15 Easy Ways to Practice Gratitude and Change Your Life
Did you know that the art of practicing gratitude has many life-changing benefits? From verbally expressing it with a simple “Thank you” to practicing it during the day, gratitude is an incredible gift for both the giver and receiver.
What Is Gratitude?
Gratitude is the act of feeling grateful for the people who love you and for what you have in life. It can be expressed regarding people, life events, circumstances, or intangible things like excellent health and personal growth. Gratitude involves recognizing and acknowledging each moment that makes you realize the goodness you have around you.
What are the Benefits of Practicing Gratitude?
From improving your physical and mental health to boosting your relationships, practicing gratitude has many remarkable benefits. Gratitude encourages generosity and compassion, boosts self-esteem, and can strengthen your resilience when stress happens.
How to Practice Gratitude
There are many different ways to incorporate gratitude into your life. From daily practices to monthly and/or annual ideas, here are the best ways to practice gratitude.
1. Start a Gratitude Journal
Keeping a gratitude journal is a fantastic way to hold yourself accountable for practicing daily gratitude. It also allows you to reflect back on the people, events, and things in your life that bring you joy and cause you to be grateful.
2. Daily Gratitude Reflection
If journaling is not your style, take the time to write down three to five things you are grateful for each day and reflect on them. After you write them out, say them out loud. There is power in speaking words aloud.
3. Express Gratitude to God in Prayer
There’s no greater joy than expressing gratitude to the Lord in prayer. Again, while you don’t have to pray out loud, I prefer to speak my prayers into existence. Take a few minutes to start your day by thanking God for the people and things he’s blessed you with in your life.
4. Keep a Gratitude Jar
A gratitude jar is a great way to practice gratitude, especially with children. Simply write something you’re grateful for and place it in the jar each day. After some time, you can reflect on the things you’re blessed by. This practice is also a fantastic teaching tool for getting little ones to practice daily gratitude.
5. Start Saying “Thank You” and “My Pleasure”
How often do you say “Thank you” throughout your day? For example, when someone holds the door open for you, are you a person who acknowledges it? Or are you someone who shows no gratefulness for that act of kindness? Expressing thanks, especially for the little things, establishes respect and creates a positive vibe and environment.
If someone thanks you for something, instead of saying “You’re welcome” or “No problem,” replace those words with “My pleasure.” You’ll find it begins to feel less like an automated response to hearing the words “Thank you” and more like a sincere acknowledgment from your heart, “My pleasure.”
6. Verbally Express Gratitude to the People Around You
Have you ever told your loved ones, friends, church community, coworkers, or other people in your life that you are grateful for your relationship with them? Or how grateful you are for the ways they bring joy into your life or make it much easier? It’s a fantastic way to practice gratitude, fostering healthy relationships and stable environments.
7. Create a Gratitude Collage Board
Create a gratitude collage with words and images of the people, places, and things you are grateful for, and spend time appreciating the things on the board daily.
Creating a gratitude collage board is another fun way to engage in practicing gratitude with kids. You can use large cardboard pieces from the dollar store to tape the collage or invest in a bulletin board and pin it together.
8. Perform Random Acts of Kindness
Performing random acts of kindness for loved ones and strangers is a simple way to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Doctors Shoba Sreenivasan and Linda E. Weinberger from Psychology Today explain: “Why do random acts of kindness increase a person’s sense of happiness?
Because kindness can promote gratitude. You are kind to others in need; having that awareness then heightens the sense of your own good fortune.
9. Volunteer Time
Similarly, volunteering your time to be helpful to others is a terrific way to foster a sense of gratitude and community. As God puts it: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” There are many ways to volunteer time, from lending your services to local food shelters or churches to volunteering at your kid’s school; there is always a place to give back and cultivate gratitude.
10. Donate Money
Donating money is one of the best ways to practice gratitude, especially when you give in private. You can tithe at churches, donate to charities that support causes you are passionate about, and help loved ones or neighbors in unexpected ways.
For example, I once had a friend whose family had their power shut off. I called the power company, provided the address, and paid the bill anonymously. That’s not a brag on me; God uses me sometimes.
Still, you’ll become a genuinely more happy and grateful person in life through acts like these. Is there a struggling college student in your life? A single mom? Find ways to bless those people in your community financially and plant little seeds of gratitude in their hearts.
11. Write Gratitude Letters
Take the time to pen a good old-fashioned handwritten letter explaining how grateful you are for the person to whom you are writing and why. I promise you that it will feel incredible to write it, and hearing back from the person who receives it is a welcomed bonus.
Make someone feel good by telling them the truth about how they impact your life and how thankful you are to have them in it.
12. Set Gratitude Reminder Alarms
One way to practice gratitude that is simple and impossible to forget is to set gratitude alarms to go off daily on your phone. Dedicate one or more times during the day when you allow yourself to pause, express, and reflect on gratitude each day.
13. Take Gratitude Walks
Have you ever gone for a walk where the purpose of it was to notice and appreciate the things around you? Express gratitude for life’s simple joys like the sun warming your face, the breeze cooling your body, the smells of fresh flowers blooming, or the smiles of your neighbors walking by.
14. Express Gratitude Through Art
Are you an artistic person? Try drawing, sculpting, or painting expressions of gratitude. It is another fabulous way to teach your children about gratitude while indulging in different ways to express it.
15. Gratitude Meditation
Gratitude meditation is the practice of taking a moment to pause, breathe, and reflect on what you’re grateful for (I like to close my eyes). It’s placing an intentional focus on appreciating the small and finer things in life. From waking up another day to the smell of freshly fallen snow, there are no limitations to what you can be thankful for in your gratitude meditation.
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Recovering addicts are employing gratitude journaling prompts as a sobriety tool. There are several reasons to use a gratitude notebook in recovery. Some of these reasons include setting boundaries, defining purpose, and acknowledging the positives in life.
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Elizabeth Ervin helps people embrace a change in money mindset to achieve their financial goals. After struggling for a decade as a single mother, consumed by the American debt cycle, she recognizes the value of financial education and lifestyle changes and aspires to motivate others to make those changes to obtain financial freedom. She heavily advocates for praying about and over your finances and speaking positive money affirmations to manifest abundance.
