You’ve got your health. Check.
Your family is healthy. Check.
You’ve got a stable job. Check.
You’ve got a house. Check.
You’ve got a great family. Check.
But you’re still unhappy, you still feel like there’s something missing in your life.
Don’t worry, I feel the same every now and then and no matter how much I try to change my perspective, there’s always that little something that I can’t seem to figure out…..until I take the smallest amount of time to practice gratitude. This is usually the missing piece.
Back in 2003 Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough conducted and published research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on the effects of practicing gratitude on a regular basis. It’s amazing to read that amongst the hundreds of participants who were either asked to take a small amount of time out each day to record things they were grateful for or to record the frustrations they’d face or to simply record things that had affected them in their daily life, that those who were assigned the task of recording gratitude experienced fewer symptoms of illness, they exercised more, they were more optimistic and had better self-esteem, they felt healthier and slept better and longer.
So why wouldn’t you practice gratitude for a few moments a day?
Now you might be wondering how to practice gratitude. Here are a few tips, my favourites would have to be the Gratitude apps and taking photographs.
- Start a gratitude journal or list. Write down the things that you are thankful for each day. You can even try an app like Get Gratitude (iOS) or Bliss Gratitude Journal for Android.
- Practice gratitude during meditation
- Instagram the things you are thankful for or take photographs
- Turn a negative into a positive.
- Give someone a compliment
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” — Melody Beattie
How do you practice gratitude?
Eva Lewis (The Multitasking Woman)
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Have fun in San Diego Eva! It’s been a long time since I was there but it’s a gorgeous place!
Have a fabulous time away!
Hope you’re enjoy San Diego … you lucky thing! Some great advice here Eva x
I try to focus on the little things each day so I can see the small positives instead of the overwhelming things that might be going on 🙂
It is not natural to me, but I have a friend in Greece and she is having a terrible time (both with the economy and health of loved ones and so) but her sunny disposition is AMAZING. I am striving to be a little more like that. Unfortunately, I think her woes are forgotten by others as a result tho, so there is a double edged sword in there too. But all that said, I’m working on it, as I think it might be better for you, overall.
This is something I need to do at the moment as I am going through a little hard time. I have everything but the happiness just doesnt seem to be here enough.
Great tips Eva. Hope you’re having a fab time
I am pretty jealous you get to be in San Diego. I have family there but have never been myself. From what I here, it’s a little slice of heaven. 🙂 I have a request: I am putting together a Google calendar for all my blog parties. I will be making it public. I want to put your party on it with the time it starts, your web address, the time it ends, and your rules as copied and pasted from your site. Can you provide me with the times and permission to copy and paste, please? As far as I can tell, you start at 5 AM CST Sunday (I’m in Wisconsin). Thanks so much, Eva!
Heaven Smiling
heavenissmilingabove@gmail.com
Actually, I got the time wrong. I am 16 hours behind you. I think you start at 8 AM your time and here it would be 4 PM the previous day. Right?