How to Hack Your Happiness with a Daily Gratitude Practice - Full Guide to Getting Grateful

Gratitude has become a bit of a buzz word.  The idea that we need to be grateful for what we have, has been around forever though.  Making gratitude a practice is something that many people are turning to, to feel better about their lives.  Viewing the world from a place of gratitude and appreciation seems like a small change to make, but it is a shift in perspective that can alter many things in your life.

Can an attitude of gratitude really increase your overall well being and satisfaction with life?  

What is Gratitude

Gratitude, in the simplest terms, is an appreciation and connection to things that are good and meaningful in your life.  Gratitude can be expressed as an appreciation and thankfulness for things or people around you.  

A gratitude practice can become a habit and coping mechanism for tough situations. Looking for the good in everything is an attitude that is cultivated with gratitude.  An attitude of gratitude changes everything. The definition of gratitude can be different for everyone because of the many applications it can have.  

Things that Strengthen Gratitude - How to Be Grateful

Gratitude Journal: Have a book or journal in which to record things you are grateful for.  Everyday write 5(or more) things that you feel grateful for. This gratitude list can include items as big or as small as you are feeling that particular day.   

Gratitude Meditation: This kind of meditation focuses on showing gratitude for different things or people in your life.  Try to find a person you know to be grateful for, one thing that has brought you great joy, and find gratitude for yourself and who you are.  

Tell Someone: If there is someone in your life that has helped you in any way, tell them how much you appreciate them.  It will not only make them happy but you as well. Show your gratitude and share your grateful feeling.  

Say “Thank You”: Even for the small stuff.  Practice saying(and fully meaning!) the words “thank you.” Thank the cashier who rung your groceries through or the guy who held the door for you.  Feel the appreciation for the small stuff.  

Reminder: Have some kind of reminder that every time you see or hear that particular thing, think about something you are grateful for.  You could set a reminder in your phone that goes off multiple times a day. You could even use a person and every time you see them you think of something to be grateful for.  It could be the sound of your furnace kicking on or every time you hear sirens outside.  

Write Note: When someone goes out of their way to help you, write a note or give them a card showing how much you appreciate what they did for you.  

Benefits

Positive Feelings: Gratitude, because it is a positive feeling, allows for more positive emotions to arise.  You feel grateful that your family member helped you out and you also can recognize that you are feeling loved and supported.  Grateful people overall tend to be happier.

Less Negative Feelings: Because grateful people tend to focus more on the good, it leaves less time to worry and feel negative emotions.   

Coping Tool: Gratitude can be used as a great coping tool because when a negative situation comes up, you will be more able to find something good in it.  You can also find meaning in traumatic events this way.  

Well Being: Grateful people are all around happier people.  Grateful attitudes allow for more optimism, appreciation, and joy.  Gratitude changes and shifts thinking patterns into the positive.

Better Sleep: Grateful people tend to ruminate less and will, in turn, not be kept up thinking about negative experiences.  

More Likeable: Gratitude makes you happier and people like to be around happy people.  Plus when you show them that you are grateful for something they did, they become more likely to help you in the future.  If you foster good feelings in other people, they take note of that.

Increased Awareness: Grateful people tend to be be better at noticing or seeing the positive in most situations. They also become more aware of how they are feeling and how expressing gratitude changes that.

More Gratitude: When you bring a gratitude practice into your life, you are welcoming more feeling of gratitude.  What you look for you will see more of. A gratitude practice solidifies to the universe that you would like to see more good and that is exactly what you'll see.  

Key Ideas

The most important part of practicing gratitude is that it is a consistent thing.  To see the most benefits, make gratitude a daily practice. The more you practice gratitude, the easier it will become to be grateful.  

Having a commitment with yourself can help to make gratitude habitual in your life.  Commit to keeping a gratitude journal for 30 days(or even a week) and notice how you feel.  Every morning say 5 things that you are grateful for. If after the time period you are more easily able to feel gratitude, that means its working.  Try to keep making time for gratitude as often as you can.  

Over even more time, as your gratitude practice becomes like second nature, see how feelings of gratitude come more easily or at times when you don't expect it.  Gratitude has a way of leaking into the rest of your life if you can commit to it. You will start to notice feelings of gratitude more often and outside of your practice.  

Observing your world from a place of gratitude has the power to shape your whole mindset.  You move away from “why did this happen to me?” and into “what did this experience give me?”  Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces for change because it forces you to look for the good.  The more good things you are able to notice, the more it seems that you attract them.  

Gratitude is many things.  Mindset, feeling, or a simple acknowledgment of the good.  When you make gratitude a part of your daily life, you become a happier, more optimistic person for not only yourself but everyone around you.  Making gratitude a habit for life is possibly one of the best things you can do.