“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
Although the contemporary world is heading towards greater technological advancements and successful executions of big projects, people are continuously running in the race of being the best. However, not only is this race making people exhausted but is resulting in high levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout. You might have felt it sometimes too, right?
Hence, the need to take a pause from all the running around, say a big thank you, and express gratitude to feel positive and relaxed. Gratitude is one of the most underrated traits that can assist us in making our lives better in this technology-infused world.
Expressing gratitude brings some extraordinary miracles along the way to forming a positive life. If you start expressing gratitude within yourself, you will be positive and you will also see yourself as a magnet for attracting positivity.
This is the reason why you need to practice gratitude every day, but now the question that arises is how exactly can you practice gratitude? This article will highlight the effective 5 ways in which you can practice gratitude and spread positivity.
5 Foolproof Methods to Practice Gratitude
1. Create a Gratitude Jar
The gratitude jar is one of the simplest yet most effective techniques that can assist you in being thankful every day. To elucidate, all you have to do is take a jar or a box and decorate it as much as you want. Once you are done with it, you have to put a certain number of things at the end of the day for which you are grateful.
For example, let’s say you have had a long day and you decide to go with a total of two things that you were grateful for. So, every day, you will add 2 things for which you felt grateful.
To continue, when you will add on 2 reasons every day, you will observe that no matter how hectic your day was, listing those two reasons or incidents will make you feel way lighter and less exhausted compared to earlier. This implies that when you will write those 2 reasons, they will transfer some of the positive energy within you. This will ensure that you take that good vibe with you everywhere and spread that positivity everywhere you go.
Once, you will build this habit of putting reasons to be grateful, you will feel a lot happier and more positive even after hectic schedules. Besides, once you fill your jars it will give you ample reasons to be grateful. This will lead to a more happy and satisfied life and alongside you will also practice the act of thankfulness.
2. Write gratitude letters
In the world of emails and social media, handwritten letters are something personal to share. This is the reason it is one of the best exercises for practicing gratitude. All you have to do is find the person you are grateful for and write all the reasons you are grateful for having this person in your life.
This could be anyone, from your friends to family, or it could even be you. Yes, you can write a letter to yourself.
This way, you get to express yourself to the person who did something or meant something to you.
You can post this handwritten letter or deliver it yourself to see the reaction of your receiver. This technique will help you in expressing yourself freely to yourself or to other people you are grateful for.
When you give gratitude letters to people, you will directly give them a dose of happiness or something to smile about. This will assist you in spreading happiness and positivity among yourselves and other people around you.
3. Compliment Others But Don’t Forget Yourself
Who on this earth does not like compliments? We surely know that we love when someone compliments us. This is the reason why this is our third and another crucial strategy that can assist you in practicing gratitude every day.
Think of it like this, when you compliment someone about something you like in them, you are directly boosting their morale and confidence. This way, you are directly strengthening their aura by transferring positivity. These verbal affirmations will enhance motivation and exchange the positive energy between you and the person you are complimenting.
Also remember that as important as it is to complement other people, it is equally important to compliment yourself. We often face situations where we might have felt low about ourselves and thought that we wouldn’t make it through it. You are not alone, everyone experiences this phase.
However, in situations like this, one way to come back stronger is to give positive affirmations to yourself or compliment yourself daily. The compliment could be related to your body part, your personality trait, and so on.
These self-affirmations will boost your confidence and will rejuvenate your energy and come back fighting stronger. This will assist you in staying positive within yourself which will assist you in spreading positivity around yourself as well.
4. Take a Gratitude Walk
We have always heard that “If you go out and take a walk you will feel a lot better”. This implies that walking has always been a great way to release your tension and stress. We also know that gratitude is also a great way of mood lifting, attitude shifting, and stress reduction.
Now, if both these things separately have such a strong impact on human minds, imagine how incredible it would be if you combined them. This takes us to the next way of practicing gratitude which is the gratitude walk.
While practicing this technique all you have to do is free yourself from all the busyness around you and start walking. While walking, you should ensure that you are not thinking about all the negative things going on around you or in your life. Instead, think of every beautiful thing that has ever happened to you. It could be related to your childhood, your teenage years, or your love and professional life.
Moreover, this is not a walk to burn calories, your every step should be a step of gratitude. Try this technique even once, you will release all your stress hormones and feel light. This way, you will also contribute to your self-improvement by taking some “me time” for yourself.
When you think of everything you have been grateful for or try to remember some happy childhood memories, you will notice that it increases happiness and calms you. Moreover, it raises your self-esteem and also increases your blood circulation.
As you walk, this gratitude walk will break up your ties from every possible toxic thing, situation, or even your own emotions that have been holding you back from feeling positive.
5. Practice Gratitude Meditation
We all know that meditation and gratitude are two beautiful colors in themselves that can fill up the light and positivity in anyone’s life. What we don’t know is that the combination of these two can be an incredible rainbow that can fill up your life. With this, we arrive at our last but not the least way to practice gratitude, and that is by practicing gratitude meditation.
This technique is all about sitting in the position of meditation and inhaling exhaling thoughts you are grateful for. There are two different ways to practice gratitude meditation.
1. Use the gratitude mantra
This is the first and the most effective way to practice gratitude meditation. In this method, you sit back and relax in the position you usually meditate. Now, slowly take a deep breath in and release it out. After this, you chant the mantra out loud and that is “I am grateful for……”
You can be grateful for anything, even for a cool breeze touching your face or it can be related to anything good that happened in your life throughout the day. Once you start acknowledging all the small things that have been happening in your life, you will feel that there are more things to be happy about rather than sad. This will light up a sense of positivity within you and will increase your happiness.
2. The Yin Yang gratitude practice
We all face troubles in our daily lives. The Yin Yang gratitude practice states that you have to sit in the position of meditation and think about all the bad things that have been happening in your life.
However, the twist is that you have to add a “‘but” in the sentence and say something that happened well with you throughout the day. For example, “the boss scolded me today for my mistake in files but my colleague appreciated me because I was working hard.”
This will assist you in keeping yourself positive and happy. Practicing this way of meditation will not only release you from your stress but will transform you into a better person filled with positivity.
To conclude, the attitude of gratitude has always been a one-step solution to being a positive person and spreading positivity around. So, what are you waiting for? Embrace the attitude of gratitude and start enjoying its exceptional benefits today.
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