Starting a daily gratitude practice can change your life. Science has shown that changing the way you perceive the world around you will actually change your experience of life. Looking at your current situation from a position of gratitude and counting your blessings instead of your problems will change your whole outlook on life. This is something that doesn’t come naturally to most of us. Our brains are actually hardwired to look for dangers and problems. This has been a part of our make up that has helped us to survive.
By seeking to count our blessings we can re-train our brains to see the positives in a situation. This new positive outlook will colour our perception and allow us to see the world through rose coloured glasses so to speak. By seeing more positives we actually experience more positives in our daily lives.
The flow on from this is that we begin to attract better things to us. Better people and relationships, better outcomes and better opportunities. And so our life continues to improve. This creates its own feedback loop. More gratitude equals better outcomes and gives you more to be grateful for.
Just as we are all different people and personality types, different styles of daily practice will suit us more than others.
Three different ways we can start a daily gratitude practice are:
1 – A simple journal.
This is my preferred method. I use a small A5 notebook and each entry is typically half a page. I always add the date to my entry and start it with the heading: “Today I am so happy and grateful:” I then dot point my list of things that I am grateful for. I always like to finish each entry with “for this fresh new day full of love, choice, abundance and opportunity”. Sometimes these words might change but I do this to remind myself to be thankful to be given each new day and acknowledge that it is full of potential.
2 – Three new things.
I heard about this practice listening to The Thriveology podcast by Dr Lee Baucom. His practice is to find three new things each day to be thankful for and he’ll think about these on his morning walk. Sounds easy but as he explains finding three brand new things each day can be a challenge as time goes on. Doing so does train your brain to be looking for potential new things to add to ‘the list’ so is a very effective practice.
3 – Daily meditation
Sit somewhere quiet and think about just one thing that you are grateful for. The idea is to really picture this thing in your mind and allow the feeling of gratitude to fill your body and yourself to just sit with this feeling for as long as you can.
Whatever practice you decide, and it might be something completely different and of your own making, science has shown there are huge benefits to health and well-being to regularly practising gratitude. A sense of gratitude will help us to feel less stress and anxiety and helps to combat depression. There are not just benefits for ourselves but it also makes us a better person to others and for others to be around.
So, what are you waiting for? Start bringing more gratitude to your life today.
Gratitude: A Day and Night Reflection Journal (90 Days)
Purchase a Gratitude Journal and start your daily gratitude practice today.
Gratitude: A Day and Night Reflection Journal (90 Days)
Purchase a Gratitude Journal and start your daily gratitude practice today.
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