Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
Thanksgiving is a time of year that brings us back to that grateful and thankful place when surrounded by those we love, beautiful home cooked meals displayed on beautifully decorated tables, long-awaited cooler weather, and some well-earned time off.
In fact, an article from UCLAHealth.com points out several significant benefits of having gratitude in our lives such as reduced depression, lessened anxiety, stress relief, improved sleep, and even a healthier heart.
11 Easy Ways to Have More Gratitude
Showing gratitude to those around you is something most people today don’t expect. It doesn’t matter if you know the other people you show gratitude to or not. What matters is that you practice the activity of actually offering kindness, gratitude and thanks to others that comes from within yourself.
Here are some helpful suggestions to get you started on your path to having gratitude for others:
1. Write a Heartfelt Letter to Someone You Know
The art of letter writing seems to have somewhat disappeared in today’s barrage of technology in our pockets, instant access to shopping and grocery delivery, and taking the less expensive route sending text messages or emails instead of the old art form of writing a physical letter to someone.
But taking the time to let another human being know they are appreciated and cared for in writing can be an inclusive gift to the unsuspecting recipient of that generosity concealed in a simple envelope versus a digital message.
From letters on beautiful stationary, to poetically scripted cards that you write a note in, to crafting your own homemade card from scratch then writing a few meaningful and personal words on it – all of these are ways you can show gratitude during the holidays and even afterward as you continue the tradition of bringing back the art of handwriting in the form of a meaningful card or letter.
Try it out on a friend or family member and watch what happens when they contact you to thank you for such a heartfelt and meaningful gift!
2. Tell Then How You Feel About Them
Aside from the written word, you can also provide the spoken word.
Sometimes when another person even just hears the declarations from somebody else about how much they are loved or appreciated is all it takes to make that person’s day that much better.
Think about that stranger who compliments your outfit while waiting in line at the post office, the coworker who tells you that you brighten up the office every day when you come into work with your amazing attitude, or the friend who calls you up out of the blue asking to take you for a cup of coffee and conversation at that favorite coffeehouse you love.
Imagine how those people feel and how their gratitude and kindness reflect back on them after offering those kind words of appreciation to you.
Now, imagine how that would feel when you do the same thing the next time you leave the house, or go to the grocery store, or mail a letter at the post office.
3. Leave a Small Bouquet of Fresh Flowers on a Neighbor’s Doorstep
The simple act of picking up a small arrangement of cut flowers from your local grocery or florist isn’t a very expensive thing to do.
Most grocers offer buy-one-get-one deals or discounted pricing on simple arrangements at some stores depending on where you shop.
This is not a huge deal.
You don’t have to break the bank by doing this.
Get a single bouquet and spend a few dollars to make someone’s day. Even if it’s just a once-a-month activity.
You’re going to probably be at the grocery store buying food and other items for yourself anyway, so take a stroll past the floral department and pick one of these bouquets up, leave it at your neighbor’s front doorstep, and return home.
Whether they realize it’s from you or not doesn’t matter.
They’ll probably figure it out anyway, but even if they don’t, imagine the surprise and curiosity you’ll create along with the special feelings they will have deep inside their heart all because you went out of your way just a little to do something kind.
4. Hold the Door Open for the Person Behind You
I love this one because I do this all the time.
Holding the door open for the person behind you is such a classic, old-fashioned courtesy that is also disappearing from our society just like handwritten letters.
It saddens me to see something like this starting to be left behind. Even I am surprised when this happens to me out in public because it happens so infrequently anymore.
Reach for that door and allow the person behind you in. Or hold the door for someone toting a lot of bags or boxes that can’t easily open the door themself.
They don’t just have to be elderly individuals. It can be a younger people as well.
You’ll make their day brighter, remind them that there is still some humanity in our world, and get a huge smile and thanks from them in return.
You just don’t know what kind of day that person has had, or what their life has been like. Doing something as simple as holding a door open for them might just keep them holding on to hope.
5. Gift a Gratitude Jar
A creative and extremely unique idea is to make a gratitude jar and gift that to somebody you’re grateful for.
I have had a couple of these in the last few years myself, and I have found them to be very encouraging, meaningful, and a great reminder of the things you are grateful for.
You could choose a mason jar or opt for a larger craft store gallon-sized glass version. It just depends on how you want your jar to look and how much “gratitude” you want to put inside of it.
You can decorate it with a label including the recipient’s name on the front if you want and instructions on another label on the backside.
I buy a length of silk ribbon from the craft store, tie it around the width of the jar, then use a hot glue gun to fasten the ribbon to the glass itself so it stays in place. I then get several colored pages of craft or copy paper and cut 3″ x 1″ strips of paper, bind them with either a rubber band or a thin ribbon, and drop those inside the empty jar.
The recipient can take a slip of paper out every day, notate the date on it, then write something they are grateful for that day. A year from then, they can open the jar and read all of the things they were grateful for the year before.
Not only does it show you devoted the time to sit down and spend a few hours creating such a personal and touching gift, but it allows the recipient to pay your action forward and start their own gratitude jar for creating their own intentional gratefulness and improve their life in the process.
6. Practice 4-7-8 Breathing
A substantially effective way to seek out gratitude can include breathwork. A particular method of this includes the technique known as 4-7-8 breathing.
In an article online from Cleveland Clinic about this practice, this style of breathwork can “help you tap into your inner calm, benefitting everything from your stressed-out nervous system to how well you sleep at night.” It is basically taking a breath for 4 seconds, holding it for 7 seconds, then releasing it slowly over the course of 8 seconds.
Of course, there’s a bit more to the entire practice, which the article goes more into depth about. But this is basically the gist of this particular method.
In the beginning, I wasn’t sure it would be for me.
I didn’t think I could hold that breath for those seven seconds without turning blue!
But after I tried this method for a few weeks and realized it was possible to do, I found it extremely helpful for maintaining calmness, mental centering, and focusing on my own gratitude practices.
7. Start a Gratitude Journal
I’ve been journaling for years. To this day, I have boxes of journals from my collections over the years. Starting a journal to help you center more on what you’re grateful for in your life can reap incredible benefits as well as serve as a record of important times in our lives.
In a blog post from Calm.com, a gratitude journal is defined as “a personal space for you to record and cherish the good things in your life, big or small, and can have a profound impact on how you feel.”
The post goes on to explain that “regularly writing down what you’re thankful for can help shift your focus from what’s going wrong to what’s going right, which can significantly elevate your mood and overall sense of joy.”
Journaling can be a fun venture if you want it to be.
You can find a beautiful journal that speaks to your personality, way of life, or daily needs.
Some come with writing pages for extra notetaking, daily to-dos and journaling, or pages especially for the purpose of reflection.
Whichever direction you take, you can make it an enjoyable experience that brings more gratitude into your life.
8. Nudge Yourself to Be More Grateful
If you’re looking for a simple and easy approach to having more gratitude in your life, try a daily gratitude nudge to get you off on the right foot.
Ask yourself questions such as, ” What do I see right now that I am grateful for?”
Or “What are 3 things that I can be more grateful for in my life?”
Or “Who in my life am I most grateful for?”
Asking yourself these questions can encourage your brain to bring you to a closer awareness of having thanks and being grateful for the things and people we see every day and might take for granted.
Even those simple items like fresh air, a healthy body, eyesight, or a home to live in can be on your list.
The idea isn’t to compete with your own thoughts, but to take even the smallest things we can be grateful for in our life and center our focus on those.
9. Make a Contract with Yourself
Contracts signify an agreement.
A promise.
A commitment.
In this case, a compliance to hold ourselves accountable for keeping our word to ourselves every day to be more grateful.
It’s not difficult to make a contract with yourself.
Grab a pen and paper or pull your Word program up on your computer or phone app and start writing. In a few minutes, you can create a contract with yourself that only you will know about.
You will know if you follow your own contract or not, which can be an incentive to stay on track and be diligent in following the agreement.
This idea is pretty simple. You sign the contract, and you follow through.
10. Read Positive Affirmations and Mindful Quotes
Every quarter or so on my blog, I publish positive quote posts relating to mindfulness, well-being, gratitude and self-care.
If you’re searching for positive quotes to get you fired up each day, take a look at the quotes that I post. (You can see my first quote post here.)
Infusing your mind and thoughts with positive affirmations or quotes can help with drawing your focus more toward grateful practices.
And the more we can do that, the better we can contribute to our own happiness, health, as well as the betterment of those who reap the benefits of our kindness and generosity by being more grateful in general.
11. Learn to Say “Thank You” More
When did people stop saying “thank you?”
This is another courtesy many people have seemed to forget over the last several years or so that I have noticed.
But we can change that.
We can be that change!
And by altering our own behavior, that changes the forward motion of the gratitude of others.
It’s not that hard to do.
When someone does something for you, just say those two simple words…
…”thank” and “you.”
Acknowledging a kind gesture that someone else takes a minute to do for you is something that must be done no matter what. It’s not just a matter of courtesy. It’s a matter of being a better human being.
It’s the appropriate thing to do, a traditional courtesy to others, and just something that should remain in our society.
A Grateful Rundown
By choosing to have more gratitude in our lives, we can cultivate more calmness, happiness, and health for ourselves.
With practice and repetition, gratitude practices, such as those listed above for starters, you will come to see yourself as more of a grateful human than you were before.
And others will notice.
Gratefulness is a powerful thing.
Why not add some or all of the above ideas to bring more gratitude into your life so you can enjoy the lasting benefits of it every day both during and after the holiday season.
You are worth feeling the amazing benefits of having gratitude in your life.
MY MINDFUL REQUEST:
Send me your thoughts about what you are grateful for this year! I’d love to hear what you’re thankful for and how gratitude has an effect in your life!