Gratitude practices are growing in popularity and for good reasons. Gratitude is an easy and simple way to improve the health of your mind. Keep reading to learn how to start your own gratitude practice today.
What is a gratitude practice?
Gratitude means being thankful and appreciative. I’m sure many of us feel that we are grateful for the things in our lives but do you actually take the time to stop and think about them?
A gratitude practice is when you consciously set aside time to focus on what you are grateful for. It’s when you choose to focus on what you have instead of focusing on what you feel is lacking.
When you choose to look at your life in this manner, the overall quality of your life is bound to improve. It’s also teaching your mind that you are in control of what it focuses on.
Gratitude and mental health
Taking care of your mind is just as important of taking care of your physical body.
I believe that everyone needs to have some type of practice that works on the health of the mind.
This can be different for everyone. One way to do this is to practice gratitude.
A gratitude practice works on taking care of your mind, kind of like meditation does, but this type of practice may be an easier place for you to start.
Although I find that a meditation practice tends to be more effective in caring for the entire self, (mind, body, and soul), a gratitude practice tends to take less time and many find it easier. For these two reasons, it’s a great place to start for anyone new to practicing mindfulness.
Gratitude and manifestation
For many of us, our minds tend to focus on the negative and we have to consciously retrain it to focus on the positive.
Allowing yourself to feel gratitude is a key factor in manifestation. In order to manifest what you desire, you need to bring positive and elevated emotions to your life.
When you feel like you are lacking in life, you end up staying in this feeling of lack. .
When you practice gratitude, you are feeling grateful for what you have the makes you feel abundant.
When you feel abundant, you allow the space to create more abundance
Just because you are grateful and appreciate what you have now doesn’t mean that you can’t have goals. When you are happy and grateful in the present moment, it will only be that much better when you achieve those goals.
How to start your gratitude practice
You can practice gratitude by either writing down a few things that you are grateful for or by setting a time to sit in quiet to think about what you brings you gratitude.
You can do this practice at any time of day. For most, this works best to do either before starting your day or before going to sleep but find what works for you! If you know you feel super stressed at work midday, maybe that is the best time for you to practice gratitude.
Think about 3 things you are grateful for each day. To keep yourself accountable, I highly suggest either writing them down or setting a specific time that you do this each day. If this is your mindfulness practice, it should be done daily.
Some people enjoy keeping a gratitude journal. Here is one for reference that’s only about $6 on amazon: Gratitude Journal
You can also use other practices such as yoga and meditation to accompany your gratitude practice.
Another way to make this practice more effective is to think about both big and little things in life.
An example of something “big” would be being thankful for your family or for having a roof over your head.
An example of something “little” would be appreciating the blooming flowers in spring or how cozy your blanket feels on a cold day.
Tuning into the feeling of gratitude for things in nature is a great way for us to expand our consciousness.
Another thing that can help make your gratitude practice more effective is to try your best to limit complaining throughout your day. For the majority of us, it’s probably near impossible to never complain, but working on reducing this can help you start to focus more on the positives. It also makes you more pleasant to be around 😝
The more we practice gratitude, the more this becomes a way of life and the more our mind will start to see the positives over the negatives.
I think having a gratitude practice has been increasing in popularity because it’s so easy to do and it can really be life changing.
As humans, we can have one negative thing happen in the day and 10 positives and many of us will focus on the one bad thing and forget all the good.
We have to retrain our brain to shift it’s focus. Find something positive in each day to break this habit!
So, what are you grateful for today?
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