The Easiest Gratitude Life Hack You Can Start Today
I read a story once about a family who left for a fun family outing. They returned later that evening to find their house broken into and most of their possessions gone. As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think about myself and my family if we ever found ourselves in the same situation. What would we do? How would we react? As I finished the chapter, my wife sat down with me. Curious about her thoughts, I explained to her what I was reading. Her reaction was about what I expected. Devastation, hopelessness, hurt, fear, and even panic.
But that wasn’t the reaction in the story. The family in the story met their tragedy with joy. They celebrated that they were all okay, they still had a roof over their heads, and neighbors who cared about them. I think most of us would lock the doors a little tighter and maybe shut the world out a little more. Not this family. They called their neighbors over and hosted a party.
Focus on Gratitude
In case you’re wondering, the moment for them was incredibly difficult. But each action they took and thought they had was intentional and calculated. They were all focused on gratitude. Upon losing so many of their possessions—some of which could not be replaced—they intentionally chose joy and gratitude instead of anguish and betrayal. Instead of letting the fear and insecurity isolate them, they leaned on their neighbors and decided to find gratitude in the people around them.
There was a time in my life when I had a hard time finding something to be grateful for. It was a significantly dark moment leading me down a path to depression with seemingly unending feelings of hopelessness and an ungrateful heart. But I was reminded that we don’t have to be grateful for every situation; we just need to be thankful in every situation. No matter the situation or circumstance, we can find moments or reasons for gratitude.
Click Here to Learn More About How to Find Gratitude in Difficult Circumstances
The Science of Gratitude
If you want to experience less stress, anxiety, depression, cope better with the challenges in life, and even sleep better, focus on gratitude. More and more studies are making it clear the power gratitude has on our minds. Grateful people are more satisfied with life, their careers, and their families. Gratitude doesn’t remove or prevent bad things from happening; it gives you the tools to take on the negative moments successfully and produces greater amounts of empathy while reducing the desire to be angry or retaliate.
It should come as no surprise that a blog post focusing on gratitude finds its way to you this time of year. It’s by design. Because that’s what many of us are thinking about. Or at least it should be. As we move closer to the end of the year, it’s essential to take some time and reflect back on events, circumstances, and people that you are thankful for over the past year. Not just because you are sitting in front of a massive plate of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and cranberry sauce, but because thankfulness or gratitude is a healthy and critical part of our mental health that ought to be practiced regularly.
There is a reason we need to practice all year long. Because when the mess of life happens—and it happens to us all—we can’t just flip a switch and choose to have joy and gratitude if we don’t have a rhythm of gratitude embedded into our personal and family DNA. Conversely, you will more likely sink into toxic thoughts, depression, anxiousness, and overthinking.
Click Here to Learn More About the Science of Gratitude
What’s Your Favorite Part of The Day?
So here is the easiest hack of all. In our family, we call it, “Favorite Part of Your Day.” It’s a simple game we play as a family. We go around the table and name one favorite part of our day. Some days it’s hard to pick just one. Perhaps it was a great day and there are many favorite parts. Our kids do this all the time and we have created quite the joke from it—they will start a laundry list of favorite parts. We cut them off, laugh about it, and make them pick one. On other days it’s a struggle to find even one part that stands out over and above the rest. But this is where the work comes in. The more you can find a reason for gratitude—or a favorite part of your day—in the midst of a messy or bad day, the harder it becomes to let your circumstances control you and your attitude.
So let’s start with this Thanksgiving. Let’s start with going beyond being thankful for good food and great families. It’s a good place to start, but let’s go further. Let’s take a minute every day—morning or evening—and name something to be thankful for.
