Being grateful for beginners

Namaste by swamiananda

As you know, I started this blog because I've been looking into ways to improve my life/be happier/that kind of stuff. Something that I've seen a lot is to write down things you are grateful for every day. Wonder how that turned out for me?

Well, I have to admit that I was quite skeptical, but I think it's mostly because generally, I think I'm already a pretty happy person, and I didn't see how writing down what made me happy could make me happier. But even for me, it has an effect! I've noticed that a lot of people have a way more negative outlook, so I think for them the result would be even greater.

First things first: don't start off by thinking it's stupid and it will not work. The power of the mind will make sure that you will be proven right. So open that mind of yours and give it a genuine shot!

That being said, I'll share my experience now. To be honest, I didn't start writing my grateful thoughts down yet, but even summing them up in my head already works for me. I usually do it at 2 times: when I need to get up in the morning and before going to sleep. If I do it before getting up, I get really happy, motivated and energized, which helps to actually get me out of bed. Before going to sleep, I try to think about all the good things that happened that day. Even though the day in general might have been crappy, highlighting the good moments puts me in a warm, fuzzy mood, that automatically seems to lead me to a peaceful night.

I didn't dive very deep into the whole "gratitude journaling" yet, but a common recurring tip was: try to think of new things to be grateful for every day. It forces you to really think about it and not repeat mindlessly the same things every day. I think the key is that you really have to start feeling that gratefulness. Let it fill you up! I've read that if you spend your energy focusing on the positive, the negative will just not have any room, and I think that's right. Especially before sleeping, it's easy to get all these unhappy thoughts of all the shit that happened, but if you just start thinking happy thoughts, there's no space for negativity.

Another tip I've seen was to work with a different theme every day if you have issues coming up with things you are grateful for. Some ideas:

• People (one of the easiest ones: partner, friends, family...)
• Food/drinks (just imagine a world without chocolate!)
• Appliances (long live the washing machine!)
• Body parts/functions (be grateful you can see, hear, smell, walk...)
• ...

You can sure be grateful for the strangest things, but it only makes life more beautiful in my opinion. :) What are you grateful for? Do you have some killer tips for practicing gratefulness?