Gratitude has been in vogue lately. The benefits of gratitude are espoused by legitimate psychologists and charlatans alike. Swanky book stores carry gratitude journals. It's safe to say there is a lot of hype around practicing gratitude.
It is easy to be cynical about something that we hear parroted time and time again. You must have been completely unplugged from the world to not hear something about the benefits of practicing gratitude in the last few years. But just because something is cliched, doesn't mean it's not true. I think that the meme-level status of gratitude is actually an artifact of its success; people have gleaned real benefits from being grateful for the little things in their lives.
The act of practicing gratitude feels good. Counting a few of your blessings can give you the boost you need to push through a difficult time in your life. Also, it can help realign your perspective into a more realistic worldview. After all, we have it pretty good most of the time, especially if you are from the West.
For example, you have the option to eat a more diverse diet than any human has in the past. Our world enjoys the benefits of vaccines, sterilization, and other countless miracles of modern medicine. While poverty still exists, the living conditions of the lower-tiers of society have improved drastically. You probably own a computer that fits in your pocket. Digitization of information allows you to read about rocket science, computer programming, and the Kardashians without ever leaving your bed. What a time to be alive!
Coupled with the upward trends mentioned above (minus the rise of the Kardashians), you have little things in your life to be grateful for too. The hug your son gave you before work. The coffee you drank on break. The surprise and joy you felt when your sister decided to call you out of the blue. Life's little blessings are innumerable, once you train yourself to look for them.
Take five minutes today to practice gratitude. Write down the things you can be grateful for in this moment. Leave them in a comment below, and we can discuss practicing gratitude together.
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Or read more daily meditations:
How To Handle Adversity? Expect It.
Don't Fight For Hills That You Can't Keep
Can You Make Life 1% Better?
When There Is Blood In The Water
Writer's Block Ain't Shit
The Number One Way To Get Hurt By Life
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Every day is a gift. I'm grateful I woke up to enjoy this one especially to be able to stand up, walk, ride the bus, work, and even read this blog. Have a blessed day
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As always, you make great points! I especially loved that you included things that I'm sure most of us take for granted on a regular basis!
Now for my regular novel length comment of sharing my own perspective/experience with your thoughts (I hope it's not annoying that you always bring out my wordy side!)
When my oldest daughter was 5 years old, she started getting really... almost depressed. She was negative about EVERYTHING. I heard somewhere about doing a 'gratitude journal' (this was 20+ years ago, so it's been in vogue for a bit, I guess!)
ANYway, I had her write in a journal every day. She copied down one of the optional sentence starters every day ("Today I am grateful for..." "I love..." "My life is good because") and things like that, then had to list three things she was thankful for. This was her handwriting work and learning to read work for the day most days.
Her attitude changed so completely in such a short time. We did this exercise every single day for months and months on end and she changed so much with that... and it stuck for years and years. I was amazed and because of that, I try to challenge myself to be grateful and write it down, especially when I am feeling down and depressed or overly negative.
Great post, as always!
@byn
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Hey, @Byn!
I think that is really wise that you did this with your little one. I hope that I can be as insightful as a parent one day. I am also very pleased to hear that it had a real effect!
And you are always welcome to leave wordy comments! I read this last night and I was pumped to see you engaging with my content like this.
The only downside is my upvote isn't bigger lol I'd love to give you more for such amazing comments.
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Yay! Your posts so often make me really think about things that I'm doing or have done and always inspire me to search through my brain and then I want to share it. I didn't want to be annoying, but damn... you are really good at making these introspective posts!
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It's true the blessings we have are more numerous than we can count. If I'd choose few of them for today; they would be being healthy, having a decent life here and having an entrepreneurial vision.
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I have long stretches of time where I become blind to the things that I can be grateful for, and that really bothers me! It's important to find a few things to be grateful for every day.
Thanks for showing up again @nuridin. Good to see you around :)
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True, it's knowing how to find life's little blessing and appreciate them.
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Mhm! It's nice that such a simple thing can bring us happiness!
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My roommate and I have been practising gratefulness every night that we get a chance to eat together. It has helped me dramatically in shifting my mind's focus away from the negative ruminations that I am so prone to. Today, I'm very grateful that I can even have things to be grateful for.
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That sounds like an excellent habit that you and your roommate are building together. My girlfriend and I do a similar thing. We tell each other what we are grateful for in our relationship.
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Totally agree with this, I think everyday on purpose about the little things... The cup of coffee, the beautiful sunset ect. It's soo important to live this way and I believe practicing gratitude brings more good things your way!
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When we are happier and cherry, I think that we greet the world in a different way. People want us to be involved and give us opportunities. I think gratefulness changes our disposition in important ways.
Thank you for the comment!
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I think its awesome to write about being grateful :)
I'm grateful for a peaceful day that others live without.
Grateful to be breathing clean air
roof over my head, bed to lay on. These things we don't appreciate, hopefully we never lose them to realize how important these little blessings are :)
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Hey, @Jacinta.Sevilla!
I am glad you have already learned this lesson for yourself. Being able to be grateful for little things is a liberating feeling.
Have a great day. :)
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Im glad you realize the same.
Thanks and have a great day too 🎉
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I think I am completely plugged out of the world because I have been practicing a completely different set of the things. I think that psychologically people can be so different that what means something to one, means absolutely nothing to the other.
I do not understand the hype, but I think it is a good bait for the business.
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Well, gratefulness existed long before commerce, so I am a bit skeptical that it is all a marketing ploy.
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Practicing Gratefulness Isn't Just A Cliche. Life's little blessings are innumerable. Best click lines in your post according to me. I really like your post.
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