5 Simple Things You Can Do to Practice Gratitude
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Gratitude is an incredibly important part of living an abundant and fulfilled life. It’s easy to get disheartened, overwhelmed and stressed out about what’s happening in your life and so gratitude can often get overlooked. The implementation of even a few consistent gratitude practices is a powerful way of bringing us right back into the present moment and seeing our life through a different lens.
What is Gratitude?
To understand how to achieve gratitude, let’s look at what it means. Gratitude is a more layered concept than simply saying thank you. It creates a positive emotional response and this is a core part of shifting the energy within the body on a physical and emotional level.
The
energy of gratitude is one of abundance, appreciation and positivity. When we show deep and heart-felt gratitude for even just the smallest things in life, this in turn also ignites the law of attraction and we soon find that same energy is reflected back.
A huge number of studies have also shown that gratitude can create a profound impact on the quality of our physical, psychological and emotional health. It brings the focus back to living mindfully as opposed to by default, and to appreciate the positive parts of our lives and the people in it.
I’m now going to share 5 simple ways to practise gratitude and how to use it to enrich your everyday life.
Keep a gratitude Journal
Keeping a gratitude journal can be a wonderful way to consider all the things that bring you joy, make you smile or evoke a positive response. Keeping a list of 5 things that you’re grateful for at the end of each day can also help you to truly appreciate all of the abundance in your life and the small things that often get overlooked but in fact, create a big impact. It also shifts your mindset from one of scarcity to one of love, fulfilment and happiness.
As humans, we tend to focus heavily on the negative things in life but a gratitude journal or even simply writing down 5 things to be grateful for each day, trains our mind to look for the things, people and situations that make us happy. It can also help us to identify where we’re being proactive in creating our own feelings of self-worth and growth.
Notice the beauty of nature
Nature is something to truly be admired and grateful for and immersing ourselves in nature is one of the best gratitude practices out there. It’s also the perfect way to reconnect to our hearts - something that can easily be overlooked in modern day life. One thing I always recommend to clients if they can, is to take time to be in nature, to disconnect from technology and the pace of day to day life and really absorb it. I encourage you to do the same. Notice how the breeze feels on your skin, to revel in the colours, the movement of the trees and how fresh the air feels. Nature is an incredible way to calm the nervous system, to ground and anchor us and create a sense of rejuvenation in the body and mind.
Show thanks to someone in your life
We can get so used to the people in our lives and taking that for granted is something most of us are guilty of - at least from time to time! Try and make it a part of your everyday routine to show thanks to those people. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture; just telling them you appreciate them or thanking them for making you smile. The act of doing this will not only strengthen your relationship with those people and infuse positive energy into their lives, but when you notice how great it also makes you feel in turn to witness that, this trains your brain to be mindful of upping this energy of appreciation and gratitude in all areas of your life!
Alternatively, showing gratitude energetically can also be just as powerful. If it isn’t possible to tell or show that person how much you appreciate them, take a moment to be still, visualize them in your mind and send out the energy of love, appreciation or thanks. Everything is energy and our thoughts are more powerful than we realize. The frequency of our thoughts are like a radio signal and have their own energy. So by consciously sending out these thoughts of love and gratitude, this will reach the person you’re sending them to on an energetic level!
Be thankful when life doesn’t go as planned
When asking yourself how to achieve gratitude, you might be wondering how it’s possible to be grateful when you find yourself in what you feel to be a negative situation or in a place of uncertainty. However, when you can be grateful for the opportunity this presents, it completely shifts the trajectory of how you view the situation. Be on that bridge and be grateful that this point of discomfort is actually enabling you to reconnect to your heart and your soul essence. If life followed a planned, linear path, this wouldn’t allow any room for growth or expansion! It’s those moments when we’re on the bridge and during those times of uncertainty where instead of resisting, we simply allow and create space, this is when we can create radical changes that align us to
the life we want to live. So next time you find yourself in a place of discomfort, be grateful for it. Know that it’s an invaluable learning experience and leading you to something beautiful.
Laugh more!
Possibly one of the most powerful gratitude practices available, humor and laughter is a fantastic way to allow in feelings of positivity. I’m sure you’ve noticed how great you’ve felt in those moments where you’ve laughed until you cried! How much it’s uplifted your spirit and enabled you to see things from a different perspective.
Laughter and gratitude go hand in hand so I encourage you to allow yourself to laugh more and consciously find ways to do so! Watch comedy movies or stand-up, read funny books, spend time with people who make you laugh and embody an upbeat, fun and positive nature. I assure you, when asking yourself how to achieve gratitude, find something to laugh at and you’ll soon notice the shift!
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