Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
The practice of gratitude is a powerful tool for recreating your
life so that you regularly experience happiness, joy, and
contentment. Gratitude is simply a feeling of thankfulness and
appreciation for all that is. Grateful thoughts align your
heart, mind, and soul.
Opportunities are given to you in every moment to be grateful
for what you have and what you experience. Beauty, richness, and
love already exist in your life. There are gifts and
opportunities in every situation. The core of gratefulness is
having an awareness of these opportunities inherent in life
events and circumstances, and then thoughtfully choosing your
response.
Gratefulness is about enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and
abundance all around you, appreciating all of your emotions and
feelings, and celebrating the blessings of family and community.
We all have the ability to make our lives even richer and more
positive by noticing daily events, appreciating the benefits we
receive, and being mindful of surprises. You have the power to
control whether your thoughts will be positive and focused on
what's going well in your life or negative and focused on what
is not going well.
You can be an example of happiness and gratefulness by
expressing appreciation to people on a regular basis. Let the
people you care about know that you are grateful they are in
your lives - and why.
Having much to be thankful for does not diminish the reality of
sadness, disappointment, or discouragement, or the need to feel
those feelings at times. You can, though, intentionally reframe
painful or disappointing events as opportunities for growth and
learning, and deliberately look for the silver linings.
Begin to notice if your words and thoughts are full of
complaints about what is lacking in your life. By applying
gratitude daily in your life, it's possible to achieve peace and
contentment in a demanding, overwhelming, and sometimes
disappointing world.
You can begin right now to see the perfection and beauty in
everything and everyone. It's a habit of mind!
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Here are five intentional practices to feel more peace and
contentment and to make your life richer and more positive:
1) Gratitude Journal Create your own personal gratitude journal
- a place to list your blessings on a regular basis. Record the
small and large gifts and moments that are enriching your life
every day. You can also create a family gratitude journal where
everyone makes entries.
2) Gratitude Ritual Create a gratitude ritual. Before going to
bed at night, glance back over your day and reflect on moments
of grace, abundance, joy, friendship, and contentment - the
things that you enjoyed or felt blessed by that day. Nightly,
record three things that went well each day and why they went
well.
3) Evening Meal Blessing Pause before your evening meal to
acknowledge the things that make your life abundant and
meaningful.
4) The Gratitude Alphabet This exercise works like magic when
you need a change in attitude. Either aloud or in writing,
beginning with "A", think of the first thing that comes to mind
that you are grateful for that starts with that letter and say
(or write) 'I am grateful for ______.' Do this quickly without
too much thought. Continue until you have reached "Z". You might
also share this exercise with your loved ones, speaking aloud
alternate letters. I am grateful for Apples I am grateful for
Beauty I am grateful for Chocolate I am grateful for DVD's I am
grateful for Email I am grateful for Friends I am grateful for
Grass I am grateful for Hugs .... . you get the idea
5) Gratitude Affirmation Practice gratitude by reading this
affirmation on contentment:
"This day, I am content. I am grateful for what I have and for
what I do not have. I learn from both joys and disappointments.
I refrain from criticism and fault-finding. I don't try to
change others. I accept myself as I am and as I change."
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