“It’s the smallest shifts that make the biggest impact”
One little offering of gratitude can change your attitude and alter the energy in your mind and body. Gratitude is healthy!
We talk about gratitude, about being thankful and grateful for all that we have in our life. And it’s an easy concept to embrace – gratitude is an appreciation of what’s meaningful and valuable to you. But the power of gratitude goes much deeper than just being thankful for those things that are meaningful to you. Gratitude has a power that can change your life. It can change the way you think and feel and act.
How? When you focus on the wonderful things that you already have, you think less about what you feel you don’t have. You’re able to approach your life with a more positive and harmonious outlook. You’re more optimistic and excited about life. And your entire well being shines through stronger than if you’re mired in negativity. Which brings us to how gratitude plays such a huge role in your well being.
Gratitude and a Meaningful Life
When you’re grateful for what you have in your life and are making time each day to be mindful of your gratitude, your life becomes more meaningful and fulfilling. You start to build a wonderful appreciation of everything that life is and what it has to offer. Being grateful can take all your life experiences and change the way you look at them. You’ll smile about the good times and grow through the more difficult situations. As gratitude becomes a way of life, you’ll start to appreciate more the value of people and things in your life. You’ll learn to live more in the present moment, finding meaning and fulfillment as you participate in your life and not take even the small things for granted.
Can Being Grateful Make You Less Negative?
We all deal with some negativity in our lives. It can be hard to stay positive all the time when things aren’t going right. When our relationship with someone is stressed. Or if we’re dealing with some health issues. Or even if we’re having a bad day and just don’t know why. Feeling grateful isn’t going to mysteriously fix these things. But it can take some of that negativity and give us a peaceful passage through the day and into the next where we can begin again.
These words by Melody Beattie concisely show how being grateful can make you less negative:
“Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude’s power. We can start with who we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, then let it work its magic.
Say thank you, until you mean it. If you say it long enough, you will believe it.
Today, I will shine the transforming light of gratitude on all the circumstances of my life.”
The last line can be used daily as an affirmation of gratitude in your own life.
All the Wonderful Benefits of Being Consciously Grateful
The benefits of consciously stating your gratitude are numerous…with each of us benefiting in different ways that are unique to who we are, including:
Feeling less stress in your life
Sleeping better
Improved self esteem
Improved health
A greater feeling of peace and satisfaction with where you are today
The benefits can be deeper than these. Being grateful and acknowledging your gratitude can enhance and bring about changes and improvement in all areas of your life.
Gratitude can change the chemistry in your body and brain and attract more of the things you want in your life. When you give thanks for something you already have, you’re setting in motion a positive energy that is saying “I have this, thank you”…and I’m ready for more to come into my life. The energy of gratitude in turn attracts those things you desire.
As well, gratitude can increase your spiritualism, helping you feel closer to your higher power. As you focus on the good things in your life, your inner energy and personality have a shine and glow that you’re easily able to share with others.
Cultivating and Practicing Gratitude
Embracing gratitude in your life takes practice. You need to make a conscious effort to be thankful each day for the meaningful things that matter to you. Here are 3 ways you can create your own attitude of gratitude:
1. Keep a gratitude journal
Keeping a written journal is an effective way to be specific about what you’re grateful for. You can write as many or as few things that you’re grateful for each day. Your list can be short and sweet: “I’m thankful for the birds I heard on the way to work”, or you could go into greater detail about someone or something in your life that you’re grateful for.
As you start keeping your gratitude journal, don’t be concerned if you’re having a difficult time coming up with things to be thankful for. Start with the small things – be grateful for your bed and the pen that you’re holding in your hand. Start by writing down just three to five things every day that you’re grateful for. And watch how your life changes…because it will!
Remember that this journal is yours – no one else is going to read it. So be authentic to you and what you’re grateful for no matter how small or insignificant you think it may be.
2. Meditation of gratitude
Combining the peacefulness of meditation with the sincerity of gratitude can provide you with a wonderful and powerful tool to add more happiness and serenity to your life. Your meditation doesn’t have to be a long one. Just focus on what you’re grateful for today – your children, meeting a friend for lunch – whatever is unique and personal to you for gratitude each day.
3. Creative expression of gratitude
Another way to cultivate thankfulness is to express your gratitude creatively using an art journal. Drawing and creating with color is very powerful, and in our workshops, we make time for this creative outlet. So get creative and colorful…whatever that means to you. Drawing with pen or ink, painting with watercolors or acrylics…open your mind and let your gratitude flow out through your fingertips and onto a blank page.
As with a gratitude journal, an art journal is for your eyes only, so each day “create” what you’re grateful for in whatever artistic way it appears to you.
It doesn’t matter how you cultivate gratitude in your life – what matters is that you’re taking the time each day to actively and consciously be sincerely grateful for your life!
