5 ways to create a gratitude practice in your daily life
Happy Thanksgiving!
When I was a little girl, I used to love creating Gratitude games for my family at Thanksgiving- one year I wrote down a note of thankfulness for each person, many years I had everyone in the family write down something that they were grateful for and put it in a jar for us all to read.
But it wasn’t really until a few years ago that I started realizing how much daily gratitude was important in our lives. How often I spent years excited to make a game out of gratitude for that one day, to have a heart full of giving and gratitude for the holiday season, yet even despite being an empathetic person, too often, once the season ended, I would be focusing on what I still need to achieve, what I didn’t yet have, where I wasn’t quite good enough.
I don’t even remember when it was that I made the change (or who had inspired it), but when I started to seep gratitude into the everyday fibers of my life, it was a practice that changed my life.
When we start to view life as a gift, when we stop letting circumstances define us, putting our trust in God, when we start leaning into all of the good and allowing love into our heart, we can start to see the positive in even the worst of situations. I follow some people on Instagram that have gone through the most difficult situations imaginable, and yet still showed up with gratitude and Faith in God every day. Their courage is admirable and infectious.
I am learning in this season to have a heart of Forgiveness, to let minor things go, and to see the world through a lens of love. And so, in this holiday season and beyond, I invite you to join me in daily gratitude. I know that in some seasons it can be difficult to scrape together a list of three things you are grateful for, but I also know that once you start, you will start to see the good.
Your gratitude practice can look so different for everyone, here are some ways that I have personally implemented it in my life:
Wake up with a prayer of gratitude: No matter what is going on in my life, I’ve made the commitment to do this daily.
Physically write down three specific things that you’re grateful for every day: I’ve recently been back to doing this daily, I was in a good habit of this in years past and I wasn’t as consistent with it last year in the postpartum season, but it’s such a powerful way to change your mindset. I use my Peacefully Productive journal for the space I write these three things down and it’s great to reflect back on.
Gratitude Moments: Take gratitude moments throughout the day- in my postpartum period, I had gratitude showers- I just took a moment to speak what I was grateful for in the shower. Now I love to do this on a walk.
Forgive and reframe: When you find yourself slighted or quick to anger, take a pause to breathe and reframe to gratitude. It’s okay to feel those emotions, but it’s when we stay in those emotions and let them fester that we start to let it seep into our lives.
Speak gratitude to your family every day: Speak out loud to your spouse and kids something you love about them or are grateful that they did. Watch how this small daily action can fill up the people most important in your life. I’ve recently realized how much, as life has gotten busy, that while I often speak gratitude to my husband so often in my head, I don’t actually say it out loud. When I do speak this out loud, it truly changes the tone of our day! I have committed to being intentional to speaking my love for him out loud and I invite you to share in this with me as well.
I hope that you are enjoying your Thanksgiving and time with family today for all of you that are blessed to be able to. I’m grateful for you and for providing me the space to show up here. My hope and wish for you this Thanksgiving is that you are able to approach this holiday season with a heart of gratitude. I know today can be difficult for many (I am thinking of a specific friend as I write this), but know that you are in my prayers and likely the prayers of so many around you too.
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus". 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
