I am a massive advocate of this and encourage all of my clients that I work with to really embrace it, irrespective of some being initially rather sceptical.

Through my own personal journey of 2017, I found inner strength through focusing on all that I was and still am, grateful for.  I am not saying that the sad and difficult days don’t exist, of course they do – we are not robots.  However, I personally can move through this emotion quicker with various tools and strategies I now use, gratitude being one of them.  I know I cannot feel sad/angry and grateful at the same time.

Research shows that gratitude exercises have proven to have tangible benefits.  Each of us are different in how we prefer to do this, but ideas might be:-

😀Write down positive events from your day before going to bed in a journal;

😀Start your day by thinking of what you are grateful for again in a journal;

😀Thinking of what and who you are grateful for, its the small things that can really light you up;

😀You could recite past events or the above and relive them in your mind or say them out loud (some are more freaked out by this latter concept);

😀Go on a gratitude rampage, literally spilling everything you are grateful for until you can list no more!

Arrianna Huffington talks about this in her book Thrive.  To go from struggle to grace.  I love this concept.  We all have in ourselves to find something we are grateful for and it really can help adjust our mood in that moment.

She goes on to say that ‘Gratitude works its magic by serving as an antidote to negative emotions.  Its like white blood cells for the soul, protecting us from cynicism, entitlement, anger and resignation’

So, with much research and more and more realising that gratitude is one of the many different performance and happiness enhancers, I urge you to try.  

Find a way that works for you.  Remembering it takes 28 days to change a habit, so you won’t install this in one hit.

Another tip I read which is something I am going to start with my boys (who also have a gratitude journal) is the ten finger activity.  Use each finger each day to find 10 things you are grateful for.  You could start using one hand to ease yourself in!

Below is a link to the gratitude journal that I use.  (I am an affiliate, just to be transparent), but not for any reason, other than I love their journals (their productivity planner rocks!) and I am a massive advocate of using them each day.

Would love to hear your experiences.  Do you practice?  Has it helped?  

With love and light