Gratitude simply means a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. Gratitude is actually rather simple and easy to do and showing gratitude and then applying it, can create so much happiness in your life.
Gratitude creates a positive feeling in you and the people you show it to. It alters your perspective of negative feelings, thoughts or beliefs you may have of yourself or others by alerting these feelings, thoughts and beliefs to the things that you are grateful for. Gratitude raises your awareness and focus and it can inspire you to achieve better for yourself and the people around you.
There are so many wonderful benefits of simply being grateful. Yet, many people still do not or refuse to shower themselves or the people around them with gratitude. Instead, they put themselves and others down by criticism and being negative.
Let’s first talk about how you can start showing gratitude to yourself. To start doing this, you must first be appreciative of all your achievements, big or small, that you have experienced so far in your life. Ask yourself: when was the last time you actually rewarded yourself for those achievements? If you have constantly been doing so, then this is great. If not, then it’s about time you start indulging or pampering yourself with some simple or extravagant (whichever is appropriate) rewards for all your past achievements and the future ones.
Next be appreciative of the things you have - your job, work place, house, finances, family, food and your surroundings. I know it can be rather impossible to directly show gratitude to these things but don’t worry. You can actually list down these things and write down thank you notes for each of them to express your gratitude. Keep referring to this list when you’re feeling sad or depressed and you can instantly feel a surge of happiness or positive emotions. You can always create a gratitude journal and write things in it every night before you go to sleep.
There are many ways you can express your gratitude to the people around you.
Here are a couple of examples:
Complementing, praising and appreciating people around you for all they have done for you or your family. By doing this, you gain their respect and trust and they are more likely to continue supporting you.
Make a thank you list of all the people you are grateful for and constantly refer to this list to give yourself a greater feeling of gratitude.
Give a simple verbal thank you, a note of appreciation or even a thank you email to express your gratitude to the people who have assisted you over the past week or month.
Shower the people you are grateful for with small or big cards or even a small gift to clearly show them how much you appreciate them.
Simply provide the people around you with gifts that cannot be bought with cash like your valuable time, your sacrifice or something that you know is important to them.
Being mindful of what you are grateful for and creating an 'Attitude of Gratitude' will increase your personal growth and your overall happiness.
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