Have you ever paused and thought as to how lucky you are ? You have so much to be grateful for! How many times have you said this to someone or had someone say this to you?
I think forfew, the above terms might seem a bit cheesy,but trust me it has more depth and meaning to it than you could ever think of! Gratitude simply doesn’t mean “THANK YOU”. It is much more than that.One has to learn to embrace it with both hands.And this reminds me of a saying by Tony Robins,
“Success without gratitude is the biggest failure of all”
Gratitude is simply taking time to think about all the positive things in your life. Rather than ruminating on the negatives.
In the digital era of today,we are constantly bombarded by the life and the activities of our peers,friends and family,be it on Facebook,Instagram or even LinkedIn.We feel like that the grass is much greener on their end and our focus is immediately shifted to what they have…Does this sound familiar to you?
Well,I totally agree with you,because I was one such person who was constantly glued to social networks and instead of looking at what I had,I was engulfed into other people’s lives and craving for more.Up until very recently,I realized that this habit was infectious and I needed to get this out of my system. By this time,I was watching many YouTube videos and reading even Pinterest boards and blog posts and was reminded quite often of gratitude.I didn’t understand what being grateful meant.So I started following a small exercise.(I think you can do this too,if you are a beginner)
I took a notebook and a pen and,I answered three main questions.
(i) What am I grateful for?
(ii) What will make today great?
(iii) To whom should I give my thanks to today?
Or,simply look around yourself,observe your environment around you and write down all the things that you are grateful for.Start this exercise by just spending 5 minutes of your time in the morning or even while going to bed.
This was like my morning ritual and I noted these in my gratitude journal and this just made my mornings much calmer and at peace.
But this needs to be done with full diligence,patience and sincerity.You know our mind is like a magnet,if you focus on happiness,you find that happiness exists within you,its not anywhere else and its just Y-O-U.But on the other hand,if you crave for more,you feel like you are not enough and begin to feel that you have flaws.
Only,if an only if, you tell yourself that you are thankful to all that you have in your life,your life will start to change.Today,after practicing gratitude for nearly 9 months,I can say that I feel so much more lighter and I have stopped looking at what other’s have,but instead I focus on just “ME”
Having an attitude of gratitude doesn’t cost any money. It doesn’t take much time at all….But the benefits are much more worth it :)
But here is an important piece of advice that I would like to give my readers :
What lasts permanent takes time.So give it some time,you will see changes within you only if you start practicing gratitude for atleast 30 days.For some it might even take longer than that…but wait,just because you don’t see the benefits now,don’t think about quitting!
Think about it as a baby step that we take, to keep our sanity in check.After all our health is our biggest wealth..Isnt it ?
Thank you so much for your kind words Lakshman!!! And yes,every post that I put here will be published only after that has truly benefited me :)) Because I feel that I need to give my readers something which changed me and not give advice just for the sake of content :))
Loved the article..
It was my friend Akshaya (the one who commented earlier) who sent me the link of this article.
She posted an article about Gratitude in her blog and when we were discussing about it, I was suggesting her that it would be nice if she leaves the readers with a To-Do (i.e. where to start from). Hence now she sent me your article with reference to that conversation.
I loved 2 specific things in your article:
1. Initially you caught the attention of the people by nicely putting that "who is this article for"..
2. You recommended the steps after practicing it for a substantial time (9 months)..
I do practice writing Gratitude Journal (On & Off)…
Thanks Akshaya!!! I'm glad it was helpful 💓
Everyone of us compare ourselves with others. As you rightly said 'The grass is always greener on the other side'.
We should start practicing gratitude with great pride. It'll be amazing if we start to realise our worth before anybody else.
This article is an eye opener. I'm definitely giving this a try.
Thanks for the input✨