Many people wait for special occasions to feel grateful. That’s a mistake. You should let everyday things spark a sense of gratitude. You don’t have to wait for an opportunity to feel grateful. You have the power to savour the feeling every day. You only need to wake up to it.
No doubt you have problems, perhaps serious ones. Welcome to the real world. Feeling grateful doesn’t mean everything in your life is going well.
Take a few minutes every day to summarize what’s right with your life. Look for opportunities to make a positive assessment, to recognize just how good it is to be alive. After all, we have much to be grateful for if we only stop and recognize it.
Look at your opportunities rather than your problems. Even setbacks can be viewed in a positive light if you see them through the lens of gratitude. Ask yourself a few questions: What can I be thankful about in this situation? Could it have been worse? Is there an important lesson to be learned here? How can I grow from this?
Grateful people sleep better and enjoy a host of health benefits, including greater resilience and longevity. Gratitude has even been shown to boost your basic genetically determined level of happiness by up to 25%.
Sven Franssen