During the ups and downs of making a living, are there moments of gratitude that you capture and use to reflect on? If not, this short article can help make a big difference in using appreciation from within to savor good moments, people, events, foods, music, workouts, whatever you name it, in your life. Savoring the blessings can add up and let you steer your life toward the most positive and fulfilling of objectives. Let’s begin with how to incorporate gratitude.
1. Let gratitude increase through your awareness of your five senses.
Whether it’s the touch of food while cooking, the smell of your significant other, the sound of the ocean waves or the sight of the cotton clouds in the sky, bringing awareness to our senses and appreciation for each of them in the present moment can be a strong way to incorporate gratitude in almost any moment. By combining mindfulness with gratitude, you are stimulating the brain to savor each of the mechanisms by which we experience the environment and living happily in such moments with gratitude.
2. Move your body outside where there is some fresh greenery and nature. Use the environment to trigger gratitude in your system through a heightened awareness of your senses in the outdoors.
Due to the connection we find ourselves with nature, moving our bodies outdoors can heighten our senses whether in daytime or nighttime. Daylight helps bring out vivid colors for us to appreciate while nighttime brings a crispness and soft moonlight that we can similarly appreciate. Bringing awareness to your senses while outdoors in order to savor appreciation of various things outside (building on method number one) is a tip that works effectively and consistently.
3. Let gratitude form the basis of each of your relationships.
Incorporating gratitude in relationships is new in thinking as we often take others especially loved ones in our lives for granted. Using gratitude as a relationship’s foundation can help enrich each meaningful relationship tremendously, especially for our immediate family members. Write a gratitude note to a loved one (even if you don’t send it) and reflect on what they do for you in your life to help bring joy, peace and fun. Use the feelings to help direct your communications with this person by telling them what makes you grateful for them and the actions you’re grateful for especially. This will ultimately develop beautiful relationships and ways to add depth and joy to a successful life.
4. Use moments in prayer to focus on things which you’re grateful for.
Prayer helps direct our attention to things that are either going well or not going well in our lives. Oftentimes, gratitude and acceptance can be incorporated in these quiet moments. So, for example, you might direct your attention towards being grateful for loved ones in your life at the moment because your prayer is for them to be blessed even further. The prayer and gratitude work in tandem to create positive vibes and manifest your thinking into real life results at times. In other words, you could self-motivate in this way. Big time goals require preparation and motivation, which this step can help deliver in small increments.
5. Reflect on three things you are grateful before bedtime or first thing in the morning. Or find any other quiet time to write a list of things down.
Sometimes the hustle and bustle of the day make it difficult to soak in a few moments of appreciation. When this happens, try and write down three things you are grateful for before bedtime or first thing in the morning. Or perhaps you can find a separate quiet time to do this reflection for the day. The tactile feeling of writing (or typing) these things down rather than a mental list can help savor your appreciation a bit more. Use the notes on your smartphone or keep a smaller go-to journal. Making time to unwind with appreciation or invigorate yourself first thing in the morning will help center your days with gratitude.
Regardless of where you are at currently, these are five methods by which you can begin to incorporate gratitude into a meaningful and blessed living.