Sometimes, it can feel impossible to look on the bright side but if you can learn how to be grateful every day, no matter what, it will give you the most powerful tool in the world.
How to be grateful every day
Gratitude is a funny thing isn’t it.
I feel like sometimes it can come with a layer of guilt. Someone well-meaning might say to you, at a particularly low point ‘but look at what you have to be grateful for.’
They’re right… but at the time, it can just make you feel guilty.
You’re sitting there complaining about something and they throw all those good things in your face. How dare they! Right?
Or maybe you’re truly in a bad place.
You or someone you love is sick.
You’re in a disaster.
Something actually, really bad has happened.
It’s often hard to look on the bright side and be grateful for what you have but especially when you’re faced with such adversity but it can also be your saving grace.
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For me personally, when I was suffering from postnatal depression and anxiety, I wasn’t all that good at looking at the good things.
In fact thinking of the good things just made me feel even worse for not being happy.
I clearly remember the first thing that I did that helped me. I learned how to be grateful every day.
Every night, before I went to sleep, I’d write down three things that I was grateful for.
It didn’t have to be massive or profound or what you ‘should’ say like I’m grateful for my kids. It could just be:
- I’m grateful for my comfy pillow.
- I’m grateful for that piece of chocolate I snuck.
- I’m grateful for that beautiful flower that just bloomed by my front door.
The idea is that what we focus on grows.
If we can learn to always focus on the things that we have to be grateful for, we will just have more and more to be grateful for.
If we focus on all the bad things, guess what? Yep it works both ways.
So tonight, I challenge you, write down three things that you’re grateful for today. Don’t force it, just the first three things that come to mind. Then do it again tomorrow night and the next night.
I promise you, it will take you less than 30 seconds and it will make a pretty amazing difference.
