I tell myself I am grateful all the time. Sometimes I do so to get myself out of a bad mood but, mostly, I say this affirmation, declaration, and proclamation for two reasons. One, it serves me as both a statement of clarity and hope. Two, it constantly reminds me of the key to a better life no matter what level I’m at.
The Many Benefits of Being Grateful
There are many benefits to being grateful but let’s start with the most obvious one – how being so makes you feel.
Emotionally, you simply feel better when you are grateful. You see, when your focus is on gratitude and blessings instead of lack and burdens, you’re happy with what you have in the moment instead of upset looking at what you don’t.
Because your focus is on the good and the silver linings of the clouds, you don’t beat yourself over what isn’t “good” in the present or what wasn’t what you wanted in the past either. Because of the positive angle you’re looking at your life from, you also feel more optimistic about the future you’re creating and shaping.
This sense of wellness then flows into other areas of your life, such as relationships. For example, the positivity that gratitude brings forth affects how you treat other people so that rather than looking at their shortcomings or flaws, you instead focus on what’s good about them that you can be grateful for.
You don’t have to be in direct relationship or even in contact with someone you know to get something good out of knowing them. Whether they be a famous person you have zero contact with or a family member you don’t talk to much, if at all, being grateful they’re even alive opens you up to see that they serve a purpose in your life. This is how you extract the gold out of everything in life.
Feeling Good Due To Gratitude
Feeling good due to being grateful is not limited to emotional health alone. Your disposition greatly affects your physical health too. When you are grateful, your body is calm and at ease. You are even able to appreciate it for all it does for you instead of berating it for how it looks this way or that or how it’s not working properly for you.
Together, this emotional and physical state of being makes you a much more enjoyable person to be around. This, in turn, affects everything else in your life, from social gatherings to professional settings.
It is easy to see, therefore, that your quality of being (in this case being grateful) directly affects your quality of life. This does not mean your life will be perfect just because you are grateful; only that your attitude of gratitude will give you an inclination and approach to whatever your life may be that’s constructive and helpful which is valuable instead of the opposite which is definitely not.
How To Be Grateful
You may be thinking, “Sounds great but it’s so easy to forget in the heat of the moment just how to be grateful!” Too true! That’s why being grateful is a constant practice.
As human beings, we have to remember to remember. We develop that ability by first creating rituals that eventually become automatic the same way we remember to go to the bathroom when nature calls.
Anything you do often eventually becomes instinct. Until it does, however, you must try, fail and then try and try, again and again and again.
My ritual is writing a list of 5 things I am grateful for every morning during my journaling time. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the days I don’t do that, I’m a mess because my day is not anchored in anything meaningful.
Life is fast and our days can very quickly escalate and get out of control with our typical go-go-go current society affliction so be sure to do that which matters most first. Number one thing of all, be grateful. This is the foundation for a life well-lived, friend. This is the key to everything you seek.
All my love to you always,
❤️
Narah
“Life is too short & too beautiful to waste!”
#BeTheRealYou | #OneLife | #RealYouLiving
