Every so often life becomes overwhelming. Things begin to pile up on top of each other, and the bright colors that were once there, start to fade. Waking up with a smile on your face and a sense of purpose becomes more and more difficult.
These periods of life are not rare, and many of us get to experience them. Nevertheless, when they do come around, it’s important to hang in there and to stay positive. Know that everything in life passes, including the difficult times.
I’ve put together for you a list of ten ways to develop the attitude of gratitude. These are things that you can always feel grateful for even in the most difficult of moments. If you know anyone else who might be needing an extra bit of encouragement, feel free to share this list with them as well.
1. Read stories of failure & success
The easiest way to develop gratitude towards life is to read about the failure and success stories of other people.
Some of the world’s most known people were also the ones to have some of the most difficult times growing up. A part of them was brought up in very poor conditions, while others were unfortunate enough to be born physically disabled. Yet many of these individuals kept pushing no matter what. They didn’t give up, they worked twice as hard, and as a result, became the people they were destined to be.
Reading these kinds of stories helps us understand just have fortunate we are to live in this day and age, with two hands and two legs. In many ways, our opportunities today are endless. If those people with difficult fates were able to love life so much and to achieve their goals, so can we.
A famous inspirational example is the story of Nick Vujicic, a man born with no arms and no legs. You can find out more about him from the “Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life”.
2. Appreciation for your achievements
Having a difficult time understanding what to be grateful for? Make a complete list of the big and small things that you have accomplished so far.
Living a hectic life, we often take for granted the achievements that we make. Old memories are quickly replaced by newer ones, and we forget about the fulfillment we once experienced from reaching a set goal.
To do this task, take a piece of paper and write down all of the accomplishments that at some point caused you to feel proud. You might at first think that there aren’t many, but once you start jotting them down, you will be surprised by just how much you have done so far.
When you have them written, try to re-experience the gratitude that you once had for these experiences. Preserve this state of mind and aim it at the things you have yet to conquer.
3. Being grateful for what you eat
One of the things that yoga has taught me that I still use every single day is the idea that we should be grateful for the food that we eat.
The majority of us today have no problem of going to the grocery store and buying whatever food we like. We take it home, cook it and eat it without really considering just how blessed we are to be able to stop our hunger so easily. If you think about it, people in the past did not have this luxury. They had to hunt in order to feed themselves and the whole family. In many cases, the animals that needed to be killed ended up killing the hunters. This was just the reality of life back then.
But you don’t even have to go back in time to really appreciate the availability of food to us. There are people living on this planet right now that are either very poor and cannot afford most of the food that we get to eat, or live in very distant places of the planet in which grocery stores are scarce.
Every time you are about to munch on food, try to be more aware of what it took to get that food to you. You may think of farmers working in the fields or even the animal that gave up its life. Either way, being able to appreciate food is important and is a great way to grow your attitude of gratitude.
P.S. You don’t have to read a prayer of any kind if you aren’t religious. You can simply say “thank you”.
4. Gratitude in the morning
When you wake up, instead of checking your email on the phone or rushing to shower, take a minute or two to express gratitude for the coming day.
For example, I can say: “I am thankful for being alive, and to be able to wake up today and see the beauty of the world. I am grateful to be alive here and now, to be able to have someone to talk to, and share ideas and experiences with. It’s truly a blessing. I am blessed to walk this planet and to be able to work on my goals and experience happiness, love and fulfillment. I will live this day with appreciation and gratitude towards everything and everyone around me.”
This really helps to get yourself into the positive state of mind, which is essential to living a more happy and grateful life.
5. Gratitude in the evening
This attitude of gratitude exercise is similar to the previous one, except you do this right before sleep.
When in bed, remind yourself of everything you accomplished throughout the day. Remind yourself of all the amazing people you met and the experiences that you were fortunate enough to have.
Also, it’s really important to tell yourself that in the past day, you were able to grow a bit more and to become stronger. Today you know something you did not know yesterday, and tomorrow you will know something you do not know today. Every day is special. That is something to be grateful for.
6. Inspire yourself with quotes
I have found quotes to be very helpful when learning how to be more grateful in life.
This is similar to reading famous failure and success stories, except it takes way less time. All you have to do is find daily a quote or two about gratitude, and to become inspired.
I see so much potential in quotes that I have dedicated most of my social media space to them. Here is an example:
7. Life is a blessing
One of the most straightforward approaches to developing an attitude of gratitude is to be thankful for all that you already have.
Let’s be thankful for our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, for the education that we got, for the friends that we have, the time and place that we live in, the feelings we get to experience on a daily basis. Be grateful that you are healthy and alive, be grateful for life.
If you feel that you lack gratitude, just remind yourself that life has already given you so much.
8. Meditation
Meditation is helpful in many ways. It has taught me to be more aware, to be more in control of my emotions and feelings, and it has forced me to become more compassionate.
Whenever I meditate, I get the strong feeling of being present in the moment. This feeling of being present helps me see just how incredible life is and how amazing it is to be able to experience it. After all, the chances of me being born were pretty much non-existent, yet it happened anyway, and that is truly a miracle.
Meditation for me is the ability to catch this incredible small bit of time, called “now”, and to lengthen it into something that I can comprehend. The more I am able to experience and to comprehend the “now” moment, the more grateful I feel for everything that happens to me.
I cannot recommend meditation enough if you are truly seeking to build the attitude of gratitude. Besides that, it also helps with stress and anxiety.
9. Help others
If you feel that you can’t find what to be grateful for in your life, try helping others.
There are many ways to offer aid. For example, you can do volunteer work in the form of helping the elderly, sick children, animals, people with addictions, etc. Alternatively, you can donate money, food or even clothes.
Helping people and animals will make their lives so much better, but it holds a lot of value for you, too. First of all, you will feel very good about giving away. This is one of the ways to experience real fulfillment.
Secondly, by helping others, you learn about the difficulties that they have to go through on a daily basis. You may see the effects of drug addiction, a terminal illness, poverty, domestic violence, or any other.
Because you are directly helping a certain cause, you take a bit (or a lot) of it into yourself. As a result, you may feel the desire to stop complaining about your minor problems and begin to appreciate life a lot more, even the most difficult moments. When you have something to compare to, you begin to appreciate what you have a lot more.
10. Remind yourself that nothing is eternal
Finally, the last way how to develop the attitude of gratitude is to remind yourself that nothing in this world is eternal, including you.
People don’t usually like to think about death, but I say that is it absolutely necessary! When we remind ourselves that we, too, are going to die one day, our gratitude for life grows. Even the tiniest moments of joy become precious.
You don’t know when will be your last day here, so you begin to live every one of them as if it was the last. You also don’t know when will be the last day of the ones you love, so you learn to appreciate them even more.
Reminding yourself of death is a remedy against the lack of gratitude. However, it’s also a very effective kick in the butt for those of us that find it difficult to overcome procrastination and laziness. If you have big goals in life that you know you must accomplish, but you feel too afraid to start, afraid of failure, or of what others may think of you, just remind yourself that tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone. No reason to wait.
These were the ten ways how you can grow the attitude of gratitude. Hopefully, you found them useful and can now enjoy life more.
Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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