3 Easy Ways You Can Apply Gratitude to Your Life
Our minds have a tendency to focus more attention on what is going wrong rather than what is going right. This can be helpful to us when we are looking to improve from past mistakes, make sure our plans work out in the future, and keep us safe from potential dangers.
Unfortunately, our minds also have a tendency to get stuck in thinking about what is not going wrong and we lose sight of what is going well in our life. We can get bogged down mentally and emotionally by these negative thoughts.
Therefore, we need to make intentional, daily efforts to practice holding our attention on what is good and going well. This is where the practice of gratitude comes to play. Gratitude can help us improve our mental and physical health, increase self-esteem, strengthen relationships with friends and family, and help us feel more connected to the world as a whole.
There are many ways we can apply gratitude to our daily life, but here are three easy examples to get started:
1. Gratitude for yourself
It can often be the most challenging to practice gratitude for yourself. To be grateful for yourself is to think about, notice, and express what you appreciate about the person that you are. One easy way to show gratitude for yourself is to keep a Gratitude Journal. In this journal, you will take around 5 minutes each day to write out whatever comes to mind about what you appreciate about yourself. You may write the same thing multiple times, write many things, or have trouble coming up with even one thing.
2. Gratitude for your blessings
A way to practice gratitude for the good things you have in your life is to create a Gratitude Jar. Find a jar and decorate it as you please. Keep a stack of sticky notes or little scraps of paper and pen next to the jar. Once a day or when you have a free moment, write down one thing you are grateful for in your life, fold it up, and place it in the jar. When the jar is full (or when you need a pick me up), dump out the pieces of paper and have fun reading through all the things in your life you were grateful for during that time.
3. Gratitude for others
Pick one person each day to communicate your appreciation. Let them know how thankful you are for a favor, kind comment, recent gift, or simply how they have been a positive influence in your life. This person can be someone you know or a complete stranger. You can tell them thank you in person, send them a text, or write them a letter. This will help you strengthen that relationship and may just turn their entire day around.
Incorporating gratitude practices into your daily life can be a benefit not only to yourself but those closest to you and the community at large. Trying at least one of these three ways to apply gratitude will start to help you shift your mindset from a negative one to a positive one.