Practicing gratitude can help you start feeling more grateful, thankful, and appreciative of the positive things in your life. When you express your gratitude to yourself, write it down, or express appreciation for someone it can positively benefit your mindset, your emotions, and your health. People who regularly practice gratitude are more thankful and appreciate the positive things in their life.
The benefits of practicing gratitude are endless. People who regularly practice gratitude experience greater confidence, happiness, and wellbeing. Learning how to develop a gratitude practice can help you feel better about yourself and feel more positive about your present and future.
Practicing gratitude can help you feel more grateful, more thankful, and more appreciative of everything you have in your life. When you express gratitude, you feel more positive about the limitless opportunities available to you.
If you want to learn how to practice gratitude, this article shares 7 simple ways to start a gratitude practice. Gratitude can help you develop a stronger mindset, build better relationships, deal with adversity, and build better habits.
Get my step-by-step guide on how to develop a gratitude mindset.
7 simple ways to practice gratitude
Here are 7 simple ways to develop a gratitude practice.
1. Express gratitude daily
Begin your gratitude practice by committing to express gratitude daily. Start by writing down three things you’re grateful for today and then continue the practice for a week. Practicing gratitude is a positive habit that builds over time.
Picking three things to be grateful for is manageable. Having a simple gratitude practice ensures you don’t feel overwhelmed to have to find more things to be grateful for. The habit of expressing gratitude daily gains momentum over time with practice.
When you intentionally choose three things to be grateful for every day it also becomes easier to stick with a gratitude practice.
Read more about incorporating gratitude into your daily planning.
2. Practice gratitude rituals
When you express gratitude for the little things in your life their value grows. Gratitude helps you look at everything through a new lens of appreciation and thankfulness.
Developing a gratitude practice means you appreciate something daily, however small. When you make a conscious effort to appreciate everything you feel happier and more positive.
Expressing gratitude can become boring if you appreciate the same things each day. To enhance your gratitude practice look for the small things you’re grateful for and take the time to acknowledge them, and give thanks for them.
3. Keep a gratitude journal
It can be difficult sometimes to feel grateful. You may be experiencing challenges in your life that you can’t see any positives about. During this time, keeping a gratitude journal becomes even more important to capture everything you’re grateful for.
If you can find gratitude in your challenges, your gratitude practice becomes more powerful. When difficult moments strike, try to find something to express thanks or appreciation for.
You can also enhance your gratitude and positivity by spending some time with loved ones and by doing something you love to do.
4. Practice present moment gratitude
Developing a gratitude practice enhances your experience of the present moment. By being present and appreciative of the moment you become more grateful for every little moment of joy and positivity.
Expressing gratitude doesn’t have to be about giving thanks to big things all the time. It is often the smallest of things that create the biggest impact or change in your life.
If you don’t take a moment to acknowledge and be grateful in the moment it will just fade away. A gratitude practice is all about being present and paying attention to all of the good things you experience.
Read more about the benefits of being present in the moment.
5. Make your gratitude practice a habit
Practicing gratitude each day builds a habit. Building a habit takes consistency and daily practice. If you want to learn how to develop an attitude of gratitude commit to being grateful every day for a specific period of time.
The more you express gratitude daily, the more powerful your gratitude becomes. If you skip days, your gratitude becomes less powerful. The key to developing a gratitude practice is consistency and repetition.
6. Begin proactive gratitude
There is a big difference between reactive gratitude and proactive gratitude. Reactive gratitude is simply saying thank you, or feeling appreciative when something happens to you.
Reactive gratitude is good, but proactive gratitude is more powerful. With proactive gratitude, you choose to be grateful to someone or for something proactively. Nothing has to happen first for you to be grateful. You choose to be grateful, rather than being grateful as an effect of something else.
Proactive gratitude means you choose to express gratitude first, without expecting anything in return.
7. Choose abundance, not scarcity
A gratitude mindset and an abundance mindset are heavily connected. Gratitude can change your perspective and mindset for the better and increase positive thoughts.
When you focus on abundance you feel more grateful for what you have right now, and what you could have in the future. When you have a scarcity mindset, you feel there aren’t enough good things for you now and there will never be enough good things in the future.
Gratitude and abundance are focused on the limitless opportunities available, which creates positive feelings. A scarcity mindset can result in feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.
Read more on how to develop an abundance mindset.
Conclusion
Practicing gratitude can make you feel happier, more positive, more energetic, and make you appreciate everything you have in your life in technicolour.
Use these 7 tips to create your gratitude practice. Research by the University of Berkeley has found that you’re more likely to achieve your goals if you consciously practice gratitude. That’s a good enough reason to start your gratitude practice.
Now I’d love to hear from you.
What’s the number one benefit of gratitude for you?
Let me know in the comments.
About the Author
Mark Pettit is a time management coach based in Colchester, Essex, UK. He is the Founder of time management coaching company Lucemi Consulting. Mark provides time management coaching programs to entrepreneurs and leaders in London, Essex, Suffolk, East Anglia and throughout the UK and US.
Get more articles, tips and tools to help you create a life of gratitude and abundance on the blog.
Sign up to my Time For What Matters newsletter to get even more personal development tips and tools.
