The Gratitude
I don’t think many of us are ungrateful for what we have. It’s just in the midst of busy lives and schedules, we forget to pause for a moment and live purely in that moment, appreciating every little thing around us.
By acknowledging gratitude every day in my life through different methods I’ll detail in this piece, I’ve become a happier person. I’ve become a better person.
I get less angry at those around me and appreciate how lucky I am to have them in my life, even at times when we don’t get along, which is inevitable. This helps us to maintain strong relationships with those who are meant to be in our lives. It can also help us recognise those relationships that perhaps aren’t.
It’s easier to see happiness in the small things. I read a story a few days ago about someone who frequently visited the beach. To them, it was just another day on the beach, staring at their phone, not particularly taking in their surroundings. Until someone approached who was quite noticeably excited.
“The sand! The sea. The sun shining. It’s so beautiful!”
This was the stranger’s first time at the beach. They could appreciate the things that to regular beachgoers, seem completely mundane. But there’s beauty in the little things. The beach looks as it does today through countless years of sand drifting down its coast in a process called longshore drift. The sun shining down boosts your mood. Folks sitting with friends and family. It's a happy place, and that happiness spreads when you really take it in.
There's gratitude in so much. The fact that you had to be born in a country where you can move so freely and have the means to access the beach. Hell, the fact you were born at all.
Your morning coffee can bring you gratitude. You’re seeing this post on a screen somehow, right? An opportunity for gratitude, regardless of whether you think my piece is great or if it sucks. The fact you have a bed to lay in at night. That water comes running out of your taps. The sun shining. The rain, maybe the plants needed it!
There’s always a reason for gratitude. Even in the direst of situations, we can use gratitude to frame ourselves. Some people will have it better than us, and some have it worse. However, locating gratitude in your lives will contribute to more positive thinking.
Actionable Advice
· Daily Gratitude – I’ve written before about Neil Pasricha and his strategy for showing gratitude. Neil started writing one awesome thing every weekday for 1000 days straight. The wonderful thing about this strategy is it ensures we’re reflecting on our feelings, and even on our darkest days, we’re forced to find something that we’re grateful for. It's so quick and simple to implement into your life, and in my case has made a drastic difference.
This strategy has also greatly reduced my stress. I get to reflect on where I was a certain number of days ago and see how much progress has been made. I see the sad times flowing into happy times and back again. It’s all a part of life, and gratitude helps me to understand this and myself slightly more every day.
· Weekly Gratitude – My daily gratitude helps make up my weekly gratitude. Thanks to Dickie Bush, I’m going to ask myself 4 questions every week, and the daily gratitude helps to answer the weekly gratitude prompts. The prompts are:
o What do I have today that I would have begged for years ago?
o What do I have that 85-year-old me would beg to have back?
o What do I have today that if I was sick or injured I would beg to have?
o What 10 things am I excited about in life?
Concluding Remarks
Our success in finding gratitude in our lives can depend on many things. We all have a natural happiness range in which we fluctuate. Those with a lower happiness range may struggle to locate gratitude in life as easily as those with a higher range. So start simple with one awesome thing a day. Over time, you might come to enjoy it.
PS: Does anybody else have certain things they studied during their school days completely engrained in their brains? Longshore drift is one of them for me, so finding a way to finally use that knowledge has made my day.
Thank you.
Im grateful for the reminder.
Gratitude can change the world
It is humble, holy
And welcoming