Would you like to wake every morning feeling calm, joyful and blessed? I'm fairly certain the answer to that is yes and you can! The attitude of gratitude is simply making a conscious habit of expressing appreciation for your life and what and who is in it.
We all have times in our lives, when nothing seems to be going right, our finances may be lacking, time is short, our life is off course. Maybe we have suffered a loss, a relationship break up or an illness, the list can go on. At times like this, it's hard to believe that we can find anything to be grateful for, but in these times, more than any it is important for us to pause, take a breath and "count our blessings".
Having an attitude of gratitude encourages us to step outside of our problems and take a look at the bigger picture. Rather than operating from a place of fear and scarcity and focusing on what is lacking in our life, instead we keep our vibe high by directing our attention and energy to what is positive in our lives, what we have and how wonderful it is. In doing this, we send the message to Universe about what we want more of rather than what we don't. Grateful people give thanks for everything in their life, even on the days when it feels like there is nothing to be grateful for.
Sounds simple right? So why then do we find it so difficult to practice? The reality is as humans we are hardwired to fixate on the negative (often referred to as the "negative bias"). Despite the fact that this affects both our emotional and physical health, it seems that we just find it easier to notice and accept the bad things in our life. Take for example the service industry, it is a well known fact that if someone has a bad experience they will tell at least 9 people about it, yet if they have a good experience they will most likely only tell 1!
Practicing gratitude is one of the most powerful ways of boosting happiness. When we feel grateful, we experience a hit of dopamine, a feel -good chemical that sends positive energy throughout our body. It also activates our hypothalamus (the part of the brain which maintains our body's internal balance). It reduces stress, improves self-esteem, makes us more resilient and supports our overall sense of well being.
So as we can see cultivating a regular daily gratitude practice can have far reaching benefits for both our physical and emotional well being and lets face it, doesn't it sound a much happier and healthier way to live? Here are a few ideas of how to cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude.
Choose to focus on the good. Yes that's right you have a choice! Everything starts with mindset, so you can choose to focus your attention on the good things in your life even when everything around seems to be going wrong. It might seem a strange thing to say bit even in the darkest of times, there will always be something to be grateful for, if you are prepared to look for it.
Get active. Now I am not talking about going to the gym or taking up jogging (although there is nothing wrong with this!) but we want to be active in our gratitude not reactive. When we are reactive, we wait for something to happen before we express our thanks or gratitude but when we practice active gratitude, we consciously look for things to appreciate, we make a choice to be grateful.
Surround yourself with grateful people. If you spend time around people whose mentality is "glass is half empty" then you are most likely going to end up with a similar mindset. But when we spend time with people who focus on gratitude, your own gratitude and appreciation will grow. You will feel happier, more positive and more energised.
Be in the present. One of the most important parts of practicing an attitude of gratitude is to be present, Focus on being grateful for what you have right now. When you are grateful in the present, you can reframe what is important right now and what you want to be important in the future. You can let go of any feelings of anger, guilt or envy and simply be.
If you concentrate on what you have, you'll always have more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you'll never have enough.
- Lewis Howes.
When we choose to look at life through the lens of gratitude rather than disappointment, we find ourselves happier and more at peace. There is so much to be grateful for if we just learn to look for it,
Love and light
Sharon x x x
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