Practicing Gratitude: Improving the Quality of Life Easily

The practice of gratitude is usually instilled since childhood, when parents teach us to say thank you to those who helped or did something nice. Usually by adulthood, most people limit themselves at best to just such attitudes, depriving themselves of the opportunity to change their lives.

By practicing gratitude, a person not only looks good in the eyes of others, but also improves their health, creates strong relationships with loved ones and others, and generally lives with goodness in their heart. Here are the benefits of this practice, how to implement it, and what prevents us from switching to constant gratitude.

The Concept and Objectives of the Gratitude Practice

Many people are used to focusing on unpleasant news, events, and incidents. The positives are taken for granted and are not appreciated. The practice of gratitude aims at a comprehensive perception of the surrounding reality, in which there are always bad things and good things.

This doesn’t mean that situations with negative connotations must be completely ignored. A person needs the full range of emotions, from the sharply negative to the positive, to live a fulfilling life. Thanks to the ability to experience different feelings, we can react adequately to what is happening around us, exchange feelings with other people, and be aware of our role in certain events. It is impossible to abstract away everything bad, but it’s wrong to focus solely on negative experiences.

We should thank fate not only for its gifts, but also for the trials it sends us. Each “kick” makes us stronger, more resilient, and increases our readiness for future negative events. To easily endure the blows of fate, it is important to remember that something positive always comes in place of the negative.

You don’t have to wait for some global change; there is always a reason for joy in life. The practice of gratitude will help you appreciate even the small pleasures that are always present in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. A beautiful sunrise, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the smile of a stranger, an interesting book, your favorite music – you can rejoice in any little thing.

The fairness of this approach is confirmed by scientific research. So, Robert Emmons, a psychology professor at the University of California, conducted an experiment back in 2003. Test subjects were divided into three groups, each with a specific task. Participants of the first had to focus on their negative emotions, the second – to rejoice in success, and the third – to pay attention only to the neutral events of their life. The experiment fully confirmed the scientist’s assumption: the members of the first group felt much better than the other participants after completing the practice.

The Main Benefits of Regular Gratitude

Being able to see the good in the world around us makes us happier for many reasons:

• Life can be perceived in different ways. For some people, it’s a series of endless problems, and for others it is full of big and small joys. The practice of gratitude allows you to learn this useful skill: to enjoy what is happening and not to dwell on life’s failures.
• A person’s psychological well-being largely depends on the level of their self-esteem. People who undervalue themselves experience constant discomfort from communicating with others. Thanks to the practice of gratitude increasing self-confidence, we begin to adequately assess our contribution to the building of relationships with friends, colleagues and relatives.
• The ability to give thanks to fate helps to more easily tolerate psychological trauma, tragedy, and stress. People who own this practice remember that life is full of pleasant moments, you just have to try to notice them.
• Caring for others is an important component of communicating with the world, making others and ourselves happier.
• The practice of gratitude broadens the perspective of many things. It helps us realize that there is no black and white, no unequivocally bad and good.
• Having mastered this approach to life, we become more tolerant, we do not make rigid demands to people, based solely on our own point of view.
• Gratitude removes us from envy. A person who has a positive attitude does not need to constantly compare himself with others, looking for flaws in himself.
• Those who have mastered the practice of gratitude do not succumb to negative emotions: anger, revenge, and anger. They respond more calmly to the negative actions of others.
• The practice fills life with new meaning. All good things are perceived not as commonplace, not worthy of attention, but as a gift of fate, which should be appreciated.

Methods of Gratitude

Keeping a Diary

Create a notebook, where you will regularly record all the moments for which you are grateful to the universe. Take a few minutes to remember the significant (and not so significant) events of the past day and write down the words of gratitude. Even if you check this online bookmaker and find a promising offer, you should add this to your diary. You can do this over your morning coffee to set yourself on a positive wave.

Start by taking daily notes, and the result will not be long in coming. You will feel a rush of positive energy, you will become optimistic about the future, and you will feel the desire to live to the fullest. When the habit of regularly thanking destiny is formed, it is possible to refer to the diary less often, once in several days. Soon the necessity to write down words of gratitude will disappear, as you will already automatically see only good things in the world around you.

Personal Messages

Everyone has people who have left a good mark on our lives. Our first teacher, grandmother, older brother, school friend, coach – in short, those who made us more tolerant, kinder, smarter. Write a letter to one of them, even if that person is no longer alive.

Thank the recipient for their contribution to your life. Explain in detail how your conversations with them helped you change for the better. This exercise will help you realize how our positive attitude, desire for support, and desire to share our knowledge and skills affects those around us. Surely you are such an important person to someone else.

Thank-you letters will work even more effectively if you send them as intended. The recipient will be pleasantly surprised, and your relationship will reach a new level of trust.

Morning and Evening “Workouts”

You can’t do without thinking about your feelings of appreciation for the world around you on a daily basis when forming a new habit. There is no need to set aside a special time for this. You can say “thank you” to the universe in the morning on your way to work and in the evening on your way home.

Any little thing that makes your day more pleasant can be an occasion for gratitude: sunny weather, a motorist who gives way, an interesting work task that you will be doing in the near future. The hardest part is getting started; each time you start, it becomes easier and easier to find topics to express your gratitude to the world.

Thank Your Family

The hustle and bustle of daily life often causes us to devalue the care we receive from our loved ones. Such things as a tasty breakfast, ironed clothes, and a car warmed up in the freezing cold are taken for granted. In fact, this is an occasion to sincerely thank a loved one for his or her efforts.

If you think about it, the person closest to you is yourself. There is nothing more logical than to praise yourself for the small victories of the past day. It helps a lot to increase self-esteem and adds confidence. Not without reason, many psychologists recommend in the first place to love yourself. It is difficult to convince others of their virtues, if you do not believe in yourself, so the practice of gratitude should begin with yourself. Tell yourself “thank you” for a good idea expressed at the meeting, for help to a stranger in the street, for a good mood, which you generously shared with colleagues.

Thank You, Universe

Even skeptics and atheists believe in the existence of a higher intelligence. And, of course, only positive influence on people is attributed to these powerful cosmic forces. The Universe is kind, wise and fair, that is why in many spiritual practices all good undertakings are devoted to it.

The circle of goodness is set in motion by any good deed. When you carry an old lady’s heavy bag home, she not only says “thank you” to you, but also thanks God for sending her help. In turn, you thank the universe for the strength to support the weak. By doing good deeds, we fill the world with positive energy from which everyone without exception can recharge.

3 Mistakes That Hinder the Practice of Gratitude

Not Appreciating What We Have Already Achieved

It is human nature to set global goals, to plan big changes, and to be dismissive of small victories. No wonder many people lack the energy to achieve what they have set out to do. We do not consider it necessary to thank ourselves, others, and the Universe if we have not yet received what we want in full.

In the end, the goal remains just a dream. But it is so easy to say “thank you” for each successful step, for each small failure because it helps to see and correct the mistakes. The practice of gratitude teaches you to linger on each step of the big road, to reflect on what has been done and to evaluate future steps. With this approach, the path to the cherished dream ceases to be an exhausting marathon. It’s divided into short segments, and at the end of each segment should be a place of gratitude. The positive energy we have been given to overcome this part of the long road is renewed, and we are ready to keep moving toward our goal.

Not Controlling the Line of Behavior

We are constantly faced with the need to make choices, from small current issues to global actions. The lack of basic principles of life leads to the fact that the decisions we make unconsciously, at first sight, and not always the right ones. We often fall under someone else’s influence and act at the same time as others, without thinking about the consequences. It’s easy to explain: it’s easier to shift responsibility to someone else than to determine one’s behavior.

Reacting Improperly to the Lessons of Late

Life is full of unpleasant events, and it is important to learn not to ignore the negative experience, and turn it to his own advantage. A common mistake is our desire to forget about a negative situation as soon as possible, to hide it deep down. This leads to psychological problems that you have to deal with for a long time and hard. We should be grateful for the negative experience: thanks to it we become wiser and stronger.