”Without gratitude, life can be lonely, depressing and impoverished. Gratitude enriches human life. It elevates, energizes, inspires and transforms, and those who practice it will experience significant improvements in several areas of life including relationships, academics, energy level and even dealing with tragedy and crisis.”

– Dr Robert Emmons, Professor of Psychology at the University of California.

How Gratitude Can Change Your Lifestyle

How often do you stop for a moment and take a look at your life? See where you are at, what you have overcome, what you have in front of you and where you are going.

How often do you look at your life in a positive light? Thank the lucky stars you are in the position you are in, despite whatever circumstances, and just be grateful that you are where you are at.

Life can sometimes become so busy that we often forget to stop and be present. With such fast-moving paces, high-stress situations and anxiety-ridden realities, taking that one moment to stop yourself and look around can be vital for your mental health.

While easier said than done, showing gratitude to yourself, your path and those around you can really be life-changing.

While a trending topic and countless studies showing the benefits, some of may be thinking, “There is no point in doing this. Why would I need to look at my life and show gratitude, if I know what’s going on?”

Well, showing gratitude can become a mental, physical and spiritual healer. When practiced regularly, you can see gratitude as something that can improve your overall life and bring a positive outlook to even the most negative of situations or circumstances.

To be more specific, showing gratitude is able to improve

• Empathy
• Physical Health
• Mental health
• Relationships
• Self-esteem
• And sleep!

How To Show Gratitude

Showing gratitude should become a daily practice you adopt.

If you are someone who tends to take the negative road in situations, cursing your luck or beating yourself up, gratitude may seem foreign to you. However, despite how hard the process may be, turning this practice into a habit will be the best way to implement it into your life.

So, where do you begin?

As a concept that generally doesn’t come naturally to us, it is something we must put effort behind. We can begin with these steps

1. Affirmations

   Affirmations mean confirming something as being true. This can come in whatever form you like. Simply put, it is writing down or expressing something in your life that you are grateful for. 

   Examples of this could be “I am grateful for my health.”

   “I realize how fortunate I am to have a safe and comfortable home.”

   “I appreciate the people in my life.”

   “Every moment is a moment made for me.”

   The best time to do this is right when you first wake up and before you go to bed. Write three things you are grateful for each time and watch your life, mood, personality and relationships flourish.

   If you aren’t a big writing things down person, say these out loud instead. Putting your words into the universe can have the same uplifting effects.

2. Noting Daily Moments

   Showing gratitude and being grateful can also come down to being in the present moment. When we often overthink on the past or contemplate the future, we create our own stress and anxiety.

   Taking moments during the day and recalling on them can bring you into the habit of becoming a present person. This can look like noting the baristas smile on their face when they hand you your coffee, seeing a stranger helping someone or even noticing the cutest puppy you’ve ever seen.

   These, despite being small moments, are important moments to note and can ground you when life is starting to feel a little off-balance. Note that you can also write these moments down to really remind you to create this habit on the daily.

3. Understand The Situation and Feel Through It

   When we discuss showing gratitude, we don’t mean sweeping any issues, obstacles or problems under the table. It’s just understanding that we don’t need to dwell on these moments, but can instead feel through these moments and reach the other side.

   This, however, is still another conscious choice we need to be making. Instead of something bad surfacing and getting angry or frustrated at the situation, we can understand our negative feelings, look past them, figure out how we can solve the situation in a light and fresh manner and hope that the situation can be overcome.

   It is always valuable to feel what we need to feel in order to understand how each situation in our life affects us. However, this is where gratitude comes in and shines a more positive light on even the most negative situations. In turn, you’ll be able to handle the situation with a clearer mind and open heart, understand yourself and others emotions and can overcome the situation in a much more positive way. 

4. Appreciate How Far You Have Come and What You Have

   When we often look back, we may be filled with regret or self-loathing. It is important to note we can change our overall outlook on our past by taking every experience as a learning experience.

   We are allowed to make mistakes.

   We are allowed to learn from these mistakes.

   Most importantly, we are allowed to grow from our mistakes.

   Next time you look back, think about how far you’ve come. Remembering times of hardship can be transformed into times of growth. As we continue to evolve in our lives, each obstacle can bring a new lesson, and with each lesson, we become the best version of ourselves that we can be.

   Therefore, we need to show gratitude towards the person you are now and be grateful for everything you have right in front of you.

Gratitude Journal

If showing gratitude is something you are interested in doing, go out and buy yourself a Gratitude Journal, this way, you can keep your affirmations, daily moments, journaling and goals all in one place. Reminding you of just how much you have to be grateful for and that every obstacle can be overcome.

When you show gratitude, you will find your negative responses and emotions will start to slowly slip away as you train your mind to look for a more positive approach. Anger becomes peace, appreciation becomes abundant, resilience becomes a priority and frustration only occurs for a short time.

You must continue feeling whatever negative emotions surface, but understand that these emotions are not permanent and can be altered into something more positive.

Show appreciation every day for you what you have. Whether this is writing them down or saying them out loud, become a more present human being and watch your life change in the most brilliant ways.