Why is the Practice of Gratitude so Important?
Gratitude is one of the newest additions to my bag of skills that I practice daily. I never understood the importance or the power of being grateful until I started doing it every day. When I first started, I would wake up in the morning and simply list things I was grateful for. I started off practicing gratitude like it was a duty — something similar to brushing your teeth, getting dressed, or taking a shower. I didn’t notice any changes or improvements to my day because I was starting each day this way, but I kept at it. I have read and heard about the power of being grateful from many sources, so I knew there was something to it. I understood that I probably wasn’t practicing gratitude in the most powerful manner, but I knew I had to start somewhere. With this thought in mind, I just kept repeating the process — first thing I would do when my eyes opened was begin listing things I was grateful for — the roof over my head, my health, my dog, my job, etc.
About two weeks into starting this new daily ritual, something began to shift in me. For the most part, I continued to list the same things, but I started to actually feel grateful when I began listing things in my mind. It was at this point that the things my mind was listing off connected with my heart. This is when my new daily routine became a game changer. I started off my day being immensely grateful for the things going well in my life, and it made it very hard to have a bad day. Keeping gratitude at the forefront of my mind and starting my day off with it made the minor annoyances I experienced throughout the day quite trivial. In the evening, when I reflected back on those minor annoyances, I knew that if I hadn’t been focused on gratitude, those annoyances would have become major mood-altering annoyances that shifted the entire trajectory of my day. I knew this because that is exactly what they had done before I started practicing gratitude. It was in these times of reflection that I appreciated the power of gratitude.
There is always something to be grateful for in your life — always. At first you may find it challenging to come up with the things you are grateful for simply because we as humans spend a lot of time thinking about the things we want, but don’t have. Putting the spotlight on the things you do have and are happy to have changes what we think about in a day. You may just find that if you spend your day focusing on what you do have, the things that you don’t have but really want start showing up. How can that be? Because when you are living your life from a place of gratitude instead of from a place of want, it changes how you act and react throughout the day. It is because of those changes that you end up getting exactly what is that you always wanted.
Why not give it a try today? List 5 things you are grateful for when you wake up tomorrow morning. Know that it is okay if you are simply making a list, but don’t actually feel grateful. That will come with time. For me, practicing gratitude was like learning to ride a bike. I kept at it until I got it. I still experience days where I feel like I am just making a list in my head, but those days are fewer and further between. Like riding a bike, it’s all about continuing to try until you get it. Once you get it, it just becomes something you know how to do. Trust me, this is a skill you won’t be sorry that you spent the time learning how to use.
Originally published at http://mastermindpersonalcoaching.com on December 29, 2020.
