Importance of Gratitude
It’s the time of year to share with others, and I want to share my love of a grateful heart. Being grateful is extremely important in our lives. In research by UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons, author of Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, he studied the effects of gratitude on physical and emotional health for over 10 years. Being grateful increases our well-being physically by lowering blood pressure, increasing our immune systems, decreasing aches and pains, and helping us sleep longer. It can also promote healing and dealing with a difficult situation.
Having a grateful heart not only makes our outlook more positive but also enables us to share more compassion and kindness. The effects psychologically include being more alert and feeling more positive emotions like joy and happiness. Being grateful makes us more forgiving, more outgoing, and less lonely or isolated.
How to Practice Gratitude
How can we practice gratitude? Simple and basic acts like keeping a journal or taking a few minutes each day to recognize and think about what we are grateful for are all that is required. Keeping a gratitude journal where we regularly write brief reflections on moments for which we’re thankful can significantly increase our well-being and life satisfaction. It doesn’t have to be a long post; it can be a paragraph on a moment with a pet, child, or a stranger in a store. Recognizing the small blessings God gives us through the food we eat, the flowers or squirrels in the yard and others in our world can result in countless benefits to our lives.
Small Acts of Practicing Gratefulness
- Being grateful
- Spend quiet time in mindfulness.
- Read sacred texts for guidance and inspiration.
- Being grateful for small blessings you can record by word or image.
- Prayer and meditation
- Journaling
- Taking Images
Gratitude Journal
I have made a PDF printable journal that you can download. I hope it helps you develop mindful moments of gratefulness. Use it for a few moments each day to be thankful.
If you want to journal online see: LiveJournal.com or Penzu.com
If you are not keen on journaling but are an image person, I suggest making a Pinterest board on Gratitude. Collect gratitude photos on a special Pinterest Board. Make each image a moment of mindful thankfulness. See my board as an example My Gratitude Board . If you are uploading a lot of your family photos, you can make the board private where others cannot see it or read your thoughts.
May God make His face to shine upon you.
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Gratitude goes a long way to making us joyful. 🙂
Yes, indeed!
I love that the planner I am using this year, has a gratitude journal built in. So excited!!
That’s wonderful! You have everything together!
This is great. I think being grateful is not taught enough to kids these days. It is something I want to instil in Piglet. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next Sunday
Thank you for sharing your gratitude with us at Over the Moon. We all have so much to be thankful for it is just a matter of taking the time to give thanks.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
I completely agree with the idea that a Gratitude practice helps you in so many ways! One year, I posted a Gratitude post every day on a blog that i wrote (not my current one). That practice was critical for me, and changed my whole outlook on life. Ever since then, I’ve been a much kinder person, to myself and to others, and I’ve been much less materialistic and just generally more at peace. I highly recommend Gratitude journalling of one form or another. Thanks for sharing these ideas!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Merry Christmas!
How wonderful! Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home! Happy New Year!
This is the first time I have come accross your blog and it’s very uplifting and calm. I love it!
Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next Sunday
Thank you Rachel. I appreciate your feedback. Happy New Year!
Thank you for this neat idea. This is actually one of those things I have always struggled with and never really knew how to keep myself accountable for consecutive days. A grateful journal is a neat idea to continually help me stay focused on the good things in life.
I hope it helps. Have a great day!
I’m constantly trying to remind our kids to be grateful. They just see people with bigger houses, bigger toys, bigger back yards, etc. Jealousy is REAL in the little ones. Maybe starting something like this when they are young would have a longer term impact? I can at least dream. Thanks again for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
Good luck!