The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude is one of the most important emotions we humans experience. It is universal and can be expressed both verbally and non-verbally, whether there is a material, non-material reason, or no reason at all. Isn’t that fascinating? We can experience gratitude even when there is no obvious reason to. You don’t have to win a competition or get praised at work or school to be grateful. Gratitude is a beautiful emotion in which we feel eternally happy or content. It is not even limited to the present. You could be grateful for the past and even the future. It is with simple, yet beautiful emotions like this that we fully feel the power and uniqueness of the world itself and our individual lives. And it is this power that allows us to move forward even when things don’t seem to be going our way or we feel like giving up. When we feel grateful, we acknowledge that we have the right and capacity to love and be loved, not just by the people around us, but the world.

Why is gratitude important?

In this lifetime, you may have carried many burdens, experienced heartbreak, gone through incredibly traumatic events, or wondered why you exist. For all of these reasons and more, learning to be grateful no matter what and seeing the better side of things is a supremely useful skill. Gratitude has been shown to drastically improve the lives of those suffering with their mental health especially with regards to a low life satisfaction. Now I’m not saying, “shut up and be grateful” when something bad happens. It’s important that you understand your feelings are always valid and you are not in the wrong for being upset or angry about your situation. It’s also important to understand that distress and anger are temporary reactions, and if you continue to blame the world around you, others, or even yourself, you won’t get anywhere. This is where gratitude comes in.

I think the quote this article surrounds beautifully explains gratitude.

“i thank the universe for taking everything it has taken and giving to me everything it is giving – balance" – Rupi Kaur.

There is quite a bit of controversy around this topic when it comes to extreme circumstances. Do bad things really happen to make people stronger? Does the universe really only send what you can handle?

For some, bad things turn out to be good things. For others, bad things are just bad. And for most, bad things are turned into good things by the person who experienced them. I am the latter. I turned my suffering into a career. But can anyone do this? What are the answers to the previous questions?

In my opinion, there is no right answer, only the one you answer with. I cannot for the life of me tell you to get over it, nor do I want to, but I can tell you that what you make of your situation is entirely up to you; it is your reality.

I have experienced my own burdens. They were not fun. But it was with gratitude that I learned that my burden does not have to be my pain forever. It was with gratitude that I learned that yes bad exists in the world, but so does good. That I long for things others have and I have things that others dream of. That my body doesn’t need to match the ones in the magazines because I have one. My face doesn’t need to change because beauty is subjective, and I love myself. The weather doesn’t need to be sunny everyday because the rain waters the plants. The entire world doesn’t need to love me because I love myself. My grades don’t need to be perfect because I’ve got an education. I am not perfect, but I am trying my best. I don’t have to be happy all the time because isn’t it amazing to be able to laugh, to cry, to smile, to feel?

Gratitude is not something that completely eradicates all other emotions. Gratitude is not something that changes the situation itself. But it changes how we view them. That’s the power of gratitude. The ability to recognise that things may not always go the way we wanted but go the way we need.

Things you need to hear:

Being grateful for the past

You have to be grateful for who you were to be grateful for who you are now and who you’re striving to be. It is your being that inspires you to change. The saying, ‘good things come to those who wait’ is true. When bad things happen, it can be impossible to see any reason as to why it happened. Sometimes you only find out in the distant future. But only if you are open to the possibility and potential. How many things that have happened in the past, have contributed to who you are now? (Hint: It’s all of them).

Being grateful for the present

What you do in every moment of your life, contributes to the next moment and so on. The things you are doing or working toward matter. Be grateful to yourself for simply being you. Be grateful to the world for giving you the opportunity to do those things. To live. Cherish those moments when you are completely tuned out from the world and you can only hear your own thoughts, and you are able to think to yourself, “How lucky am I?”

Being grateful for the future

“How can I be grateful for the future if it isn’t here yet?” My dear, you are creating your future right now. The future you perceive when you are perceiving it has already passed. You exist. You are here. This is it. Isn’t life so unpredictably predictable and complexly simply beautiful? My apologies for scrambling your brain as I write this. The future is a possibility at best but guaranteed in my eyes.

Gratitude is a personal and intimate practice. There is no right way to practise it; it is specific to you.

Here are 20 methods you can try to implement gratitude in your daily routine:

- A Gratitude Journal

- Meditation

- Connect with nature

- Catch up with a friend

- Talk to a family member

- Acknowledge at least 3 things you are grateful for every day

- Say thank you more often

- Write a gratitude letter to someone

- Write a gratitude letter to yourself to open in the future

- Take yourself on a date

- Do things that make you happy

- Check in with yourself and how you’re feeling

- Think about how far you’ve come

- Ground yourself

- Try to think more positively when things don’t go your way

- Ask yourself, “How can I make the most out of this situation?”

- Learn to appreciate the simple things

- Nurture your inner child

- Do a good deed

- Think of the bigger picture

Send me quick email below. What are 3 things you are grateful for in your life?