The Importance and Power of Practicing Gratitude
Thanks, this word means to express our gratitude and how grateful we are. We say “Thanks” when someone is kind to us, does us a service, or is a close friend who listens and supports us. We find ourselves saying it, too, when someone appreciates our efforts because they are thoughtful and considerate. Why do we express our gratefulness? The Harvard Medical School states that gratitude can increase our happiness and build a positive outlook in life because we get a chance to acknowledge and count blessings and to discover goodness in others. We develop a deeper meaning in life – as we get out of our closed circle of selfhood. It can improve our relationships with others, too. Indeed, thanks is a simple word that can enlighten our way and make someone’s day. One of my goals for 2021 has been to do an ongoing daily gratitude “challenge.” I say “challenge” because the challenge is to make a daily entry about something I am grateful for, but it has been such a gift – a gift to take time every day to be consciously aware and express gratitude for the blessings that life gives. It can also be “challenging” to focus on gratitude when “life” happens. Our default tendency seems to focus on the few things that go wrong (small or big) vs. all the things going right. The “bad stuff” of life often happens over a series of moments, much like the “good stuff” is occurring from moment to moment. We miss out on life when we define an entire day by what happens in a series of moments. Why Does Gratitude Work? Gratitude is acknowledging the good things in life. It could be big things like a job promotion, a bonus, or little things like a hot cup of coffee in the morning, a great conversation, a hug with your partner. A gratitude practice is acknowledging these things by writing them down. Why does it inspire positivity? It changes your perspective and trains your brain to focus on the good rather than the bad. We already get enough people pointing out the bad – we must protect our mindset by focusing on the good things in life. This way, you can appreciate what you already have to think bigger while also enjoying today. You’ll be happier because you see a glass that’s half full rather than half empty. You’ll feel more optimistic because your “life is good” tank is constantly being topped up every single day. When you think positively, it’s easier to step outside of your comfort zone and do the challenging things that take you closer to your goal. Gratitude is always there, sometimes you have to look a hell of a lot harder to see it, but it will be there. Today I am sharing my most recent gratitude journal entries with you. The reason is that it illustrates, in my opinion, the power of gratitude and our ability to find and focus on it during challenging times. I’ll let you read… Today I am grateful for my choice. I had a rough first part of the day and a fantastic evening; let me explain… You’ve likely heard me say before that we have a choice in how we experience life every day. That ability to choose also empowers us to find and focus on things to be grateful for no matter what life may through at us. Today is a perfect example: the day started with getting the two-year-old changed, brushed, and fed. When I entered the kitchen, I noticed cereal everywhere and orange something smeared everywhere. It took a while to figure out, and it was easy cheese. My oldest son confessed that he most had some on his hands and it got on the counters and spilled cereal. Why we went over the proper procure of clean your messes, you spill it; you clean it up. I noticed something in the dog run. I open the door to see burnt toast and a jagged “exploded” easy cheese can. W..T…F is this? Now, in full detective mode, I find an Exacto knife from my office on the counter. So many No’s no’s that have been gone over multiple times. We don’t play with my work tools, we don’t bring work tools out of the office, and we don’t puncture and destroy random things because were bored. It led to another serious and deep conversation about wasting money, being disrespectful, and lying when you are busted. These cycles of trivial moments of destruction and then lying when caught has been a running theme of my household. We have a “conversation” about lying many times a week. The boys are in that transition stage (13 and 9) where they think they can outsmart me and that they do not need to complete their chores or pick up after themselves. Mmmm. Nope, incorrect, sirs. It was a tense and unhappy morning, filled with yelling, crying, and pouting, all before my morning monster. They picked their consequences to have their electronics taken away for the day. By the end of the day, we decided to get out the watercolors and paint and went to the grocery store together to pick out ingredients for dinner. We were joking around and even found humor in the doorknob that decided at this exact moment to randomly pull apart, throwing the screws down the basement stairs. We laughed. We fixed it together as a family. How the day started shitty and sad, and how the evening was terrific. If the focus is only on the shitty/sad part, then I rob myself of the joy, the love, the sense of accomplishment, etc… I experienced it later in the day. I feel sadness at this moment, but I did not feel sorrow for most of this day. I felt the exact opposite of despair. Enter in choice: define the day by my sadness? Or acknowledge the sadness, but also believe there
