A Guide to Gratitude

Let’s talk about all things having to do with Gratitude.

Cultivating the meaning of gratitude, we learn to begin consciously thankful and genuinely appreciative of anything that shapes and strengths our happiness.

We may always feel grateful and offer gratitude when we receive something that is extrinsically valuable and in return, it makes us feel happy. But, what if we were to go beyond extrinsic motivation and discuss gratitude based on intangible things that promote intrinsic motivation.

By simply acknowledging the small pleasures of our daily life, such as the ability to hydrate, our quality of sleep, eating well, the meaning of friendship, nature views, a hug, saying I love you, and the beyond. When we actively practice gratitude, there is no room for anything else. We experience an abundance of positive emotions.

By focusing on our day to day abilities, it can give us a complete light of connection, a higher sense of pleasure, enthusiasm and hope. Let’s redirect our focus to our boring tasks that were accomplished. We may not have enjoyed it but we can appreciate completing the goal. This helps us to feel uplifted.

Let’s praise ourselves for completing a small or particularly difficult task, such as chores! Thank goodness!!!  Research shows that actively practicing gratitude really tackles down on our anxiety, depression and stress. Gratitude blocks negative energy that hinder our happiness. Lets focus our gratitude every day because it helps us with strengthening our resilience when we have to face adversity.  Next time, we are feeling uneasy, tense or apprehensive, let’s remind ourselves about our gratitude to the things we feel appreciative of having.

With gratitude, we begin to decrease our negative thoughts by simply counting our blessings. It is a blessing to be able to get out of bed, it a blessing to have a relative/friend to turn at any moment in life, it is a blessing to take a day off and self care. We learn to adopt a more flexible perspective in life, which in return, we may gain determination and empathy, specially in the face of negativity.

Once we determine our goal and begin to practice gratitude to help increase positivity, simply remember that it may not happen over-night. For some of us, it will take practice to learn genuine gratitude. We need to be motivated and disciplined to practice gratitude in order to implement and adapt to a new lifestyle. It is also okay if we don’t always feel gratitude all the time as well. An important part of gratitude is practicing patience’s with yourself, follow consistency because there are way too many positives in gratitude that outweigh the negative. 

I listed a few prompts that can help set you up in learning and acknowledging gratitude:

Most research shows that journaling is effective. Grab yourself a charming journal or a notebook or something that highlights your personality and write 3 things you were thankful in a day.

Here are  a few prompts:

• I am grateful for………………………………
• This makes me happy………………………..
• I enjoy spending time with………………….
• I am looking forward to……………………..
• Today was hard because………………..but I focused on………………

It is important to balance our negative experience with a positive one as well in order to let go of the negative experience.

Once you have finished, describe how you felt in journaling. What emotion surfaced or if any body tension, or temperature?

Please share your thoughts on how you practice gratitude. Or if you want to expand your gratitude perspective.