7 Amazing Gratitude Habits That Will Make You A Better Person.

What Is Gratitude?

According to Wikipedia, Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation (or similar positive response) felt by the recipient of kindness, gifts, help, favors, or other types of generosity, to the giver of said gifts. The word Gratitude comes from the Latin root Gratus, meaning “pleasing; welcome; agreeable.” Gratus is also the root of related terms such as grace, gratuity, and gratis, all signifying positive moods, actions, and ideas.

Do amazing gratitude habits make you a better person? Yes. Whenever you are facing difficulties in your life, you should be grateful for what you have. Gratitude is a very powerful force and it can make a huge difference in your quality of life. It can also help to improve relationships with people around you, give you better physical health, or even increase productivity at work.

Gratitude is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. It has become synonymous with the idea of being thankful, and many people think of it as simply a matter of giving thanks for what they already have. But true gratitude is an entirely different concept, one that encompasses more than just acknowledging something good in our lives.

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough”

Anonymous

Nevertheless, we should also be thankful. Being thankful is a feeling or expressing gratitude Learn to say Thank you when someone does something for you and even when you are given something. I personally enjoy being thanked and I equally say thank you when I should. I just have this feeling of satisfaction when I put in my time/effort to do something for someone and the person thanks me for it.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough”

Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude is the new happiness. Research conducted by University of California professor Robert Emmons has shown that the more often you practice gratitude, the happier you’ll be. The positive effects are quite profound. Grateful people are healthier, have better relationships, and perform better at work than their peers who aren’t as grateful. Gratitude is not just some fuzzy, feel-good concept. It’s actually the key ingredient to achieving success and true happiness.

Gratitude Habits You Should Implement In Your Everyday Life

• Write Down What You’re Grateful For Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions that you can experience. It has been shown to improve your health, relationships, and even the way you see yourself. One of the easiest ways to cultivate gratitude is by keeping a gratitude journal where you write down everything that you are grateful for. This could be something as simple as a nice sunset or your favorite brand of coffee (or anything else). Writing down these things will help cement them in your memory

• Give Compliments every day: Being in the habit of giving compliments helps us notice and appreciate what’s good and what we like in those around us. Give at least 5 genuine compliments to people in your life on a daily basis. A simple compliment can actually make someone’s day 10 times better.

• Smile: All the time! Share a smile with everyone you come across. While not everyone will smile back, it is certainly worth the effort to keep doing it. Smiles are contagious so do your part to make happiness and gratitude go viral.

• Practice random acts of kindness: Kindness is still very much appreciated in the world today so perform a random kindness for those you love or a total stranger without looking for praise. Also, volunteer to do things for other people.

• Appreciate yourself: Don’t forget to appreciate your own positive qualities and accomplishments. In addition to celebrating your big successes, acknowledge your small daily successes too. We all need acknowledgment, but the most important acknowledgment is that which we give ourselves. And remember to always be yourself. Click here to read my post on Why you should be yourself.

• Appreciate the smallest blessings: The best way to activate your gratitude is by acknowledging the gifts most people take for granted. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet, and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population. If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the 1 billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most. Do you have a phone? Is your family healthy? Do you have access to education? Do you have clean water to drink? Celebrate these simple blessings. These daily conveniences are gifts that most people in the world do not enjoy.

• Improve your happiness in other areas of your life: Being grateful can make you happy but, at the same time, being happy can also lead to feeling more grateful. Lifting a mood – such as by taking part in your favorite pastime or exercising, makes it easier to show gratitude.

It may not feel natural at first to focus on appreciating what you already have, but by faithfully practicing the daily habits of gratitude outlined in this article, you’ll begin to change your conditioning.