Gram’s Wisdom 21
If you read Gram’s Wisdom 2 you would know my Gram was a great one for gratitude. She never let an opportunity go by where she wasn’t thankful for something or someone in her life. Consequently, there were always more good things than bad happening to her. Still, Gram didn’t believe that gratefulness was a panacea for all life’s ills.
Instead, Gram taught me to be thankful for my good health, smile when I didn’t feel like it, to choose happiness when I wasn’t, and to remember that whatever I might go through there are always others who are worse off. She told me to be grateful for what good things I had and that there would always be enough of those.
I am happy to say that she was right. My life hasn’t been any easier than anyone else’s, but I have had plenty to be thankful for. Like my Gram, I wake every day feeling grateful for another day and aware of all the goodness in my life.
So now prepare yourself to make the change to a gratitude-based life because the rewards for doing this are worth it.
Some benefits of gratefulness
Gratitude helps you feel happy and contented
Nobody is happy 24 hours a day but when you have an attitude of gratitude you will be happier a lot more than if you don’t have one. How does this work? Well, when you appreciate the things that you have in your life you feel contentment with what you have and can remove yourself from the “wanting” spiral.
Each time that you think about things in your life to be grateful for, and express your gratitude, then you will feel happy. Do this several times a day there are no limits. Contrast this to someone who is constantly craving new things in their life. They aren’t going to be happy very often.
Your optimism increases
Optimism is a great thing. It flips the script on your thinking from negative to positive. It gives you hope for the future and you will love the transformation. When you are a pessimist all you see is doom and gloom. You fear the future and what it will bring. Your life is controlled by events that happen around you rather than by you.
Optimism does not mean that you just blindly accept everything. What it does is open you up to a vision of opportunities all around you and gives you confidence that your future is looking bright. If you had anxiety about your future before then optimism will help significantly with this.
Challenges won’t overwhelm you
We all must face difficulties in our lives and overcome them. For some people, even the smallest problems overwhelm them. For others, the large problems stress them out, and they become very anxious. Most people have an extremely negative attitude towards the problems that they face in their lives.
With an attitude of gratitude, you will be able to see the good in everything. You will see problems as an opportunity for you to grow. For the larger problems, it is a chance for you to stretch yourself and do things that you haven’t done before. You can accept that difficulties are a part of life and you believe they will help in your growth as a person.
Physical health benefits
A lot of research studies have shown that people with an attitude of gratitude find it strengthens their immune system which leads to all other kinds of physical health benefits. With a stronger immune system, you will be able to fight off ill health and have the energy to keep going when others need to stop.
Mental health benefits
Gratitude is good for your mental health as well. With an attitude of gratitude, your stress level is lower and if it does happen then you will deal with it more easily. Because expressing gratitude makes you feel happy thereby releasing hormones that will help brighten your mood as well.
Here are some practical gratitude usages so that you get the most from the benefits listed above.
1. See your world from a gratitude standpoint
It’s understood that you are busy, but you should take time out during your day to observe your reality from a gratitude point of view. Focus on your surroundings and look for things to be grateful for. You probably take these things for granted but with practice, it should be easy for you to identify them and appreciate them.
It doesn’t matter how large or small the things that you notice are. Just see them as providing a lot of good in your life and express your gratitude for them. Do this every day and in a short time, you will begin to do this on autopilot. You will look forward to these moments because of the feeling that you get from expressing your gratitude.
2. Write your feelings in a gratitude journal
If you don’t have a gratitude journal, then begin one now. Keep it simple. A notepad will do there is no need to buy something expensive. Commit yourself to make daily entries in your gratitude journal. When you wake up in the morning write 3 things that you are grateful for and the reasons why.
Also, in the evening you can record the things that you have been grateful for throughout your day. There is power in writing things down and you can reflect on your gratitude journal entries every week to inspire you to carry on your gratitude journey.
3. Practice being more humble
To get the maximum benefit from your gratitude efforts you must work on your humility. Humility is defined as showing more respect and modesty. It should be easy for you to identify where you can be humble in your life.
Don’t take things for granted and behave as if you are entitled. That is the exact opposite of being grateful.
5. Give compliments to others
Commit to giving at least one compliment, each day. This can be a compliment that you give to another person or something in your life that you want to be complimentary about. When you give compliments to others pay attention to how they feel about this and what they say to you. It will make you feel warm inside and you will want to continue with your gratitude.
6. Turn those difficulties into prospects
This has been discussed already. When you have an attitude of gratitude it will be much easier for you to see the opportunities within any problem, for you to move out of your comfort zone and improve yourself. Each time you are faced with a problem think about what you can learn and what you can be grateful for with it.
My final thought
My Gram lived her gratitude. At the age of 101, she was still telling me what she was grateful for. And I was grateful to be the person with whom she shared those expressions.
I hope that you will see that these benefits are truly life-changing and that making the transition to gratitude can be worthwhile to you.
If you enjoyed this post, I hope you will share it with your family and friends.