3 Tips on How to Incorporate Gratitude into Your Life

I love this time of year — it reminds us to be grateful and produces an air of thankfulness. However, to cultivate an attitude of gratitude that lasts beyond the holiday season, we must commit to ongoing habits that help us see life through the lenses of gratitude. For example, regularly expressing a simple, heartfelt ‘thank you’ will leave you feeling happier, more enthusiastic, and with a more positive outlook on life. New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, and former professional Arena League football player Lewis Howes writes, “if you concentrate on what you have, you’ll always have more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.”

Let’s chat about my three tips for cultivating an attitude of gratitude:

1. Train your brain: It’s easy to take what you have for granted. What’s more, people become indifferent to hearing ‘count your blessings’ or ‘be thankful for what you have’. In an online parenting magazine, I read this, “I hadn’t quite realized it then, but I had defaulted to a person who was constantly unhappy about what I didn’t have instead of being happy about what I did.” The truth is, with a little bit of effort, you can change the way you think. You can change your mindset – consciously recognize the importance of your blessings until doing so becomes natural. E.g., I’m grateful for cooler weather, I’m grateful for a safe commute, I’m grateful for being home in time to say goodnight to my daughter. What are you grateful for? Think about it and write down daily at least three things you’re grateful for in a gratitude journal. This one simple, continuous act will help you break the cycle of cynical thinking. You can become a glass-half-full type of person that sees a situation with more positivity even in moments of despair! Imagine that!! Once you realize how good your life is, you’ll truly experience joy and happiness.
2. Say Thank You: It’s so easy for us to focus on the material things in life that we forget to look around and notice the people closest to us. One of my favorite quotes is by writer and philosopher Albert Schweitzer. He said, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” Who has rekindled the spark within you? More importantly, does that person or persons know how much you appreciate them and how grateful you are for having them in your life? If you’re hesitating, pick up your cell and text, call or email, or — better yet — walk up to that person and give them a sincere ‘thank you’. Remember, you are an average of the five people you surround yourself with – so it’s wise to surround yourself with people who will challenge you, who will respect you, you will support you, and who will love you.
3. Give back: Sometimes, all it takes is a trip to the grocery store to remind me of how lucky I am to have the means to buy food for my family to help keep them happy and healthy. Many people don’t have access to the basics – food, water, medical services, education – how lucky are we? For this reason, I support giving back. Not only are you impacting the life of another person but your own life becomes valuable to someone else. That’s an amazing feeling and one of the reasons why we established The Neora Ripple Foundation – a charitable organization devoted to the vision of Making People Better on a global basis. Psychologist and head of the Center for the Study of the Individual and Society at the University of Minnesota Mark Snyder found that people who donate some of their time to a worthy cause tend to have a higher self-esteem, psychological well-being, and happiness. “All of these things go up as their feelings of social connectedness goes up, which in reality, it does.” I also read about a health and volunteering study that revealed: “96 percent of people who have volunteered over the 12 months said volunteering enriches their sense of purpose?” Giving back is the perfect opportunity to invite friends or loved ones to spend quality time with — it’s the perfect time to connect with your support group!

I have so much more I want to share with you which is why I invite you to continue this conversation on a Facebook Live Event on Wednesday, November 15, at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Let’s talk about some additional tips including the importance of keeping a gratitude journal or gratitude jar. I’ll leave you with this last question to get the conversation started. How do you find something positive to focus on in the face of disappointment, criticism or even failure? Please submit your answers below!

Visit my Facebook page on the day at the right time and click on the LIVE event displayed at the top of the page or send this link http://bit.ly/2xDzRx9 to prospects. If you’re sharing the event with a prospect, they must LIKE my page prior to watching us LIVE.

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