How to Be Grateful Every Single Day

BY Harleena Singh 

How can you be grateful every day? Do you find it easy to be grateful or express your gratitude? I think being grateful is an attitude that we need to cultivate daily.

You can learn to be grateful for just about anything that comes your way. Begin with the small things first, or things that happen every day that you appreciate.

Such things to be grateful for can be like waking up to a new day. Or being grateful for your health, kids, home, parents, job, phone, nature, birds, comfy bed, laughter, and having each other.

Being grateful helps us grow, evolve, and feel better. Even research reveals that gratitude improves well-being, mental and physical health, and helps you get on in life.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~ Marcel Proust

Why Do We Need to Be Grateful and Give Thanks

We give thanks to acknowledge someone else’s goodness and express our gratefulness.

We thank others when they do good things for us, though even the bad ones teach us lessons in return.

Hey! It’s Thanksgiving! Just as the word indicates – “Thanksgiving” has two words, ‘thanks’ and ‘giving’, and that’s what we need to do – thank others and learn to be giving.

Thanksgiving is a time when family and friends gather together to enjoy. They share a meal, and take time to reflect on the things they are thankful for.

I love the spirit in which it is celebrated, and I wish all my friends who celebrate it – a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I personally like every day to be full of gratitude and giving. Not to mention that you need to instill gratitude in your kid’s too!

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” ~ William Arthur Ward

How to Be Grateful Daily

You too can cultivate the habit of gratitude every day by learning to be grateful, and make it a part of your daily life and routine.

Try the following ways:

1. Gratitude Journal

I know many of my friends keep a gratitude journal, though some write it daily, while others maintain a weekly one.

Just write down what you feel thankful for. Also, mention the benefits that come from writing things you appreciate. It’s kind of a visual reminder that you can reflect back on often.

Some of you might prefer writing a gratitude letter to a person. It might be to someone who has had a positive influence in your life, but whom you’ve not thanked properly.

2. Facing Problems

There are times when you come across problems or issues in your life. You need to re-frame them by keeping an affirmative attitude. Just remain grateful and positive even for such times.

Take such problems as challenges and opportunities to make you better. Don’t fear your failures; instead be grateful that you are given the chance to make them stepping stones to your success.

3. Remain Positive

Sometime you might tend to compare your life to others, and feel you aren’t lucky or you don’t have the LUCK factor in your life. You need to make positive comparisons instead.

Think about what you have in your life that others don’t have, and be grateful for those things.

4. Set Reminders

Initially, you would need small reminders to start cultivating an attitude of gratitude. Things like alarms in your phone, post-its on your mirror, or family and friends can remind you what is it that you want to be thankful for.

Learn to be grateful daily and make it part of your life.  You need to integrate it into your daily schedule till it becomes natural or second nature to you.

Besides these, just learn to relax and make your life easy. That’s because you cannot be grateful when you are angry, anxious, or frustrated. Love the life you live.

Take each day as it comes by living in the moment, without going back to your past or thinking about the future.

Be grateful for such life’s moments, and learn to treasure and value them because such moments will never return.

Value your relationships, and bring in more of affection, laughter, and joy into your daily lives. These are the things to be grateful for every single day.

“Let us rise up and be thankful; for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” ~ Buddha

What Am I Grateful For

Ah…my list is quite endless though I will try to keep it short. When you want to be grateful, you can – for anything, whether it’s big or small, good or bad.

I am grateful to the Almighty for everything. I need to express my gratitude to my family and friends who have always been supportive and there for me – all the time.

Most of all for being healthy, having a roof over my head, and being financially stable. Besides, I remain grateful for having food to eat, and to be able to help others.

I am also grateful to everyone I’ve come across because I’ve learnt more about life and being a better person myself. And it’s often the rough or tough ones that teach you the best – isn’t it?

We tend to be grateful for things that make us feel good, but we need to also learn to be grateful for those that don’t.

So, I am also grateful for:

• Pain because that has taught me to love life more.
• People or things that hurt me because then I am able to learn more about patience, tolerance and compassion.
• Obstacles that come my way because they are opportunities for me to get better.
• People who make me angry because that gives me a chance to grow. I learn to accept others and myself better. It reminds me to find peace within myself. It also reminds me that I am the only one who can put out that anger, and I learn more about forgiving.
• Tears for they bring out my emotions. And when that part of me is touched, I evolve into a better person.

 “There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.” ~ Author Unknown

Grateful to ALL of YOU

With Thanksgiving just round the corner, it’s the perfect time to thank all of YOU for being a part of this blog.

I need to especially mention Holly Hanna of The Work At Home Woman for nominating my blog for the Fourth Annual, 50 Best Blogs by Women – 2012.

Being grateful everyday isn’t tough, but it requires effort on your part. If you learn to look at what you have in your life, instead of what you don’t, you will learn to be grateful and not complain.

“Be thankful for what you have and you will end up having more. But if you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never, ever have enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Over to you –

What are you grateful for? How do you express your gratitude? What suggestions would you give to be grateful every day? Share in the comments below.

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