About two years ago, I started to build a regular gratitude practice into my day. This, along with saying ‘thank you’ more often to the people that positively contributed to my life, has had a big impact on me and my appreciation for the life I get to live.
I guess that you are probably aware of all the amazing benefits of gratitude and perhaps you also practice gratitude on a daily basis. If not, I’d like to invite and encourage you today to bring more gratitude into your everyday life.
‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.’ ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
As a reminder, here are some of the benefits of gratitude:
Of course, it’s always amazing to hear about the benefits of something, however, this often doesn’t mean much if we haven’t tried it and seen the benefits for ourselves.
My first attempts at integrating a gratitude practice into my day failed several times. I used to keep a gratitude journal and I also used the 5-minute journal a few years ago. But although I love journaling, it didn’t really stick and I would forget about it most days.
In the end, what worked for me, is a practice that I now share with my partner. Before we moved in together, we would send each other a daily voice note to share the three things we were grateful for during the day. This is super impactful for me — it lets me relive all the beautiful things I get to experience and learn during the day and it connects me to him as he shares the things he’s grateful for.
Now that we live together, we still try to do this before we go to sleep, but we now also use it to reflect on the week or month.
A few days ago, I also had the opportunity to reconnect to how incredible it feels when someone expresses gratitude towards you. It’s heartwarming, it feels very special and brings you closer to this person.
I hope this has inspired you to be more grateful for the people and things in your life and, if you don’t already have one, perhaps you also want to add a gratitude practice to your day.