8 things to be grateful for TODAY and how it pays off
What are you grateful for today? Maybe the sun is shining and it puts a smile on your face? Maybe you hear birds singing outside? Or a stranger smiled at you on the street yesterday? OR you have overcome a big challenge and grown as a person?
Some days are just fantastic. Things go as planned, if not better, bouncing from meetings to assignments to personal life, simply feeling great on the inside. It’s almost as if you awoke with a strong sense of trust in your hands, and you just keep floating like a fish in a calm sea. Days like that make us feel like there is nothing that could stop us from achieving our goals. What else would you need on a day like this?
And there are those other days. Days that we don’t feel very inspired. When all of the best-laid plans are thrown out the window before the day has even started. Even though these days make us feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed, we can choose the other path, which is made of gratitude and kindness.
Turning attention to gratitude is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to turn a bad day, week, or month into something more meaningful and better. Practicing gratitude is simply recognizing, acknowledging, and appreciating things that you are grateful for. It gives us so many things without even noticing, making our life more meaningful than ever.
Can’t find the things to be grateful for, well then here’s a small list of examples that could make anyone feel grateful:
1. A warm and safe place, which we call- home
A cup of tea on the sofa makes everything better when it’s cold and windy outside. Furthermore, there are many homeless people, who would give anything just to have one night of sleep in a cozy and warm bed.
2.Drinkable water
That may sound ridiculous, but there are plenty of people around the world who lack clean and drinkable water. For people who just have to turn a knob to obtain a flood of cold, healthy, and clean water, this state of affairs is nearly unimaginable, but the reality is like that. There are many people waiting in lines by the well, just to get some liters of water per day. Yet, we do not appreciate it well enough, but we should. I am not saying that only for you, I do refer to it to myself as well.
3. A sunrise and sunset
The freedom to connect with the universe is one of the best things that could happen to us. Seeing how the sun rises means a new day, a new life, a new beginning, there is no word to describe how grateful we should be for that. Sunset is equally important, it highlights the end of the day, and how grateful we should be for having an opportunity to see it again and wait for another beautiful day.
4. Access to the internet
The access to read about almost everything on the internet. With the support of what other people share online, adds new skills and behaviors to make our life easier. It takes only one click to write a post, share thoughts and ideas with others, find a new restaurant for your date night, see recommendations, search for a job, apply for it and more amazing things.
5. Health
“It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” — Mahatma Gandhi
The quote mentioned above speaks louder than ever. Well-being is the most important aspect of one’s life. Waking up each day and feeling healthy is the most important thing, without it humans would be nothing, a person couldn’t reach for more, seek their goals, live a happy life with their significant one, and just simply enjoy the beauty of life.
6.Close friends and family
Isn’t it great to know that we have people around us who care and are willing to support us no matter what? Crying in the middle of the night and having a person to call to, or maybe celebrating in the middle of the day because you got a promotion in your job, and having someone to invite and celebrate your happiness together. That is one of the greatest feelings ever, finding someone who understands and genuinely feels happy for you is hard these days, so if you found them, be grateful and show them appreciation.
7.Stranger who smiled at you the other day
It gives such a great feeling to know that there are people out there who smile at everyone no matter what and keep spreading kindness and good vibes. Don’t be shy and smile back, share these kind moments together, because you never know what the person might be going through, maybe on that day all that person needed was a little smile from a stranger.
8.The second chances
Even though if you fail, remember that you always have an opportunity to DO BETTER, to grow and prove different. Everyone should have a second chance, we are human beings, we do fail and make mistakes, and by doing so we LEARN, we GROW, we BLOOM differently.
It actually takes so little, all we need to do is to realize the WORTH in little things. When a person finally realizes, there is no doubt left for a better emotional state. Not only you will notice that, but also the people around you. Evelop them with thankfulness, and positive vibes.
Practicing gratitude pays off BIG TIME. It:
1.Improves relationships with others
Without you even noticing, you spread a better vibe, people feel great being around you, they want to spend more time with you. Let’s be honest, we all prefer to be around people who make us feel better, motivated, pushing us forward to our goals, instead of draining us and making us feel overwhelmed.
2.Helps to recognize the beauty around you
Isn’t it great to see the beauty in small details or things? Maybe your beloved flower has finally blossomed after half a year? Your spouse brought coffee in the morning to bed, or maybe left a little note on the fridge? The weather just perfect for a walk in the evening after a long day of work? Or maybe it’s been a long-seen friend’s message that it’s time to meet again? Or even the simplest thing, such as the smell of washed bedding lying on a newly made bed, makes you happy and grateful.
3.Increases optimism and empathy
The bad things which seemed to be so overwhelming, now don’t seem to be so serious, you spare your time to more important tasks in your life than just grumbling around the things which don’t matter.
4.Improves self-esteem
You feel more motivated than ever. Something didn’t go right on the first try? Well, that’s okay, because you know that trying, again and again, will make you not even stronger and better in some field, but will teach you that making mistakes IS OKAY. We all do. Only some lay their hands down too quickly and do not appreciate the second chances given.
5. Gives mental strength
Mental strength involves developing daily habits that build mental muscle. As it was mentioned before, turning attention to gratitude is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to make yourself feel better, and gain more mental strength. Because how can you be psychologically weak when you get up every day and decide to be grateful for everything life gives you? You simply build a huge wall, where bad emotions have no chance to cross it.
6. Improves physical health through improved sleep, decreased aggression
We so often see influencers on social media platforms, living their best lives, looking healthy and happy, but have you ever wondered, what is the secret behind it? Well, at least what I used to do is to think how jealous I am and how I wish I was living as they are. Actually, there is no secret for being as happy and healthy as they are. WE ALL CAN. YOU CAN. THEY CAN. Each of us has to work very hard on ourselves to achieve great and visible results. IT ALL BEGINS WITH OURSELVES.
At the end of the day isn’t it great to know that we have the ability to change whatever we want? We just need courage and willpower for that. That’s something we should be grateful for as well- having a chance to change our mindset and lives!
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We practice gratitude in the Self Mentoring Guide along with other topics like embracing failure, taking responsibility, making better choices, embracing change, trusting your instincts, working on the trustworthiness of yourself and others along with many more topics. Check it out.
