What’s There to be Grateful for? Using Gratitude to Make Life Better

ByMetaphysical Mama November 24, 2019February 26, 2024

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The past couple years have thrown us a lot of curveballs. To say it has been challenging is an understatement. So how do you get through these difficult times of change and upheaval. How do you stay positive? Well, some people suggest you adopt an attitude of gratitude and learn how to be grateful for the things you do have. Yup, I want to slap those people too. But they have a point.

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What is Gratitude?

So what exactly is gratitude? It is more than just saying thank you. It is a feeling that comes over us, a deep sense of appreciation for all the good in our lives. It’s recognizing the good, even when bad things happen. Although gratitude can be a spontaneous emotion, it is also something that can be cultivated. Something that we can use to improve our overall outlook towards life.

Why Practice Gratitude?

A gratitude practice has many benefits. It helps us feel happier, gives us a more positive outlook and helps to eliminate stress. Being grateful decreases the likeliness of depression and improves our overall health both physically and emotionally. By changing the focus of our thoughts to something more positive, we are able to stave off the negative thoughts and feelings that would normally lead us to depression and anxiety.

Negativity Lowers Our Vibrations

When we are facing challenges in our lives we naturally start to develop feelings of negativity and doubt. Over a prolonged period of time all that negativity begins to lower your vibrations. And here’s the thing, like attracts like. If you have low vibrations you will attract things into your life that match that vibration. For example, you may find you are attracting negative people into your life or you continue to find yourself in the middle of bad situations. So you definitely want to raise your vibrations and keep them high. How do you do that? Gratitude!

Read more about raising your vibrations here

Black and White woman facing backwards with head down What is Gratitude? — **Negativity and doubt lower your vibrations**

Fake it Until You Make it

Gratitude is considered to be of the highest vibration, so it’s a great way to get those low vibrations up quickly and activate the Law of Attraction. Unfortunately it’s not easy to be grateful when your life feels completely out of control. What do you do? Fake it until you make it!! I know it sound like a lame cliché, but it really does work.

Learn about the Law of Attraction here

part of a woman's face in a mirror shard — **Fake being grateful until you no longer have to fake it!**

We learn how to do things by practicing. When we repeat an action over and over again it becomes hardwired in our brain. It doesn’t matter to our brain that we’re ‘faking it’, it is still learning the behaviour. After awhile you won’t have to fake it anymore. Your feelings of gratitude will be genuine and you will find that you have more and more to be grateful for.

How to Express Our Gratitude

Gratitude Journal

So how do we cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude? There are many ways to express gratitude. A Gratitude Journal is one option that appeals to a lot of people. To keep a Gratitude Journal, find a journal that you like or use a section of your planner and just write three or four things you are grateful for every night. Pretty soon you won’t be able to limit it to only three of four things. You will find that you have more to be grateful for than you could have possibly imagined.

Calligraphy on paper with pen the law of attraction — **Write a letter of gratitude**

Letter of Gratitude

Another way to express our gratitude is to write a letter. This could be a letter to the Universe, God or even someone in your life. Everyday write a quick letter expressing your gratitude. Convey all the things you are grateful for in your letter. To make it even more powerful, include why you are grateful for each of those things. You could even write a letter to a different person each day. You don’t have to actually give it to that person, it’s the action of writing the letter that is important.

Say it Out Loud

Verbalizing gratitude is also effective. You can stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself what you are grateful for. It is suggested to do this at least once a day at roughly the same time. That encourages the behaviour to become habit. For example, you can tell yourself what you’re grateful for every morning while you brush your hair. After awhile brushing your hair becomes the trigger for your new habit; expressing gratitude.

Prayers of Gratitude

Another way to verbalize gratitude is through prayer. Whether you are praying to The Universe, God, Goddess or loved ones who have passed on, prayer is a wonderful way to express gratitude. I was always taught that the most powerful prayer is thank you.

When talking about prayer, most people think of the structured prayers we learned as children, but prayer can be a simple as a conversation with the Divine. At night as you’re getting ready for bed, spend a few moments ‘talking’ about all the things you are grateful for that day and maybe even what you are looking forward to in the coming days.

woman outside with head down in prayer what is gratitude — The most powerful prayer is Thank You!

Gratitude Jar

You can also create a Gratitude Jar. Find a jar and decorate it however you like. Everyday write things you are grateful for on small pieces of paper and place those slips in a jar. When the jar is full, seal it up and put it somewhere you can see it to remind you of just how much you have to be grateful for. On a really bad day you can open it up and read all the things you have been grateful for. It is a great way to improve your outlook and bring up feelings of gratitude.

Create the life of your dreams and check out this Law of Attraction Coach Practitioner Certification Course and learn how to make the Law of Attraction work for you and others.

Gratitude Prompts

Here are a few Gratitude Prompts to get you started:

What experience made you smile today?
Who in your life are you truly grateful for?
What is your favourite thing about yourself?
What challenge have you faced and learned from? Why are you grateful for that lesson?
What qualities in your partner are you grateful for?
Who are the people in your life you are most grateful for? Why?
What was something you saw today that was beautiful?
Which childhood memory are you thankful for?
What‘s better about you today than it was in the past?
What is your favourite hobby? Why?

So go out and develop an Attitude of Gratitude, even if you have to fake it at the beginning. Do it regularly and make it a habit so that you can keep your vibrations high and manifest even more to be grateful for.

Want to keep that positivity going? Check out my post on Positive Affirmations here.

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