Why Practice Gratitude?

Gratitude is often a part of life that is missed out. We spend so much time and energy living life, getting through each day, surviving, that we can forget the things we have to be thankful for.

No day is perfect, and it’s not always easy to find something to be grateful for. But by simply stopping for a moment and being thankful it can do wonders for your mood.

Practicing gratitude isn’t necessarily about making you feel better about your life. I know when you are in the throws of mental illness, especially depression, it can feel like you have nothing good to offer. And no, gratitude is not going to completely erase that.

But simply finding one thing, one small thing, to just be positive about can help to boost your mood. Even just a little bit. And every little helps right?

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Why I try to practice gratitude daily.

Please note the word TRY in there.

As much as I would like to spend loads of time every day being grateful, I just don’t manage it. Some days there’s no time to stop and think about it, others I just can’t see the positive through the weight of the negative.

I do try my best to find at least one thing a day to be thankful for, when I can.

I feel like the world today is inherently negative. Every day something new and awful seems to happen on the news. Politics around the world seem to just be going mad. And nowadays there are so many daily stresses and pressures that I have no idea how we all get from one day to the next.

So if I can find something positive in my day it helps to ease the pressure off a bit.

What can you be thankful for?

Gratitude doesn’t need to be anything big or fancy. There are no rules, you can be grateful for anything.

It can be as simple as your favourite brand of chocolate, or a close friend. You can be thankful for something good that happened to you that day, like if someone said something nice about you or if you got some good feedback from something.

You can be thankful for being able to do something, like having time to spend with family or being able to do the things you enjoy.

Have a think back over your day today. Even if it was completely awful, did something good happen? Even if it was only slightly good?

Did you make it work safely? Did you get to watch a show you really enjoy?

For me, I’ve had a really full on day. We’re so busy in work at the moment that I’m running on an energy deficit, which just isn’t good when you have M. E. I am seriously lacking in spoons.

So, for my daily dose of gratitude, I am thankful for the chance to go to bed early. My other half is out at football, I had my dinner at 5:45 and was in bed before 7. Yes I am writing this but I will be asleep before long!

Gratitude journals

As I said, there are no rules for practicing gratitude. Journals are not a requirement, you don’t even need to write anything down. It can be entirely thought based.

If you’re like me though, and you like to be able to track things and look back on them, then there are a number of things you can do.

You could simply use a notebook, or create a layout in your bullet journal (if you have one, or maybe now is the time to start). This way you can make it whatever you want, and let your creativity flow.

Alternatively, I use an app on my phone called Grateful for easy gratitude on the go. It’s also easy to track and read over the entries if I need a bit of a boost. It also allows you to upload pictures for speedy gratitude! You can find the app on android here and apple here.

As a final option, if you feel so inclined, you can sign up to my mailing list for instant access to my own gratitude journal template (as well as other free CBT based self care resources). Sign up for free here.

However you choose to do it, I urge you to just give it a try. It won’t solve all of life’s many problems, but it may just help you through the worst of days.

What things are you grateful for? Feel free to leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!

If you liked this one, you may also like positive affirmations to get you though the bad days.

Have you received your free gratitude journal complete with 54 journal prompts? If not, why not sign up to my mailing list to get instant access!