My Gratitude Practice has Changed Me
Over the past few years I have become aware of how my daily gratitude practice has changed how I look at everyday situations and in exchange has changed me.
Many people are born with more optimistic personalities while others typically see the negative. While I feel that I am wired toward being positive, I have also been through many dark times in life. There have been moments when it felt like life was throwing everything it could at me. Although I can’t remember when I exactly began my gratitude practice, I believe it was during these dark moments when I began to look for the good. What I have discovered is gratitude comes from the small moments in life. It is these small moments that lead us to the larger moments.Acknowledging the small gifts allows you to be grateful when the world seems dark.
During my Mom’s illness, while I was working full time and helping to provide care, I remember a specific moment of trying to handle a situation. My first thought immediately went to what I was grateful for and did have. I stopped myself in that moment and realized that the years of practicing gratitude had actually trained my brain. In the midst of my mother dying, I was embracing gratitude. I did not get to this place overnight. I also have days where it is hard to be grateful. I’ve shared how I have allowed myself to have a pity party. However, each day I purposely stop and express my thankfulness for the good I have been given. As a result, I am not the person I could have become. With the losses of the past few years, I could have easily become bitter toward life. Sadly, I have encountered many who allow their bitterness to overtake the blessings in their life. Beginning a gratitude practice is simple. It takes nothing more than a small notebook or an app on your phone. Before going to bed each night, acknowledge at least three things that you are grateful for during the day. Perhaps someone let you pull out in front of them in traffic (and it helped because you were running late) or held the door open (rather than let it close in your face). There have been times when I was grateful someone smiled at me! There may be days when you find yourself using the same items. I encourage people to do that when the days are especially rough but always look for one extra moment. I promise there is one! As you continue this practice, it will become a habit. [tweetthis]Habits change into character ~ Ovid [/tweetthis] My daily thoughts and life have been changed because of these moments of gratitude.Do you have a gratitude practice? How has it changed who you are?
I love this! So important!!! I think it makes such a difference when we have gratitude vs. bitterness! I agree, the more we do it and practice, the more natural it will become 🙂
Practice really does make a habit! It’s so important to look for the good that is around us.
This is so true! We have to practice change before we completely change ourselves. This year my word/phrase of the year was positive vibes. I am so sick of all this negativity. Thanks for the post!
http://www.thisisreallife.co
Christine, Thanks for stopping by! We really do have the power to change ourselves!
I don’t have one but I think I should. Whenever I get down about certain things I just try to think about how lucky I am to have the things I do. Something like a gratitude journal would make it easier!
Janette, having a place to put them down really does help. I’ve also found that it’s nice to go back and see what I was thankful for at times. I hope you will give it a try!
I love this! I feel like I have tried getting into this practice several times and haven’t been consistent with it. I think I really need to try again though because I can see the great value in it. I’m also wired to think more negative I think, and if I were to develop a gratitude practice I think that would change a lot of things for me.
It truly does take practice for it to become a habit. The moment I talk about was when it truly hit me that I had changed my way of thinking and viewing the world. Give it a try – and don’t beat yourself up if you miss a few days. I found that because I was going to end my day with 3 things, I wanted to make sure I was observing them. Let me know how it goes.
I will do that, I’ve tried doing ten before but 5 of them land up being food related (is that terrible?) I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂
I love that you appreciate food! There’s nothing wrong with that! 10 was a lot – so no wonder it included food. Try the three and allow for extras if it was a really good day!
Being grateful is something that I’ve been working on these past couple of years. I write down something that I’m grateful for and put it into a jar. I re-read the slips each New Year’s as a way to remember the year and those things that I was grateful for during the year. Sometimes it’s the small things that stand out the most.
I’ve never tried the gratitude jar but feel it has to be so powerful to reread at New Year’s. Thanks for stopping by!
I LOVE this, Sheryl. I went through a similar path to practicing daily gratefulness 🙂 I’d started a monthly challenge called Twelve Months of Bliss (so for one year) and it literally changed my life. It makes me so happy to hear of others who have found this new place too. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Emily, I’m thankful I found your link up! I know that getting a gratitude practice started can be difficult but the results are so significant.
I need.to.do.this. I like to say I’m an eternal optimist and overall positive, but why not take it up a bigger notch and be thankful and say those out loud before saying good night. I will start now. Thanks for inspiring!!
P.S. You may have inspired me to write a blog on this – I’ll definitely mention you!
Chiara
http://www.that-spark-of-light.com
Oh Chiara, I’m so excited to read your post!! I love that you are an eternal optimist but I also think there’s power in being purposely in acknowledging the gratitudes.
Gratitude does sometimes take work but it can change your whole outlook. Life is short…we need to enjoy it.
Laina, It’s amazing how it can change the whole perspective of a situation. I’m so glad you stopped by.
love this. i created a gratitude project this year as well… and i totally agree. please feel free to link-up with me on the 29th of every month 🙂 sharing our month of simply daily grateful moments- would love to have you! loving your blog…
Nelle, Thanks for letting me know about your link-up. I love to connect with others who are doing the same thing. Thanks for stopping by – so glad we’ve connected.
I love this, Sheryl! I just love your positive outlook on life and the messages you share. I really need to get back into using my gratitude journal. I felt so uplifted and positive while I was doing it!
Mia, I hope you can start back. There have been times in my life when I’ve not been as good but I’ve always missed it. Thank you for your note! It means alot. I certainly hope to bring some inspiration to others.
I love this! It does make all the difference to notice and be thankful for the little things!
Yes! The little things are so important but often overlooked.
I try to stop and find something to be grateful for on the really crazy everything is going wrong days … although I need to do this on the good days too 🙂 Enjoyed this food for thought!
Thank you for stopping by Christina. And yes, it’s just as important on the good days to stop and be grateful as it is on the difficult ones (although I admit sometimes those good days go by so fast, it’s easy to just enjoy and not stop for reflection.
I completely agree! I notice the difference in myself when I make a point to be thankful for the big and little things and then when I don’t. thanks for the lovely words Sheryl!
We just have to remind ourselves to stop and be grateful for big and small. Thanks for stopping by Emma!
Sheryl,
Thank you for sharing this! I used to be inately optimistic, and then as my adult life began unfolding, and I began processing the demons from my childhood and things that were occuring in my adult life, my perception of life began changing. And like your quote says, my habits (thinking negatively) started becoming my character.
I’m not a drag to be around or anything. I mostly keep my negativity within the confines of my head :), but I just can’t tolerate it anymore.
My focus of this year has been and will be JOY. I’m finding joy in everyday. Hard to be ungrateful when you’re recognizing joy all around you.
Shelly – you are so correct – it’s hard to be ungrateful when you are looking for the joy around you! I can feel the changes in you in each of your blog posts! This is going to be a joyful year for you!!
Oh this is so true! I’ve not gotten good at making gratitude a consistent habit but I have periods where I am better at it and it really changes my outlook!
I feel like you are practicing gratitude in every post that you share with everyone. I feel like you are probably a little like me and there are simply times when it is much more prominent!!
There are 2 bloggers that host a link-up listing “Ten Things That Made Me Happy This Week”. I’ve been participating for about a month, and I can already tell a difference in outlook and focus. Last week, I was feeling particularly down (I was diagnosed with depression 6 years ago)…but when I prepared my blog post, and looked through my notebook that I jot “happy things”, I realized, yep…it’s been a tough week, but there have still been a lot of moments of happiness too.
Erin, I’ve started following that link up and just haven’t been able to contribute myself. I talk about gratitude a lot but it is true that people are happy because they are grateful not grateful because they are happy. It’s so important to focus upon what there is. I’m reading The Gratitude Diaries and think you might like it.
I am glad to be reading this, and I agree with a lot of things you have shared…. I have been very optimistic and enthusiastic about life, and gratitude came naturally to me and when I got married into another family a lot of things changed and I found difficult to adjust to the new family and also and new relationships.. somehow as I was always oriented towards being grateful helped me to see always the brighter side of life, then came a few losses, I lost my mother whom I was very attached and fond of and then my 7 year old son to pneumonia but still I am grateful for them in my life and for all that they were to me.. I continue to live in gratitude and I made it a regular practice to recall a few things that I want to be grateful for everyday before I sleep and then I trained myself to rise up with gratitude; one of the first things that I do as soon as I wake up is to spend few minutes in gratitude and continue my day …
First, I want to say I’m so sorry for your losses. Death can at times make gratitude very difficult to have but you are so right that when we begin to train ourselves, we automatically find the positive and the good. Continuing a regular practice helps keep things in perspective.