12 Easy and Powerful Ways to Accelerate Gratitude
Introduction
There are so many benefits to living a life of gratitude. It will make you much more optimistic about your future and it will help you to attract more good things in your life. There are physical and mental health benefits as well. Practicing gratitude regularly will strengthen your immune system and help you to cope better with stress.
If you are committed to making the transition to a gratitude filled life, then the 12 powerful and effective methods in this special report will help you to achieve your goal a lot faster than other methods. They are all simple to implement and very effective so don’t just read this blog – take action every day.
Consistency is the most important thing when you are trying to develop a gratitude habit in your life. You need to use these methods even if you don’t feel like using them. It is going to take at least 30 days for a new habit to form so that you start doing these things automatically. So, learn, implement, and keep implementing!
Start and Maintain a Gratitude Journal
There is genuine power in writing. Nobody really knows the reason why, but it doesn’t matter. When you write things down not only do you have a record which you can reflect back on at a future time, but you are making a stronger commitment to changing your life.
Start a gratitude journal today. When people hear the word “journal” they think of fancy leather-bound diary type books that cost a ton of money. You don’t need anything like this. Just a spiral notebook and pen are fine. Keep this near your bed so that you can record your gratitude morning and night.
It will take you just a minute or two to write down what you are grateful for each day. The beauty of having a gratitude journal is that you can go through it once a week to reflect on what you were grateful for the previous week. This will inspire you and keep you firmly on your path to a gratitude filled life.
Get into the habit of recording all your gratitude moments in your journal. At the end of the day think about what has happened and the events where you were grateful to others. Record all of these in your journal. It doesn’t matter how small the events were – if they caused you to express gratitude then make an entry about them.
If you want to you can carry your gratitude journal around with you wherever you go. In this way you can record gratitude moments as they happen. Always remember to state the reasons for your gratitude and how this made you and the receiver feel.
Three Things
In the mornings when you get up grab your gratitude journal and write down three things that you are very grateful for in your life right now. These can be small things or big things – it really doesn’t matter. So, for example the fact that you woke up and you have another day to look forward to is a good reason to be grateful.
As you write each one down think about the reason why you are so grateful and experience how this makes you feel. So, if you are grateful to have a specific person in your life then write down why they are so important to you and the feelings that you have about them.
Repeat this process before you go to bed each night. It will help you to sleep a lot better because you will lay your head down feeling happy and content with your life. So go through the “three things” process at the start and end of each day to really accelerate your gratitude.
An Act of Kindness a Day
It is very easy for you to perform an act of kindness for others every day. An act of kindness can be something small such as giving someone praise or encouragement. You can start with your family. Provide some help to them in some way. You need to change your mindset to look for ways that you can perform small acts of kindness each day.
Think about who has helped you recently, a family member, co-worker, or friend. Write them a note thanking them for their help and mention the specific thing that they helped you with. You should always say “thank you” to people with sincerity when they do something for you. But this is not enough as a thank you is expected as the norm.
You will get a lot of satisfaction from helping other seven in a small way. When you perform your daily act of kindness, note the reaction from the receiver of this act. It is very likely that their face will light up and they will say some very nice things to you. This will make you feel warm inside and inspire you to keep going with your gratitude.
See the Good around you
There is good all-around you – all you need to do is look for it. In the summertime notice the butterflies that are dancing around the flower sin your backyard or in the park. Look at the people that you live with and think about how proud you are of all of them.
Most people live a very fast paced life these days and take most things for granted. They don’t pause and take the time to appreciate the world that they live in and the people that are in their life. If you are not currently doing this, then don’t worry. It is easy to take a few seconds out of your busy life and just focus on the smaller things.
Leading a life of gratitude is all about being appreciative of what you already have. So, schedule a time each day where you will just take a little time to look around you and reflect on your life. You will soon discover many things that you can be grateful for.
Live in the Moment
People spend too much time dwelling in their past and concerning themselves about their future. What has happened in the past is gone and there are ways that you can be grateful for events that have happened in your life so far which we will discuss later.
Worrying about your future just fills your head with negativity and you will find it difficult to express gratitude in this situation. It is much easier to find things to be grateful for if you live in the moment. So just focus on the here and now and look around you. Who do you have in your life? What things do you have in your life?
So, take a few minutes out each day to just sit quietly and live in the moment. Focus on the here and now and if something interrupts your focus then refocus to the moment. If you need to go to a “special place” to really live in the moment that’s fine. Find somewhere that inspires you and visit this place daily to find things in your life to be grateful for.
Reflect on the Bad things in your Past
At first glance this probably appears negative to you but please read on and you will understand what we mean by this. Everybody has had bad experiences in the past. Maybe you had a time in your life when you had very little money or suffered an emotional break up or something that really made you feel bad.
What you need to do is think about how far you have come since those bad events occurred. If there was a time where you had no money, or very little, then be grateful that you have money now to provide for your family and buy the things that you want.
If you had a bad break up experience, then express gratitude for the partner that you have in your life right now. Your experiences are going to be unique so the examples here might not apply to you. This doesn’t matter as long as you understand the principle, we are trying to get across here.
Don’t do what most people do which is to dwell in the past and fill their head with negativity because of their previous mistakes. Use it as a positive exercise to compare where you were then to where you are now and be grateful for this change. Be grateful to yourself for having the strength and intelligence to make the transition as well.
Create a Reminder System
When you first start out on your gratitude journey it is essential that you find the motivation every day to express your gratitude. It’s easy to get caught up in life and forget to practice your gratitude. Don’t do this because you will lose your momentum. We recommend that you set up a reminder system around your home / office for your gratitude.
At home you can put up visual reminders in the form of print outs or written messages. Place these in locations where you know you will see them regularly such as on your refrigerator, in your bathroom, next to your computer or TV and so on.
Most people have a smartphone these days and you can use this to set up audible alarms to remind you to think about and express your gratitude. It is easy with modern phones to setup several alarms every day so learn how to do this and set those alarms!
Use a calendar to schedule a section of each day where you will practice your gratitude. If you want to do this on your computer or mobile device, then this is OK because you should be able to set up an alarm that tells you it is time for gratitude.
Create a Gratitude Benefits List
There are many benefits to living a life based on gratitude. Here are some of those benefits:
You will be aware of the abundance that already exists in your life
It will help you to have more abundance in your life
It will help you to minimize the stress in your life
It will make you a lot more optimistic about your future
It will provide you with an increased sense of community
It will improve your resilience to handling difficult events
It will increase your sense of emotional well being
It will increase the amount of physical activity in your life
It will help you to sleep better
It will improve your physical health
It will reduce feelings of depression
It will reduce feelings of anxiety
It will give your immune and cardiovascular systems a boost
Do some research online and find more benefits of gratitude. Create a list of the benefits which really resonate with you and are things that you really want. You can either write these down in your gratitude journal (excellent idea!) or you can create a computer document and then print the list out.
The purpose of this list is to provide you with the motivation to persist with your gratitude so keep the list near to your bed and read it when you get up in the morning. For added power read the list before you go to sleep at night. This will send the right signals to your subconscious mind and in time it will help you to achieve your gratitude goals.
Get Inspiration from Videos and Podcasts
The Internet is truly something that we all need to be grateful for. It provides us with a whole host of
resources that we can use to derive inspiration to continue with our gratitude lifestyle. If you visit a
website like YouTube.com you will find thousands of inspirational videos that you can watch to help
you to keep going with expressing your gratitude.
There are many websites that host podcasts as well such as SoundCloud.com. These are audio files
that people create for all kinds of reasons. Finding an inspirational podcast that you can listen to on
the way to work is far better than listening to the normal dross that is served up by radio stations.
The good thing about podcasts in MP3 format is that you can listen to them wherever you go and
whatever you are doing. You can play MP3 files on your phone so just add the audio files that inspire
you and then play them whenever you need inspiration.
There are plenty of inspiring blogs that you can read as well. All of this is free and just demands a little
of your time. Watching a 3 minute inspirational video can work wonders for you. Choose videos that
help you to see all of the good in the world. That way you will find plenty of things that you can be
grateful for.
See all Problems as Opportunities
Using words to express your gratitude to someone else is great and they will appreciate you doing this. But you can take this to the next level by writing down your gratitude for others. Did you ever receive a love letter from a girl or a boy when you were younger? If so how did this make you feel? It made you feel great, didn’t it?
Some people hold on to love letters and other written forms of gratitude all their lives. The reason is that the written words mean so much to them and they can read them any time they want to feel extremely special. Why do you think that the greeting card market is so huge? The written word will always be powerful so take advantage of this.
You can start by writing short “thank you” notes to people. Think about why you are grateful to that person. What specifically did they do to help you? Be sure to include this in your “thank you note.”
With practice you can start to write longer letters to people that have really influenced your life and who you are very grateful to. It doesn’t matter if you have not had contact with these people for several years. Don’t send these letters through the mail. Deliver them personally and read the letter out to the person.
The reaction that you will get will make you feel amazing. Most people will be blown away that you appreciate them so much that you took the trouble to write them a letter expressing your gratitude. And not only that you delivered it to them in person. Obviously if the person lives far away then use the mail but be sure to provide ways that they can contact you.
Receiving an email or a phone call from the person receiving the letter is nearly as good as being therein person. Ask them if you can have a Skype call (or whatever messenger service you use). Be sure to enable video on this call to see each other. That way you can see for yourself how much your letter meant to them.
We all must deal with problems in our lives. Most of these are small problems that we can easily overcome but sometimes we are faced with bigger problems that demand we summon our inner strengths to resolve. A lot of people will react very negatively to these problems and even to some of the smaller ones that they encounter.
So how do you react to problems that come up in your life? Do the bigger ones send you into a negative thought spiral and overwhelm you? When you live a gratitude-based life you can see the good in all the problems that crop up in your life.
The best way to do this is to see all problems as opportunities. They are a chance for you to grow as a person. Think about some of the bigger problems that you have faced so far in your life and how you overcame them. What did you do to resolve them? Who did you ask for help? How did you feel once the problem was resolved?
Make growing as a person something that you are truly grateful for. In that way when the problems occur you can be grateful that you have this opportunity to learn and grow. Without growth our lives would be very dull. The opportunity to move out of your comfort zone by learning something new and solving the problem should be grasped by both hands.
Involve People close to you in your quest for Gratitude
After a while of practicing this it will become second nature to you to see all problems as opportunities. Problems in life are not unique to you – everyone has different problems that they need to resolve. So, think about how you will grow by solving each problem and be grateful for this.
The easiest place to start with this is your family. Explain to them the benefits of a gratitude life and make a copy of your gratitude benefits list for them. Once they are convinced that it is the right thing to do then use ways to get them to participate in gratitude on a regular basis.
Why not get a whiteboard for your home that you can place in a convenient location for everyone and ask them to write on the board what they are grateful for? You can write all these things down so that you always have space on the board for more entries. If one of your family members has not made an entry, then persuade them to do this.
Each week you can have a gratitude review session over dinner. Read out the things that everyone was grateful for over the past week. Show your gratitude to everyone for participating and moving the family forward.
You can do this with friends as well. For people that are willing you can create gratitude buddies and inspire each other to express gratitude every day. Use social media if some of your friends live far away. You could setup a gratitude group on Facebook that each person can use to record their gratitude experiences.
It is likely that you will be pleasantly surprised how many people that you don’t know on Facebook request to join your group. Welcome them all with open arms and tell them what they need to do. If they are new to the subject, then tell them to look at some of the previous posts to get an idea what they need to do.
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