Experiencing gratitude is always important in our lives and even more important when the world around us is so unpredictable and even dangerous. The Hebrew meaning of gratitude is “ recognizing the good”. It is the practice of noticing and feeling thankful for what is valuable and meaningful to you. Being grateful is a virtuous quality which allows you to not only see the best in other people but in your own life as well. Gratitude can help us to recognize the goodness in life and when expressed during these challenging times it achieves its maximum power by calming our fears and anxieties and helps us to maintain a positive outlook .
Gratitude helps to improve both your mental and physical well being. Practicing gratitude on a regular basis is instrumental in helping you become more optimistic and can have a huge impact on your overall mood and perspective. There is some research that has shown that practicing gratitude during a crisis such as Covid-19 not only boosts the mood but also helps your physical health in response to illnesses such as respiratory infections.
Learning to practice gratitude everyday can help bring some ease and stability in your life and help to focus on the positive rather than what is unpredictable.
Ferris Bueller’s famous words, “ Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” With all the craziness around us and how busy our lives can get we can easily get swept away and forget to appreciate what we do have. Here are some suggestions on how to bring gratefulness into your life:
Start a gratitude journal: Write a few things that you are thankful for each day. Write down your positive thoughts.
Appreciate the smaller things in life: There is nothing too small to be thankful for.
Volunteer: Helping others increases our own well being and our ability to have more gratitude. Helping others helps you!
Spend time with loved ones: Spend time with friends and family.
Begin and end each day with gratitude: It can be in the form of a quick prayer of thanks, a text of appreciation to someone or a reminder of what went right during your day.
Gratitude is such a powerful emotion and one that can make your life better in so many ways. Be the change you want to see in the world by making gratitude a part of each day.