In life, what do we want? Most people would say money, family or an eventful career. We run continuously towards the things without looking at what we already have. This creates jealousy, misery and frustration. Make your life easier by adopting an attitude of gratitude. Instead of feeling these feelings, you will feel more calm, joyful and blissed-out when you are grateful.
What Is an Attitude of Gratitude?
An attitude of gratitude means have the mindset and habit of being more thankful for every aspect in your life, both the things that are going well and the things that aren’t. For those who are having a bad day, your focus is to expanding the positives in your life and not dwell on the negatives. Those who are grateful are thankful of everything in their lives, even when nothing feels right. Making gratitude a habit is therefore a challenge, as you feel such regardless of your situation. Even on a bad day, you must find the silver lining and give thanks for what is working.
Why Is Gratitude Important?
We have already discussed the attitude of gratitude. Now we are going to put in words why it is important in your life. Almost everyone knows the benefits of having a positive attitude, but gratitude is another feeling we need for a happier life.
Studies have even shown that if you express gratitude, it raises your happiness by 25%. Counting what you have rather than thinking about the things you don’t have tends to fill up your happiness meter.
Unfortunately, feeling grateful takes effort as it is human nature to fixate on the bad rather than the good. This is also referred to as negative bias. Even our brains are hardwired on this, as negative events have a greater effect than positive ones.
Due to the large effort it takes to adopt this attitude of gratitude, more people put it off even though it is a precursor to happiness.
3 Tips to Develop Attitude on Gratitude
- Keep a Gratitude Journal
If you are completely committed to having an attitude of gratefulness, then you can start by keeping a gratitude journal. This will help you remember the happy events that you are experiencing every day, throughout your day. It is an excellent way of rewiring your brain on focusing on the positive aspects of your day rather than the negative.
You can start by recording an average of three good things that happened on your life. Another tip we can offer you is to start in the morning, so you can start your day with a grateful heart.
- Express Your Gratitude
Once you have adopted the attitude of gratitude, feel free to share your love with others. Research has shown that people who make the effort to express their gratitude experience more positive emotions and are more likely to report helping someone and to feel connected with others.
There are numerous ways you can express your gratitude. Start by thinking about the people in your life who made a positive impact on you. Then reach out to them and inform them how much you appreciate them, whether it’s because they are in your life or for a very specific reason. Otherwise, you can write thank you notes to those who have helped you, offer meaningful compliments and celebrate the joys of others (even though it’s not yours).
- Surround yourself with gratitude mindset focused people
A gratitude mindset doesn’t only come from yourself, but also people you associate yourself with. When you are with people who have an attitude of gratitude, their energy, happiness, positivity and motivation also effects yours. Whereas spending time with negative people will also put you in that mindset.
Find grateful and appreciative people, then spend more time with them. Additionally, you can also go another level by sending handwritten letters or notes to those people saying how much you appreciate them.
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