I am fresh off a week of surrounding myself with gratitude. I started by doing my gratitude challenge, writing 25 gratitudes each day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and 100 on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday. After immersing yourself in gratitude that way, I can tell you it’s hard to turn it off. I have so many more things that I am grateful for- so I am just keeping the list going!
I write at least three gratitudes every morning, I pray quite a bit, which really, for me, turns into a verbal gratitude list.
Have you noticed when you are really immersed in a thing that it starts to show up everywhere? Like when you get a new car and suddenly you notice the same car everywhere- it seems everyone is driving one. I’ve been engaged in a study with two of my mentors- Paul Martinelli and Roddy Galbraith on the Science of Getting Rich. This book was written in the early 1900’s and I wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that gratitude plays an important part in becoming rich.
A favorite quote of mine from the book, by Wallace D. Wattles -” The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best, therefore it tends to become the best.”
What else can I tell you to convince you to get on the gratitude bandwagon? (this is a year long pursuit- not just for the week of Thanksgiving or during the month of November.)
To name a few-
*Grateful people have more optimism, work enjoyment, goal achievement, and if you are a student, better grades!
*Gratitude contributes to physical and psychological health- yes! Gratitude has been shown to strengthen the immune system!
*It is one of 5 strengths most robustly linked to satisfaction, happiness and living a meaningful life.
These are my personal favorites. I wonder- what are you most grateful for from the past week? How about this year?
Ask yourself these questions daily. Ask others- it’s a sure conversation starter!
Have I gotten you interested in increasing your strength of gratitude? If so, here’s recipe for building it:
-Notice three or more things that you’re grateful for each day. Bonus- write them down- double bonus, write them before bed.
-One of your gratitudes each day is about yourself- how are you grateful for you or something you did each day?
-Tell someone each day that you are grateful for them and why- pay attention to notice what is going on around you.
-When writing gratitudes, challenge yourself to find new things everyday, not repeating the same ones day after day.
Three things every day is 1095 in a year. One telling someone of your gratitude for them – 365 in a year. Sounds like a surefire way to become really good at gratitude and to reap all of the rewards in your life!