“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Buddha
Gratitude is one of those things that is almost universally accepted to be a good thing by everyone. You’d be hard pressed to find people who say that it’s better to be ungrateful. Even if you’re usually a grateful person though, there will be times when life knocks you down and it may feel hard to be grateful for much. That’s why I chose to quote Buddha in the beginning of this, because no matter what, there is always something to be grateful for.
I’ve heard it said once that “It’s not an attitude of gratitude, it’s a practice of Gratitude,” and it hits the nail on the head (I believe Dr. Brene Brown said it but I’m not sure). It’s not enough to simply say we’re grateful occasionally. Sure, when things are going well it’s easy to be grateful for things, but what if things aren’t going so well? That’s where the importance of practicing gratitude daily comes in.
By actively choosing to think about things we are grateful for each day, we are training our brains to view the world in a more positive light. Life is going to dim that light at times when unfortunate events happen, so why not actively keep that light as bright and positive as we can?
It’s easy to get frustrated or angry when someone cuts you off in traffic, you get injured, or your dog chews up your favorite pair of socks. What good does lingering with those emotions for an extended period of time do though? It certainly doesn’t move you forward in a positive direction. We can’t change things that happen to us, but we can choose our response to those external events.
You could’ve been hit by that person who cut you off, but you weren’t. So, your dog chewed up a pair of your socks, but you still have 160 some pairs left (speaking personally…). Getting injured or having pain in general is unfortunate, but there’s always something we can do.
Looking at things through the lens of the gym, let’s say you tweaked your right knee. It would be easy to skip the gym altogether and say to yourself, “since my knee hurts what’s the point in going to workout? I won’t be able to do much.” Just as easy, you might have a pity party and feel bad for yourself. But what good would that do? You can be thankful you still have three other limbs and there is plenty you can do to keep training. Gratitude can also keep us hopeful that things can get better.
Practicing gratitude can help us realize that things could be better and that gives us hope. This hopefulness that things will get better also allows us to strive for bigger and more challenging goals. If we hold a limiting belief that nothing ever works out for us and that we can’t change, then we can’t. Not if our self-talk is always hopeless and self-limiting. Gratitude is just one way of building hope by opening us up to the possibility that things in our lives can improve. If we can start cultivating even a little bit of hope in this one area, then there’s a chance it can trickle into other areas of our lives.
At this point in the blog post you may have said to yourself, “Gratitude seems pretty cool, man.”, and you would be right. But maybe you’re wondering how to go about implementing a gratitude practice yourself. If you aren’t wondering that then please wonder now before continuing…
A simple way to practice gratitude daily is to do it first thing in the morning by writing down three things you’re grateful for. For example, I might write the following one morning:
- I’m grateful for heat in my house during the winter
- I’m grateful for a working car to get me to work
- I’m grateful for healthy body that allows me to do the things I need to do
This is just one example of mine from a couple days ago and there are thousands of things that I could write. Practicing gratitude can be as simple as what I just stated above. And, like any skill, it gets easier to use it the more we do it. We may find ourselves thinking of things to be grateful for randomly in the middle of the day. Or, something happens to stress us out but we’re grateful for it being a minor annoyance and nothing more.
Jon Goodman once said (about gratitude),
“If you do it daily, you’ll notice incredible benefits and major life change.”
Not a bad deal for something that takes minimal time and some conscious effort if you ask me. By taking a few minutes each morning to jot down what we’re thankful for, or a time that works for you, we’re setting ourselves up to maintain a more positive outlook, have hope things can be better, and putting ourselves in the best position to be successful.