Edna Oliveros3 Ways to introduce more gratitude
It’s is that time of the year – Happy Thanksgiving.
For those who aren’t familiar with Thanksgiving Day, it is a national holiday in the United States. This year’s Thanksgiving will be Thursday, November 25. History says that the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast that has been acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. Later in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national holiday that would take place on the last Thursday of November.
I love the meaning of this holiday because it’s a time to get together and give thanks for everything we have.
This brings me to ask you a question: how much gratitude do you practice every day?
Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools I’ve encountered. Being grateful results in the universe giving you more of whatever you already have. Being grateful helps you attract what you want.
The University of Berkeley published the results of a study that says that gratitude practices change your brain activity (1) – crazy!
People who practice gratitude regularly, report experiencing more positive emotions, feeling more alive, sleeping better, expressing more compassion and kindness, and even having stronger immune systems (2).
This sounds fantastic, right?! So, why don’t we practice more of it? I honestly think that we haven’t been taught how to practice it, and we simply lose sight of it during our regular lives.
Practicing gratefulness through hard times isn’t the easiest because it comes with the acceptance of whatever situation is in our lives. This means that we have to give thanks even for the bad things because there is always something to learn from those experiences or circumstances. Also, bad things happen for a greater reason even if we can see it at the time.
When we understand this and shift our minds, we start seeing that failure doesn’t exist and that everything happens for a greater purpose. So, below are three simple ideas that you can use to introduce regular gratitude practices into your life and start using your superpower:
1 – Do it every morning and night: when you open your eyes every day or before you go to sleep think of one thing you are grateful for. Only one thing. You’ll soon realize that you have endless things to be grateful for!
2- Journal: if you want to move into the next step get a pen and paper and start writing about those things you’re grateful for.
3- Make a phone call or send a message: choose someone you’d like to give thanks to and just do it. You’ll see some magic happening!
