4 Ways To Practice Gratitude Daily
Gratitude is the feeling of being thankful or appreciative. Pretty simple right? But, the impact gratitude can have on one’s life is major. Gratitude is important for so many different reasons. Not only does it show your appreciation for those around you, but it also can lead you to a healthier mental state when you practice it regularly.
Practicing gratitude can increase your optimism, decrease depression, and just give you a more positive outlook on life in general. It can even positively benefit your physical health through things like reducing inflammation!
You’ll find that the majority of successful people keep practicing gratitude as a staple in their routine - and you should too!
You don’t have to spend a ton of time on these strategies, even just spending a few minutes every day can make a huge difference in your mindset.
Write down what you’re grateful for
One of the easiest and most common ways to practice gratitude is by writing down what you’re grateful for every single day - either morning or night (or both if you’re feeling inspired to).
Start by writing a short list of 3-5 things you’re grateful for each day. Keep a journal or just simply write it on a piece of paper. You’ll find that you probably really have to start thinking about and searching for things to be grateful for - this forces you to think of the small things in life that you usually take for granted that you’re actually grateful for (and just don’t think about). Things like coffee in the morning, having a warm bed to sleep in, or being able to take walks outside.
There are so many small things in life that we do appreciate deep down, we just don’t take a moment to think about because we’re too focused on what we don’t have.
2. Say what you’re grateful for out loud
This is pretty much the same as writing down what you’re grateful for every day, you’re just saying it out loud instead. Think of it kind of like ‘affirmations.’ By saying what you’re grateful for out loud, it forces you to affirm your gratitude. Hearing yourself saying it, will make you believe it more.
This may seem too good and easy to be true, but even just practicing gratitude through this method every day will have an impact on your mindset. Being consistent is the key for practicing gratitude in general. So make this a part of your routine. Say it every day when you wake up and/or every night before you go to bed.
3. Practice gratitude during everyday activities
When we’re living in the moment and always busy, it’s easy to overlook the daily activities and things that we should be grateful for. Instead of saying what you’re grateful for at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, try practicing gratitude in the moment.
So this could be things like when you’re eating dinner, remind yourself how appreciative and lucky you are to have hot food on the table. Maybe when you’re with your family, remind yourself that you are grateful to be able to see and spend time with them. Or make it a point to go outside and breathe in the fresh air and show your appreciation for nature and the outdoors!
4. Express gratitude to others
This one can be a tough one for a lot of us. But, another great method is to start verbally expressing gratitude to people in your life. This will probably be soooo uncomfortable at first. But, that’s when it can REALLY make an impact on your and your mindset. It also strengthens your relationship with those people.
If you can, even try to do it to people you aren’t close with or even to strangers. Express your gratitude to service workers in a restaurant, or your property manager. It can brighten someone’s day. You never know what someone else may be going through, so be the reason they smile that day.
There are so many positive benefits to expressing gratitude to others, and it also gives these people in your life a reason to start practicing gratitude on their own, as well - which is a huge opportunity to make a positive impact.
Practicing gratitude doesn’t have to take hours of journaling every day (but it totally can if you want it to!). It can be so simple and easily integrated into your everyday routine. You'll realize that finding things to be grateful for and expressing your gratitude to others gets easier and easier every single time you do it. And you’ll start seeing how great of an impact this strategy can have on your mental health and your mindset.
