How to keep an attitude of gratitude?
An attitude of gratitude is the all-time mood enhancer
There is a simple technique that always works to put you in a good mood, and that is to feel gratitude.
All it takes to feel grateful is just a shift of your thoughts, yet it makes an immediate difference in the quality of your life.
For example, it is very easy to turn from complaining to feeling good through gratitude. Feel the difference between these two different statements:
"I hate my job, because it's very stressful to deal with my boss."
"I am so grateful that my job gives me money and that I get to practice being patient with my boss."
The fact may remain the same, i.e. having a boss who is difficult to deal with. However, it is how you choose to tell your story that makes a difference to how you feel. You'll feel much better if you choose to look at anything through the glasses of gratitude.
Maintaining an attitude of gratitude
You can take the time to shift your thoughts towards gratitude on a number of occasions throughout the day:
Waking up. Right after you wake up, and while still laying in bed, take a few moments to look for reasons to feel gratitude. Maybe you feel grateful because it's sunny, or because you have a date, or simply because you slept well.
Ground yourself from the start of your day by awakening your feelings of gratitude.
Idle time. You can take advantage of windows of idle time (like waiting in a queue or travelling on public transport) to come back to gratitude.
You can choose to be thankful for those things related to the reason why you have idle time. For instance, if you are waiting at the supermarket, you could feel gratitude for the food you can buy, for having money, or for the convenience of all sorts of items being available to you.
Of course, you can also choose to feel gratitude for whatever else you want, whether or not is related to the reason why you have idle time.
Tiresome tasks. You may not find much pleasure in doing tasks that you've done over and over, like cleaning a room or brushing your teeth. However, you can use these tasks as a way to increase your gratitude, which will immediately boost your mood.
As you wash a dirty cup, you can say to yourself "I'm grateful for this cup, for it gives me a useful container to drink from". As you brush your teeth, you can say to yourself "I am grateful for having access to running water, a toothbrush and toothpaste, so that I can keep my teeth clean and healthy"; and so on.
Rampage of appreciation. You can do this at any moment throughout your day. Set your stopwatch for one minute and write down anything and everything that comes to your mind that you are grateful for.
The goal is to fill that minute writing an improvised gratitude list. Look at your list when the minute is over: you'll be amazed at the large number of blessings you have.
You can maintain an attitude of gratitude by doing the rampage of appreciation every day.
Going to bed. Right before you go to sleep, take a few moments to feel gratitude for three things of your day. It may be that you received praise from your boss, that your dog is healthy, that you spent some good time with a friend, that you enjoyed a good meal or a beautiful sight...
Feeling gratitude before going to sleep will also help you to relax and to fall asleep easily and smoothly.
Gratitude is powerful!
You will discover interesting benefits of maintaining an attitude of gratitude. For a start, you will realize that you have many blessings every day. You will notice yourself in a more positive mood, which will help you to deal in a better way with the challenges of life.
What are you grateful for? Share your gratitude through this form, and read what other visitors of this site wrote.
"Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing."- Zig Ziglar