Can gratitude change your life? Yes, it can. The benefits of gratitude can change your whole way of thinking.
Living in gratitude will not only change you, but everyone around you will reap the benefits.
There are so many reasons to be grateful. From keeping a gratitude journal to reading gratitude quotes, you really CAN change your mindset.
Continue reading to find out about how to practice gratitude for a happier life.
Attitude of Gratitude
Many of us have heard the phrase, “Thankful, Grateful, and Blessed” but how many of us are truly grateful and thankful?
How many of us truly see our blessings and express our gratitude?
Most of us never consider our blessings, instead we worry and shift our focus on our problems. That alone will cause nothing but anxiety and unhappiness.
When we are anxious and filled with negative energy, everyone around us will feel it. It’s not good for our well-being or our loved ones.
This can all change with our way of thinking. It’s time to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
When I was younger, I was always a pretty positive person. I loved doing things for others. It made me happy to see other people happy.
I love giving people genuine compliments, and if I don’t mean it I won’t say it. I am still like that, but a couple of years ago, I developed an autoimmune disease and my focus shifted.
I wasn’t positive or happy. I didn’t feel well, so, therefore, my mental state and mood were gloomy.
I almost got lost in that fog. It took a while to get my health back to at least where I felt “OK”, and then I started working on getting myself back.
I had become a little bitter and cynical. That’s just not me. I had to reevaluate my life and make some adjustments.
How Do You Practice Gratitude
It is really hard to stay a positive person in a world full of negative energy. With so many people holding grudges, being spiteful, or just down-right fake, how can you stay positive?
Easy…COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.
Yes, that sounds cliché, but DO YOU count your blessings?
Maybe you count the big ones, but you should have gratitude for all the little things that have brought you the big things.
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” — Willie Nelson
Having gratitude for everything will shift your entire focus. Positive energy can be contagious.
When you are truly grateful and thank people in your life for the things that they do, you send good vibes out into the world.
Just think what could happen if WE ALL DID THAT.
Why Gratitude is Important
Gratitude not only shifts our mental focus when we have gratitude, but we also sleep better, eat better, and we are generally more healthy.
Once we ponder the way we think, feel, and live our life, we can start living more INTENTIONALLY.
Living in the present, and not just counting our blessings but FEELING them every day.
Inhale Love, Exhale Gratitude.
Since I started living more intentionally and truly counting my blessings, my life has changed for the better.
As I said, positivity can be contagious. When you are positive, all those around you can feel your vibe.
If you aren’t naturally positive or maybe you have just been in a low place, it’s hard to know where to even start turning that all around.
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, you have to start simple. Aim small, miss small.
Here is a FREE eBook 5 Day Guide To Living A More Intentional Life.
Gratitude Journal Benefits
The most simple way to start being more grateful is to start a journal. I find the easiest time to journal is at night.
When the world is quiet and you are alone with your thoughts. Each night write about something you are grateful for.
When we start focusing on what is going right in our lives, then it shifts our whole way of thinking.
Most of us go to bed thinking of all the things we need to do the next day, or sometimes even replaying a conversation from 5 years before, thinking of a better thing to say.
What if we go to bed grateful?
It can’t lead to anything but GOOD. A GOOD night’s rest, and GOOD attitude upon waking.
These are some excellent journals that give prompts to help you write your gratitude so you can unlock your blessings.
If you don’t have a lot of time I also recommend The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day.
It has excellent prompts that are quick and to the point, but also thought-provoking.
These journals are all great, especially to start out with. I personally use this rustic beauty because I like a blank slate to write all my thoughts, sketches, and doodles to go along with whatever is on my mind.
Get a journal!
Or even just a notebook.
Putting your gratitude in writing is such a great way to FEEL your blessings.
Journaling evokes mindfulness, which will connect you to a more present and happier-self. Keeping a gratitude journal will expand your sense of well-being by shifting your mind to focus on the GOOD.
Gratitude Journal Prompts
- What are you most grateful for?
- Write down your favorite emotion and when was the last time you felt it?
- What are the 10 things you are grateful for?
- What is your proudest accomplishment?
- Think about what is the hardest thing you ever experienced? How did it shape you?
- Name 5 things you enjoy doing?
- What do you love most about yourself?
- What was the last nice thing you did for someone without asking for something in return?
- Write down what makes you comfortable?
These journal prompts should help you get started. Remember, having a gratitude journal is an amazing tool that can transform your life for the better.
A recent study by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine proved that keeping a gratitude journal can be very beneficial to your heart health.
Of course, keeping a gratitude journal will help you stay more mindful of your gratitude, but you need to express your gratitude to others as well.
30 Day Gratitude Challenge
For this purpose, I have made a 30 Day Plan to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude. Think of it as a Gratitude Challenge!
1. Start a gratitude journal.
2. Write a letter or send a card.
3. Take a social media break.
4. Take a walk with your phone turned off.
5. Watch a funny movie with your loved ones.
6. Call your Mom and thank her.
7. Reminisce with an old friend.
8. Get fresh flowers to put on your nightstand.
9. Give genuine compliments freely.
10. Bake a cake for someone.
11. Tell a funny childhood memory to your kids.
12. Donate a winter coat to a shelter.
13. Pay it forward in a drive-thru line.
14. Have a day with no complaining.
15. Take a day for yourself.
16. Embrace the sights and sounds of nature.
17. Add some house plants to your home.
18. Light some fall-scented candles.
19. Sit outside and watch the sunset or sunrise.
20. Write down 5 of your strengths.
21. Donate food to a food pantry.
22. See the world thru a child’s eyes.
23. Donate a bag of pet food to a shelter.
24. Offer to babysit a friend’s kids.
25. Make a craft and give it away.
26. Take your family out for just dessert.
27. Invite a neighbor over for dinner.
28. Reread one of your favorite books.
29. Go someplace new.
30. Count your Blessings.
Gratitude Challenge To Change Your Mindset
Whether or not the practice of gratitude comes to you naturally, paying attention to life’s positive attributes will help you be more grateful.
Acknowledging your blessings–in writing, with words, or by how you live–will help you have an attitude of gratitude that will last a lifetime.
Remember, the struggle ends when gratitude begins.
What are you GRATEFUL for? Please tell me in the comments!
Don’t forget to sign up for your FREE 5-day course on How To Live A More Intentional Life!
Bonus: More Ways To Practice Gratitude
How To Create Healthy Lifestyle Habits That Stick
A Bucket List To OWN Your 40’s
How To Stop Social Media From Stealing Your Joy
Another very inspirational post! It gives me alot to think about! Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much Pam! That means a lot! I’m so glad you are enjoying my blog.
I love this idea! I have a lot of time on my hands and never think to just write about things or even my life. Maybe I should start to change that and get myself a journal too.
Carly, journals are a great outlet for your feelings. They also help you manifest your hopes and dreams. 😉
These are great ideas for cultivating an attitude of gratitude. I don’t journal regularly liked I used to because I’m always short on time but it’s probably a habit I need to start again.
I love this! Very inspirational!
Thank you so much, Mariela.
I couldn’t agree more with this – gratitude has changed my life!
That’s wonderful Talya, it has changed my life as well. 🙂
I’m sharing this post—such an important thing to be reminded of. It’s so easy to get stuck feeling sorry for yourself. Gratitude improves your whole outlook on life!
Yes, you are exactly right. Thanks for sharing Janna.
Great thoughts! I’m working hard at trying to teach my teenagers this
Gratitude is ALWAYS in style! xo Mary Wink
As a teacher, I love talking to kids about having an attitude of gratitude this time of year. Thank you for sharing the great prompts!
I have been looking for something to get me back into journaling and with Thanksgiving coming up I think this is a great time to focus on my blessings in life and start writing about what I am grateful for. Thank you for the great read and the awesome prompts to get me started back up.
This is a really helpful post, I love all the tips!
This is all great advice! I’m so glad you found your way back to a grateful, positive life after your illness. It can be so hard to stay positive but journaling is a great solution! Thank you for sharing this!
You are absolutely right. Just have the right attitude changes a lot of things even the way people react to you.
So important! My partner and I ask each other what we’re most grateful for every night before we go to bed and it helps end the day on such a happy note.
I have a daily gratitude practice and it has totally changed my mindset so I am totally with you on all of the above!
Love love love this! This fits so well with my believe system. Thank you for sharing!
I love this! Especially the one about giving genuine complements freely. I spend quite a bit of time commenting on blogs in order to draw traffic and see many bloggers who say “great post, come visit me at [website]” and it makes you feel like they don’t listen to anything you say. I like the idea of going out and commenting just for the sake of striking up a conversation. I also love the journal prompts 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing this!
I do gratitude every morning. It’s so powerful!
Thanks so much. I too was diagnosed with a autoimmune disease 3 yrs ago. I love doing for others and making people happy. Since my illness, I’ve found this feeling was not returned. Many of my family and friends were not supportive or understanding. I can no longer do my job and have been in a dark place for a while now.
Nicole, I am really sorry to hear that. Autoimmune disease is really hard because it can be an invisible disease that our friends and family can’t see. It is so hard when our bodies turn against us. The two biggest factors that helped me feel like myself again was changing the way I eat (going gluten-free) and practicing daily gratitude. Keeping a journal completly changed my mindset. I hope it helps you too!
Having gratitude is something I’ve been working on. I adore this post.
Such a great article! Thank you so much for sharing! Living in a state of gratitude can be harder than it seems sometimes but we all need to raise our vibrations! There is so much to be grateful for ❤️
Jessie
Great! Enjoyed reading this?
I can relate to this so much:
“When I was younger, I was always a pretty positive person. I loved doing things for others. It made me happy to see other people happy. (…) I am still like that, but a couple of years ago, (…) I had become a little bitter and cynical. That’s just not me. I had to reevaluate my life and make some adjustments.”
I went through some difficult things and I still need to make adjustments. I hope I can get to that place where I feel peacefully in love with Life again because of the positive impact we can have on each other. I know I’ve been moving in that direction for a while now but what you wrote reminds of how grateful I was for everything when I was younger. Thank you for sharing your experience.
This is just what I needed this week! Very inspirational. I’ll do more of that, inhale love and exhale gratitude!
I love the journal prompts! Daily reflection and gratitude is really very simple but often times I put it on the back burner! Such a great read! Thanks for posting!
Love the idea of writing down what your grateful for everyday. Every night before bad my husband and I tell our son we’re grateful and blessed to have him and all the reasons. We’ve started telling each other why at night too and we love it now.
Great advice! I love writing in my graditude journal and this post gave me some new ideas on what to write about next!
This is a great post! Gratitude isn’t always easy, but it can make such a significant impact in our lives. I am getting ready for a big charity event right now, and I am SO excited for it!
Nowadays we lack such intentional living and we take everything for granted. Such gratitude is indeed an important part which make us aware of who we are and why do we exist.
I love this post! I think I’m going to start writing down one thing that I’m grateful for at the end of each day, will be lovely to look over at the end of the week/month. Becca x
Love this post! Perfect time of year for it. Gratitude is something I’ve been intentionally practicing for the last year. So very life changing!
What an awesome post! Your words capture the importance that practicing gratitude plays in all of our lives.
I know that when my husband and I started acting with intention, gratitude naturally followed. In 2018 we hit that point in our lives where we realized that we were creating a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.
The simple act of engaging in our life allowed us to pay off over $50k worth of debt in only 6 months. I believe that it was the gratitude we felt and our mini celebrations along the way that made this possible.
Thank you for providing such inspirational content!
I loved,, loved, loved reading this blog about gratitude. I too believe so much in not only gratitude but in journaling as well. In fact I just created a journal which shall be published very soon. I would love for you to read my article about the healing power of journaling in case you’re interested. Thanks, Beth Blogger of ‘Made You Smile Back’
I think I need to join this challenge
Thank you sharing this enlightening post. I love the 30 day challenges you’ve created -I can’t wait to try some of the daily challenges. I couldn’t agree more with journaling. Journaling is very beneficial to one’s health. It can help calm one’s mind and sooth the soul.
What great positive ideas. Something the world needs a lot more of. Thanks for sharing.
I loved this post! So many great ideas to implement in my daily routine.
I just started writing down things I am grateful for every night in my planner. It is amazing what that mindset change will do. I love the gratitude challenge. This will be fun to do as a family. Thanks for the post.
I LOVED this post! Thanks for all the great tips about the importance of gratitude and how to incorporate it more into your life. I really love the phrase “inhale love, exhale gratitude.” Thanks for putting this post together. Very helpful! 🙂
I love this post. I totally agree that gratitude is so important.