Tag Archives: Gratitude

Be Grateful Always

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“The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy….We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God’s love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation.” ~ Mother Teresa

Simply put, gratitude is both a mindset and a habit. It’s a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation, regardless of whether or not your current situation is to your liking.

Gratitude is a heart-centered approach to being at peace with yourself and with all you have. When you practice this feeling of gratitude, it attracts even MORE things into your life for which to be grateful.

Mother Teresa is credited with saying, “Gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.” In short, be grateful and joyful always, in both the good times and bad times

Gratitude makes us humble and elevates us to a higher way of living at the same time, writes Jack Canfield. In all of the stages, ebbs, and flows of our lives, we can be grateful for the life we are living.

We’re either living our best life or preparing to.

To increase your gratitude and attract more abundance to your life, focus on being grateful always.

The best way to activate your gratitude is by acknowledging the gifts most people take for granted, explains Canfield. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population.

If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the 1 billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most.

Do you have a phone?  How about a car that allows you to travel to work or to explore the country? Is your family healthy? Do you have a computer and Internet access to stay in touch with the world, get access to education, and perform work for which you are paid? Do you have clean water to drink?

Celebrate these simple blessings. These daily conveniences are gifts that most people across the world do not enjoy.

a short story about gratitude.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…

References:

  1. https://jackcanfield.com/blog/6-daily-gratitude-habits-that-will-attract-more-abundance-and-joy-into-your-life/
  2. https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/short-lesson-gratitude/

Gratitude Is An “Affirmation of Goodness”

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“Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.” ~ Robert Emmons

Gratitude is more than just a overused feel-good buzzword. In fact, gratitude is a surprisingly powerful force. It’s an attitude and practice shown to improve your mental, physical, and emotional health.

Gratitude is often defined as the expression of a deep appreciation for something or someone that is given freely without expecting anything in return.

Showing appreciation and gratitude for the things and people in your lives can help you adapt to change, cope with difficulties, increase your business success, regulate your emotions and improve your mental and physical well-being.

According to Robert Emmons, psychology professor and one of the leading scientific experts on gratitude at the University of California, Davis, gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.

“This doesn’t mean that life is perfect,” Emmons says, “it doesn’t ignore complaints, burdens, and hassles. But when we look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life.”

And identifying this goodness has a big impact on our brains, bodies and well-being. Studies show that people who practice gratitude experience more positive emotions, improve their physical health, build stronger relationships, and better deal with adversity.

The Effects of Practicing Gratitude

1 | Gratitude Boosts Positive Emotions

Gratitude can help you experience more positive emotions. When we practice appreciation for the people, things, or experiences around us, we become more present and engaged with life and the joys and pleasures it has to offer. Gratitude interrupts the mental cycle of negativity bias helping to decrease anxiety and depression and shift your mindset towards more ease. With consistent practice, this positive mindset becomes a new habit, helping you experience more of the “good stuff”.

2 | Gratitude is Good For Your Body

Gratitude can improve not only your mental health but your physical health as well. Studies have shown the practicing gratitude can lead to lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, and better sleep. People that practice gratitude are also reported to experience less aches and pains and seem to take better care of themselves with more regular exercise and check-ups at the doctor.

3 | Gratitude Improves Relationships (not just romantic ones)

Research shows that practicing gratitude can make our romantic relationships more satisfying, help us feel more invested in our friendships, and lead us to be more helpful coworkers. Beyond just feeling more positive about one another, gratitude helps us feel more comfortable expressing concerns about the relationship and motivates us to work harder and show up more fully in our relationships and jobs.

4 | Gratitude Makes Us More Resilient

Grateful people are more resilient when stressed. Studies show that a grateful disposition can help a person recover more quickly in the face of serious adversity and suffering. Given the physical, emotional and relational benefits described above, it doesn’t come as a surprise that people who practice gratitude feel more able to deal with the challenges they face. Staying connected to the resources in and around us helps guard against the anxiety of life’s stressors.

How to Actually Feel Grateful (and shift towards a gratitude mindset)

Whether you are a naturally grateful person or you find yourself more on the pessimistic side, a gratitude mindset is a skill we can all develop. The benefits of gratitude build up over time, so finding small and easy practices that you can commit to each day is the best way to feel the effects in your life. 

Start actively tuning into the positive events in your life and anything that make you feel good. Try one (or more!) of these tips today:

  1. Get into a habit of writing down three things you’re grateful for daily.
  2. Text/tell a loved one why you appreciate them. Bonus: It’ll probably make their day too.
  3. As you fall asleep or in quiet moments, make a mental gratitude list starting with each letter of the alphabet.
  4. Start a daily gratitude journal.
  5. Visualize something you love (a person, place, pet or object) and let your imagination bring it to life. Let yourself fill up with warmth. 

Bottomline, Gratitude Is An “Affirmation of Goodness”

References:

  1. https://www.calm.com/blog/why-gratitude-is-good-for-your-mental-healthhttps://www.calm.com/blog/why-gratitude-is-good-for-your-mental-health
  2. https://www.mindful.org/an-introduction-to-mindful-gratitude/

💙

Practicing Gratitude

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Practicing gratitude has incredible effects, from improving our mental health to boosting our relationships with others.

Practicing gratitude can have far reaching life-enhancing effects, from improving your mental health to boosting your relationships with family members and friends.

Living your life with gratitude helps you notice the little wins—like the bus showing up right on time, a stranger holding the door for you, or the sun shining through your window when you wake up in the morning.

Each of these small moments strings together to create a web of well-being that, over time, strengthens your ability to better notice the peace, joy and good in life.

Building your capacity for gratitude isn’t difficult. It just takes practice. The more you can bring your attention to that which you feel grateful for, the more you’ll notice to feel grateful for!

1. Start by observing. Notice the thank yous you say. Just how much of a habitual response is it? Is it a hasty aside, an afterthought? How are you feeling when you express thanks in small transactions? Stressed, uptight, a little absent-minded? Do a quick scan of your body—are you already physically moving on to your next interaction?

2. Pick one interaction a day. When your instinct to say “thanks” arises, stop for a moment and take note. Can you name what you feel grateful for, even beyond the gesture that’s been extended? Then say thank you.

Robert Emmons, psychology professor and gratitude researcher at the University of California, Davis, explains that there are two key components of practicing gratitude:

  1. We affirm the good things we’ve received
  2. We acknowledge the role other people play in providing our lives with goodness

Research has linked gratitude with a wide range of health, mental and emotional benefits, including strengthening your immune system and improving sleep patterns, feeling optimistic and experiencing more joy and pleasure, being more helpful and generous, and feeling less lonely and isolated.

“Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness”. When you practice gratitude, you acknowledge the good things in the world and the gifts you’ve received in your life.” ~ Robert Emmons

References:

  1. https://www.mindful.org/an-introduction-to-mindful-gratitude/

Gratitude

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“I have every possession I want. I have a lot of friends who have a lot more possessions. But in some cases, I feel the possession possesses them, rather than the other way around.” ~ Warren Buffett

Never allow all the things you selfishly covet or you want make you forget about all the things you have or currently possess. Put a little gratitude in your life today and be thankful for all you already possess.

Moreover, happiness doesn’t mean everything is pleasing or perfect. Instead, happiness means that you can choose to see beyond the problems and imperfections, and embrace an attitude of gratitude.

The endless pursuit of hollow amenities and fruitless assets that barely add any value to your life are often so intoxicating that people loose sight of things that truly make them happy and bring them joy such as personal relationships, joy and peace in abundance.

“Sometimes you have to stop staring at your problems and start seeing how beautiful life really is.” ~ Anonymous

Don’t wait for great. Be Great everyday! Don’t allow a little negativity keep you from feeling grateful for everything that is going right and for everything that is good and pleasing in your life.

Gratitude must become a 24 hour / 365 day mindset, so that you don’t take what you have for granted.

Research shows that gratitude can:

  • Help you make friends. One study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek a more lasting relationship with you.
  • Improve your physical health. People who exhibit gratitude report fewer aches and pains, a general feeling of health, more regular exercise, and more frequent checkups with their doctor than those who don’t.
  • Improve your psychological health and emotional well-being. Grateful people enjoy higher wellbeing and happiness and suffer from reduced symptoms of depression.
  • Enhance empathy and reduces aggression. Those who show their gratitude are less likely to seek revenge against others and more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, with sensitivity and empathy.
  • Improve your sleep. Practicing gratitude regularly can help you sleep longer and better.
  • Enhance your self-esteem. People who are grateful have increased self-esteem, partly due to their ability to appreciate other peoples’ accomplishments.
  • Increase in mental strength. Grateful people have an advantage in overcoming trauma and enhanced resilience, helping them to bounce back from highly stressful situations.

References:

  1. https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-exercises/

May you have Peace, Joy and Patience in Abundance!

Have an Attitude of Gratitude

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“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough” – Oprah Winfrey

Life isn’t always butterflies and rainbows. Sometimes life can be difficult, complicated and messy.

And, you don’t have the power to always control all the external factors to be exactly how you may want them to be in your life. However, you can choose your thoughts, feelings and words. You can choose your response or reaction to those external factors.

You have a choice when it comes to your perspective and you can decide which mindset you choose to navigate your experiences through, one of lack (fixed) or one of abundance (abundance).

Choose an Attitude of Gratitude.

It’s imperative to find and focus on the good. And allow yourself to soak up all the abundance and wonder life has to offer. It’s so much more fun than complaining and being negative all the time.

Practicing gratitude: Remember to be thankful when you wake up in the morning!

Research shows that practicing and expressing gratitude is associated with improvements to one’s mental well-being, as well as decreased stress and anxiety. Additionally, success in life starts with acknowledging what you already have.

Many successful people share a similar daily ritual that helps them achieve short-term and long-term success: making a list of what they are grateful for.

“What we focus on, what we put our attention on really determines how we feel about that particular day or our life in general,” states Arianna Huffington.

A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who wrote about their gratitude over a period of time showed greater signs of emotional well-being compared to people who wrote about negative or neutral life events.

Practicing gratitude trains your brain to feel more positive emotions, appreciate good experiences, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships; all of which contribute to improved mental health.

“Gratitude is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more powerful it becomes. And being grateful doesn’t just make other people happy—it makes you happy, too! That’s because it focuses your attention on the positive things in your life, not the negative ones,” explains Oprah Winfrey.

When you begin to focus more on what really matters and choosing to see your reality from the lens of contentment. This allows you to eliminate unnecessary wants that could sabotage your vision and purpose. It might derail your pursuit of true happiness.

It may not feel natural at first to focus on appreciating what you already have, but by faithfully practicing the daily habits of gratitude, you’ll begin to change your conditioning and strengthen the gratitude muscle.

Bottomline: Always live in gratitude for what you have.

“Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.” — Oprah Winfrey

References:

  1. https://www.oprah.com/spirit/oprahs gratitude-journal-oprah-on-gratitude
  2. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/16/how-arianna-huffington-tony-robbins-and-oprah-use-gratitude-to-succeed.html

Thought of the Day

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There are no limitations to the mind conditioned for success and achievement.

“Try as hard as you wish and you cannot be happy unless you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

Work with all the strength at your command and you cannot accumulate more than barely enough to live on unless you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

The one and only person in all this world through whose efforts you can be supremely happy under all circumstances, and, through whose labor you can accumulate all the material wealth that you can use legitimately, is YOURSELF!” —Napoleon Hill

When you believe in your ability to succeed…you completely transform your life.

The Power of Faith

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“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” ~ Voltaire

What is the Power of Faith?

One example of the “power of faith” is to imagine that you’re a passenger on a Boeing 747 jetliner and trusting that the law of physics applies regarding the lifting force generated by aircraft wings are sufficient to allow an inanimate cylindrical object that has a mass of several thousand kilograms to sustain controlled flight at an altitude of over thirty thousand feet for several hours and several thousand miles.

Faith is believing and trusting that aeronautical engineers properly designed the passenger jetliner, that manufactures, such as Boeing or Airbus, correctly assembled the technological complex flying machine, and that government agencies, like the FAA, reliably certified the jetliner as safe you’re currently flying on as a passenger.

Finally, faith is accepting that the pilots at the controls are adequately trained and experienced to fly the multi-engine passenger jet, that the maintenance technicians were competent and skilled in their duties to maintain the aircraft systems and prevent catastrophic failure while the aircraft is in flight, and that the operations watch standers are cognizant and alert to ensure no other aircraft will share the same volume of airspace at the same time with the jetliner in which you’re a passenger.

Bottomline, most things we do in life, such as flying the friendly skies, are based solely on conscious or subconscious faith.

Faith is believing, trusting and accepting the unknown or that which you cannot know for certain. In a way, faith is believing and trusting what you cannot be entirely be certain about.

It’s the complete and absolute trust or confidence in someone or something. Educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was quoted as saying, “I plunged into the job of creating something from nothing…. Though I hadn’t a penny left, I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a living God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve.”

Believing and having faith in yourself will ensure you achieve your loftiest goals. You can say that faith is the key to living a better and more fulfilling life.

“Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” ~ Mary McLeod Bethune

Gratitude

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“Integrate gratitude into your daily life.”

It’s essential to find gratitude every day.

Gratitude means thanks and appreciation for all things. It’s the state of feeling grateful — a conscious, positive emotion one can express when feeling especially thankful for something, whether intangible or tangible.

Robert Emmons, in a Greater Good essay, “Why Gratitude Is Good”, argues that gratitude has two key components:

  • “First, it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.”
  • Second, people should “recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. … We acknowledge that other people—or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset—gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.”

“Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness and a recognition that this goodness is sourced outside the self.” This doesn’t mean that life is perfect and peaceful, but when you look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages you to identify some amount of goodness and joy in your life.” Dr. Robert Emmons

References:

  1. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition
  2. https://www.brownleeglobal.com/gratitude-research/

Gratitude Research

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Gratitude is “an affirmation of goodness and a recognition that this goodness is sourced outside the self.” This doesn’t mean that life is perfect and peaceful, but when you look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages you to identify some amount of goodness and joy in your life. Dr. Robert Emmons

Research indicates that gratitude can lower blood pressure, improve immune function, reduce cardiac inflammation, increase happiness, improve relationships, and decrease depression. 

Dr. Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, researcher, and author of the book Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, suggests that you “integrate gratitude into your daily life, rather than make it something you need to add to an already busy day”.

He recommends that you simply make it a point to notice opportunities that you can be thankful for and practice gratitude regularly.

Practicing gratitude can also make you better equipped to handle the difficulties of life that inevitably arise. In fact, according to Emmons, it’s an essential part of the process of healing from trauma. Even despair can be mitigated by the experience of appreciation for the good, however slight it might be.

Many survivors of the Holocaust, when asked to tell their stories, remember most strongly the feelings of gratitude for food, shelter, or clothing that was offered to them. This sense of thankfulness for the small blessings helped them maintain their humanity despite experiencing a horrific tragedy.

Additionally, many people with life-threatening illnesses also report decreased distress and increased positive emotions when they practice gratitude.

10 tips to fit gratitude in your life

Here are ten ways to become a more thankful person, according to Dr. Emmons:

  1. Every day, say aloud three good things that happened. It’s also extremely powerful to express gratitude aloud when you’re alone.
  2. Keep a gratitude journal. Jot down the small things from your day that mattered to you. If you’re having a particularly rough day, you can look back through the pages of accumulated blessings in your life.
  3. Say thanks to your partner. Couples who express gratitude toward one another set up a powerful feedback loop of intimacy and trust, where both partners feel as if their needs are being met.
  4. Cool a hot temper with a quick gratitude inventory. One of the quickest ways to dispel the energy of a stormy mood is to focus your attention on what’s good. So when you’re about to lash out at someone, take a moment to do a quick inventory of five things you’re thankful for in the moment. It will help you relax and avoid saying something you’ll later regret.
  5. Thank yourself. Gratitude doesn’t always need to be focused on what other people have done for you! Make sure you give yourself a thank-you for the healthy habits you’ve cultivated in your own life.
  6. Use technology to send three gratitude messages a week. Harness the power of this technology to send out some good vibes, such as a text or Facebook comment, to tell your friends why you appreciate them.
  7. Savor the good moments. If you notice you’re feeling happy, stop what you’re doing and pay attention for a few minutes. Notice exactly how you feel, including the sensations in your body and the thoughts you’re having. Later, when you’re trying to inspire gratitude, you can remember this moment and experience the benefits all over again.
  8. Check for silver linings. Even the most difficult life challenges come with some benefit—you just have to look to find them. Making a mistake teaches you a lesson. When things feel hard, ask yourself: What’s good here?
  9. Look outward, not inward. Robert Emmons says people are more likely to feel grateful when they put their focus on others, rather than getting caught up in their own inner narratives about how things should have gone. Empathy for others can trigger a sense of gratitude, and people who have an outward focus tend to experience stronger benefits.
  10. Change your perspective. If you struggle to come up with something to feel grateful for, put yourself in the shoes of someone who is experiencing misfortunes greater than your own. It will inspire gratitude for your own healthy body and circumstances, which you may have taken for granted otherwise.

It is vitally important to your health and overall emotional well being to cultivate a sense of gratitude in your life. Research confirms that gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.

References:

  1. https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/making-gratitude-part-everyday-life-tips-dr-robert-emmons
  2. https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/10-ways-be-more-thankful-person