How to Improve Your Life with a Gratitude Practice
You can start any time, any day, and anywhere. IT'S FREE! It can, and will literally change your day and how you live your life. Life is hard right, and this will improve your quality of life and not just yours, but all the people around you as well. It will be a positive ripple effect on people you don’t even know. As you start working on your mindset you’ll find that it’s very powerful. You will feel more in control of your life. We feed our brains all kinds of negativity that is not useful and usually, we don’t even realize we do it because it becomes such a habit. Unfortunately, many people usually start their day with negative thoughts and mindsets. Great news, we can change that. We control our thoughts.
If I say gratitude and you think BS, that's great. Let’s do this..lol I was the same.
I was slowly able to get more comfortable with gratitude and was able to learn to have gratitude for what I had and the smaller things in life, one day at a time. I was able to expand my gratitude beyond my friends and family, (like when I first started) to appreciate the small, daily things we tend to take for granted. You know, like we get to be alive, our feet, arms, our amazing body, a roof, a bed, and I could go on but you get it. These things came to mind quickly now. Things like hearing kids laugh and noticing the warm breeze on my skin and the sound of the waves crashing and the taste of a cold beer on a summer day. Noticing big things and little things are both very important and it changes the way you think, creates a shift, and improves your quality of life. WAKE WITH A GRATEFUL HEART.
HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE?
There is no set time, sorry. The good news is every time you do it, the better you will begin to feel. The more time you put into this practice the faster you will realize its power. Everyone is so different, the times will vary but put in the work, it is worth it!
It took about 10 months for me to go from “gratitude is totally bullshit” to “hell yeah, gratitude is my number superpower” and yelling it from the rooftops..lol but every day I wake with gratitude. I make time to practice every single day and learn more about the benefits and science behind it as well. It is such a powerful skill to develop and I know everyone can benefit from it.
STORYTIME -I remember one day at a group meeting, our coach said what are you grateful for? and this guy was like, “I am grateful for a walk to the park where I got to sit under a tree in the beautiful park and the tree was so green, the sky so blue”. And I'm like, “What the f*ck? Seriously, bro, you are grateful for a park and trees ?? like really? This is what you're grateful for?” I am sure everyone on the call could hear my eyes rolling. At that time, I just did not understand it at all. And maybe that's where you're at, and if so that's very cool because you can change your mind, life, and mindset like I did.
Some years ago, I left a 12-year relationship, hated my job, was depressed, at an unhealthy weight and I was left will a negative mindset. I KNEW I needed to get help, I was so lost and didn't know how to start over. I knew my friends were too close to me to help me, I needed an outsider, so I looked for a coach online. I found a coach online who worked on mindset shifts, accountability, and fitness. One other main thing we focused on was gratitude and journaling. Now when I say gratitude and you roll your eyes, I understand. I totally thought it was BS, for the “hippies” and I totally rolled my eyes too. But the crazy thing is, I did start noticing changes and I want to share some examples of what happened to me.
I WAS NOT A BELIEVER IN THE WHOLE ” GRATITUDE THING”.
I thought it was bullshit and a waste of my time but it was part of my program so I went along with it. When I was working with my online coach, we would have some group calls. At the beginning of every group call, we would go around our circle and say what we were grateful for. Insert eye roll here, I hear ya. I was brand new to the idea of gratitude and group coaching and some of these people had been with my coach for a while. We were all in different stages, which was pretty interesting. Some of them were already practicing gratitude.
When you first start with a gratitude practice, it's hard.
Hard as in change is tough for us, and thinking outside of our comfort zone is hard, that’s normal and ok. But with daily practice and small changes, it will become a habit and becomes more natural to you. I started with things like I was grateful for my friends and my family. I found it difficult to do this because I thought it was useless (holy crap, was I wrong).
I was slowly able to get more comfortable with gratitude and was able to learn to have gratitude for what I had and the smaller things in life, one day at a time. I was able to expand my gratitude beyond my friends and family, (like when I first started) to appreciate the small, daily things we tend to take for granted. You know, like we get to be alive, our feet, arms, our amazing body, a roof, a bed, and I could go on but you get it. These things came to mind quickly now. Things like hearing kids laugh and noticing the warm breeze on my skin and the sound of the waves crashing and the taste of a cold beer on a summer day. Noticing big things and little things are both very important and it changes the way you think, creates a shift, and improves your quality of life. WAKE WITH A GRATEFUL HEART.
Gratitude is about becoming more aware, more mindful of yourself, your self-talk and your surroundings. Learning how to appreciate your life and the things you already have, even if you might not be thinking you have nothing to be grateful for right now. ,
Start paying attention to what you are grateful for. It can be the big things or the little things. Start practicing now because it takes time to build a habit. It's free and it will get easier with time and practice. You literally can start any second of any day.If you want to level your gratitude game up, I highly recommend writing it down! Start a gratitude journal and take the time weekly to reflect and really feel what you have written. SAYING, DOING, SHARING, AND FEELING is how you can make this an actual practice that you keep in your life LONG TERM.
U GOT THIS 1 LIFE, HOW WILL YOU LIVE YOURS?
GRATITUDE. It's one of the world's greatest free gifts and undiscovered superpowers. I use the word "superpower" well because it sounds awesome and it's a power you already have inside you, you just might not know how to tap into it yet. It’s probably safe to say that it’s a power and skill we aren’t using nearly enough.
Gratitude can and will change your life.
MY OMG, THIS SH*T DOES WORK MOMENT! The day I became the tree guy...lol
I remember the day I realized it was a habit I had without even thinking about it. I was walking home from the gym one day and I stopped at these bushes (I'm not even joking). I almost cry every time I tell this story because I knew my life would forever be changed for the better. MY quality of life had improved. I was walking home, saw these bushes, and thought “Oh my God, they're so green and cut so beautifully.” They really caught my attention so I started taking pictures. They were amazing! Then I literally started crying and laughing because I had done a complete 360. HERE I WAS, I became the tree guy..lol the guy from earlier who I was just like, what the F*CK? I had turned into him and now I could be grateful for the beauty in the greenery and blue sky” My appreciation for the smaller things was now a reality.
What is one thing that you are grateful for today? Let me know!
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