I try to be positive, happy, thankful and grateful all the time but I don’t always succeed. In fact, I probably fail more often than I’d like to admit and I probably don’t show my gratitude as often as I think I do.
I don’t want to say that being more grateful is my goal or resolution for the new year because I want to be more grateful for the rest of my life (not just 6 months or a year). In an effort to be more mindful about gratitude, I came up with a list of 10 Ways to Practice Gratitude.
10 ways to practice gratitude:
- Want what you have. If you aren’t happy with (or want) the things you have, how can you be grateful for them?
- Give back. There really is nothing more rewarding in this world than helping other people improve their lives. This activity doesn’t only make you feel great about yourself – it also makes you value what you have in your life.
- Focus on the positive but don’t avoid the negative. It’s important to let the negative things happen because they help us become stronger. While we deal with the negative, we should always focus on the positive and not dwell on the bleak.
- Write down something {personally meaningful} that you are thankful for. When I write down what I am thankful for, it’s easy to see how much I really do have and how much I have to be grateful for.
- Change your mindset.
- Have a ‘no complaint’ time (or day, week, etc). Gratitude is a conscious decision – you have to practice it!
- Experience life. {Examples: 1) You’re supposed to attend a conference? Absorb it. Learn from it! 2) Have dinner with friends? Savor the moments. Put your phone away! Taste each bite.)
- Go without. Sometimes the best way to appreciate something is to be without it for awhile.
- Find the (your) perspective.
- Make a gratitude board and fill it with pictures, notes or dreams that focus on people or experiences.
My hope is that practicing the 10 things on this list will help me increase the amount of gratitude I have – both internally and externally.
Would you add something to my list?
There are definitely times when I need to stop and remember everything I’m thankful for. I used to keep a list, just once a week list everything I was thankful for. I need to start that again.
Experiencing life is a tip that resonated with me. I’ve constantly got a to-do list in my head that I’m running through. I need to be in the moment a little more often.
I’m the same way. And in addition to the list in my head, I have a paper list.