If meditation was the buzz word for last year then gratitude is the buzz word for the first half of 2018. We’re not able to move through Paperchase without seeing a gratitude journal or scroll through social media without someone using the word gratitude. So what is a gratitude practice and why should we be giving it a go?
The dictionary definition of gratitude is “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness” and building an awareness of gratitude into our day to day lives can be a really lovely way to shine a little joy onto those quiter, darker days or making the brighter days even shinier.
A gratitude practice is often part of a journalling, mindfulness or meditation practice and can be a lovely way to sort out thoughts. For myself it forms part of my (sporadic) journalling practice and is something I am trying to work a little harder to incorporate. So often in day to day life we get bogged down in the things that went wrong, or not quite as planned and give all our mental capacity to these so bringing some positivity, however small, into our thought processes can be really lovely.
So how do we do this? For myself it is setting myself four questions and answering them as honestly as possible. Remember the answers do not need to be something everyone else would be grateful or the classic answers of family, friends or health. Some weeks they may be very small and seemingly insignificant but they are our rememberings and our feelings.
- Who has made you smile this week and why? – It may be your partner, your kids, your family or maybe the stranger in the shops who helped you out, the person who smiled at you in the street when you were feeling super stressed. Have a think about why inparticular you had that reaction to that person and why you are grateful for that.
- What situation from the past week are you grateful for and has made you smile? – An amazing business opportunity or maybe the most perfect avocado. However small or silly it may seem note it down
- What has been hard recently, how have you overcome it and what can you be thankful for that situation teaching you? – Turning the negative into a positive and working out what we can learn and be grateful for from that difficult situation. So often difficult times can teach us so much so try and turn that negativity on it’s head and find some gratitude.
- What are grateful for about yourself and your life right now? – This is often the hardest question, especially as it’s a very un-British thing to turn our gaze on ourselves and pay ourselves a compliment. But what have you achieved that you’re grateful for or something that you’ve done you didn’t think you’d be able to. It could be something as large as being grateful for your health or that maybe you managed to grant yourself a little me time this week and your grateful to yourself for doing that. Sit down and have a think and give yourself a pat on the back
There are so many other questions that you could ask but I hope that this little insight might be able to get you started and might get some thoughts flowing.
Do you have a gratitude practice already? If so let me know how you build it into your life and share your prompts so we can all learn and grow together