely up to you to decide how you want to use them.
• Choose appreciation from all spheres of your life and make sure they include your thoughts and actions.

3. Gratitude Mapping

If you're a visual learner, this is the perfect way to express gratitude, you create a visual mood board that contains all of the things you're grateful for. Once it is made, place it somewhere to remind you of the same.

4. Gratitude Jars

Another visual method of practising being grateful is to write down short notes of the things you're grateful for and keep them in a jar or container. 

5. Do Something Kind For Others

Not only will it make you more grateful for the things that you may take for granted, but studies have shown that volunteering for the purpose of helping others increases our own well-being, and thus our ability to have more gratitude.

Posted 2 years ago