Gratitude Definition
Gratitude is a positive emotion that involves being thankful and appreciative and is associated with several mental and physical health benefits (Kendra Cherry, 2021).
Do you take some time off your hectic schedule to connect to any supreme energy? Or just being thankful that you made it through another beautiful day in your life? If yes, it can be counted as gratitude. And practicing gratitude helps you to get some mental peace that can affect your life significantly. I shall tell you how.
Gratitude is a vote of thanks. Now imagine you have hired a cook. He prepares food for you, and you thank him daily and appreciate his hard work, he will strive harder to cook nicely because he thinks you are kind. Now if you don’t tell him anything, and pretend that he’s doing his “job” and ignore he might be susceptible to ignorance, he will not care if you like the food.
This is how gratitude works, showing kindness and being grateful for other’s actions or services, and this is exactly how reinforcement works too.
What is Gratefulness
Gratefulness is a way in which you make others realize that you are not so full of yourself and treat others as your equals, irrespective of whatever background they are from. Most of us believe that there is a supreme energy, God. And since we believe we are inferior to ‘him’, we pray without realizing that it has been taught to almost all of us by birth. Instead, we will focus on general things you are happy they worked out the way they did. Dedicating only a couple of minutes for being thankful to yourself for reaching where you are today can go a long way.
Basically, seeing the positive of every situation and being in the brighter side of the bus. Instead of focusing on the lottery, try to pay attention to the money you had to buy the lottery ticket. I hope this gives you a basic idea regarding what exactly gratitude is.
How to practice Gratitude
Let’s talk about the ways to practice gratitude.
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Journaling
Do write journaling daily, pick up your favorite pen and a nice diary to pour your heart out. It doesn’t have to be grammatically perfect, just your raw feelings, and thankfulness.
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Saying ‘Thank You’
Saying ‘thank you’ to people like waiters, guards, your family members or anybody in general. Trust me, nobody can be thanked enough.
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Practice Gratitude anywhere, anytime
You can practice gratitude anywhere, anytime, but most people exclusively do it either after waking up in the morning or before going to bed.
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Doing someone a small favour
Doing someone a small favour to let them know that you are grateful.
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Focus on the small steps
Just like the example of lottery ticket, focus on the small steps instead of always keeping an eye of the bigger goal.
Simple Exercise
Make it a habit to practice thankfulness for at least 21 days, this way you can get into the mindset of practicing it daily, and if you practice it for 90 days, it will become a habit.
We feel content whether we give or receive gratitude. People with gratitude therefore experience less stress overall. Similar to this, having a grateful heart makes society reasonable. In other words, individuals start being considerate and stop giving others a chance to say thank you.
Examples
I appreciate you doing what you do.
You are valued for all that you do, and we value and respect the work you accomplish.
I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to you today.
Just wanted to say thank you very much for the hard job you do every day.
Read more on Compassion
and Discover the Life-Changing Effects of Gratitude Journaling
Bijoylaxmi Das, Blogger, BA (Psychology)
