Attitude of Gratitude

A rich tradition

Last week’s Thanksgiving holiday has me thinking about all of the things I am grateful for. Gratitude comes in a lot of different forms. From the standard and trite “family and friends,” to the inspirational “beautiful sunsets and nature,” to the things which are usually taken for granted “my community is safe and I have enough to eat,” to the mundane “my car starts and my furnace works,” I have so much to be thankful for.

Gratitude on Thanksgiving is a small part of a rich tradition. We give thanks and pay cursory homage to our pilgrim ancestors who made it through the winter and had a harvest, but mostly we watch football and eat turkey and pumpkin pie. Then we go shopping and all of the retailers give thanks!

A habit of gratitude

Have you ever considered what would happen if we developed a habit of gratitude? Instead of saving all of our thanks-giving for Thanksgiving, what if we were mindfully grateful every day.

What if, instead of waiting until we got accepted to our dream school or earned the big scholarship or landed an internship to be thankful, we gave ourselves the gift of gratitude every day? What if we allowed ourselves the joy of immersing ourselves in the little things which go right every day and being fully and consciously aware of the positive impact they have on us and on the world around us. What if every smile from a stranger, every laugh from a friend, every goofy emoji in a text, every check mark on an assignment, every green light at an intersection, every bus which arrived on time and every ray of sunshine generated the same feeling of peace and gratitude we acknowledge for the biggest two or three things we have to be grateful for over the year and which we announce at the Thanksgiving table? What a different world we would live in!

Shifting perspective

When we shift our perspective from one of not having enough, of being wronged, of being victimized and of not being enough to one of abundant gratitude and recognition of all of the tiny things which go right every day, we can remove a sizable barrier between ourselves and a more joyful future. When we wait for all of the stars to align, for all of our problems to be solved and for our lives to reach a state of perfection before we allow ourselves the luxury of gratitude and joy, we are setting ourselves up for a long and miserable wait. But if we wait only for one little thing to go right, for one friendly interaction, for one step in the right direction, or for one pleasant sensation and use that to generate a response of thanksgiving, we can experience gratitude and delight every day - multiple times every day. Imagine how all that joy, delight, and gratitude could change your life!

So how do I get started?

This all sounds great, right? So now I bet you are wondering how you can go about implementing an attitude of gratitude in your life. Here are a few simple suggestions you can start using today.

1. Gratitude Journal - Gratitude journals are so popular! They shift our expression of gratitude from once a year at Thanksgiving to once a day when we write in our journal. This is 365 times better. That’s an amazing step in the right direction. A gratitude journal doesn’t have to be fancy, you could even use some scrap paper or the back of a notebook you are using for a class. Once a day, take three minutes to jot down a few things you were grateful for over the past 24 hours. The more specific and detailed your entries are, the better.

2. Change your perspective – If you are having trouble recognizing things to be thankful for each day, look more closely at what you are taking for granted. Gratitude can be as simple as recognizing what makes your current standard of living possible. When you shift away from your first world perspective and expectations, you can find a whole new level of gratitude. Do you have enough to eat, warm clothes to wear, a roof over your head, the opportunity to take college courses and pursue a meaningful career?

3. Immersion - The more we can immerse ourselves in gratitude, the more peace and joy we experience. If the gratitude journal idea is working for you and you want to maximize your immersion in gratitude, I suggest that you try an even more radical approach. Instead of writing in your gratitude journal once a day, carry it with you or use a notes app on your phone. Use it to note all of the little positives through your day. They add up quickly!

4. Find a buddy – There is an old Swedish proverb which states “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.” Find a friend to share this blog post with and ask them to be your gratitude buddy. Share the tiny rays of joy which come into your life with them and ask them to do the same with you. How uplifting would it be to receive a few texts a day from your gratitude buddy sharing good things which just happened to them?

If you want to talk more about gratitude and how it can shift your perspective and change your life, try one-on-one coaching with me.