Gratitude Practice: It's Not Just For Thanksgiving Anymore

Have you ever gone to a Thanksgiving dinner where everyone was asked to say something that they were thankful for?  If you take that idea and make it personal and do it every day, that would be a gratefulness practice. One of the simplest definitions I found was from Teens Health.

1. Notice good things, look for them, appreciate them.
2. Savor, absorb, and really pay attention to those good things.
3. Express your gratitude to yourself, write it down, or thank someone.

I'm sure this sounds like a bunch of "woo", but tons of successful people swear by it and some science even shows that it work. The Science Behind Gratitude

Gratitude practice is the new hotness. The gist of gratitude practice is to take time every day to think about the things you are grateful for and reflect on them.  The theory behind why it works is that thinking about things you are grateful for changes your brain.  I won't claim that it's hard science, but I will say it works for Tim Ferris, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and others.

Now there are different methods where you take different amounts of time and reflect on things.  This could be done by writing down X number of items in a gratitude journal.  It could be just thinking about the things you are grateful for.  One could also say a prayer to thanking God for the things they are grateful for.  If you are inclined, you could actually express gratitude to those in your life you are grateful for, in person or in writing.  Check this out How to Practice Gratitude

Now you might say there isn't anything in my life I am grateful for.  If you are reading this, you should probably be grateful that you have your eyesight.  If you don't have your eyesight, you might be grateful for the people that enable you to consume blog content like this through software.

This is not necessarily to take the time to be thankful for how perfect your life is.  It can be for small things, or big things.  Even in the toughest times there are things to be grateful for.  You can be grateful for your significant other, your parents, your children, your job. However, if you don't like those things or don't have them there is surely something you are grateful for.  Even if you are an angry internet troll who hates everything, odds are good that you can be grateful the internet exists so you have an outlet for all of your vitriol.

This is also an easy way to practice mindfulness.  It lets you take stock of your situation and reflect on what is in your life right now.  You take a break and see yourself existing and find the inputs that you are glad you have.

My personal method is to take 5-minute Pomodoro break and use that time to come up with a list of at least 5 things that I am grateful for today.  I sometimes write them down, but mostly I take a little time to reflect on these things/people.  Then I just go about the rest of my day in a much better state of mind.  Again that's just what I do, you'll need to figure out what works for you.

I'm grateful that I have this blog to communicate my ideas as well as the ability to do that, and I'm thankful you are reading it.