Have Gratitude as Your Attitude in Colorado

Gratitude is powerful. Practicing gratitude takes a little time to incorporate into your daily life, but once you start being grateful, it can quickly become a habit. It can also be good for you.

I’ve heard of many people taking on the challenge of 28 days of gratitude. I’ve had friends post for 28 days about the things they are grateful for. Once the 28 days were over, most of those friends continued with posts of being grateful.

February is an opportune time to try 28 days of gratitude challenge for yourself.

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Gratitude is the state of being grateful, or thankful for the things you have. Those things aren’t necessarily monetary either. You might be grateful for waking up in the morning, for food on your table, for clean water to drink, or for your health.

In fact, according to The Happy Human website gratitude is one thing that is shown to increase happiness.  An article published on The News in Health website states that practicing gratitude could also affect your body, citing that a study found gratitude was linked to fewer signs of heart disease.

There are many things you can do to show thankfulness. If you try some of these things over the next 28 days, you could develop a new habit, and make yourself, and others, feel good too.

Write a thank you note. My parents made us write thank you notes when we were young. It’s a habit I am trying to instill in my girls. They don’t always like to write them, but I think it helps them be more appreciative of things, and people, in their lives.

Be good to yourself. Take a gratitude walk, stay hydrated and focus on caring for yourself. Be grateful for your strengths, and for the things that make you unique.

Give someone a genuine compliment. Compliment someone on talent or strength they have. Instead of saying “you look pretty”, try “I admire that you are always so helpful.” While both compliments might make the person feel good, the fact that you noticed something about their character might have a more lasting impact.

Include an act of kindness each day. Maybe you could volunteer for an organization or a local school classroom. Bring a meal to an elderly neighbor. Thank the people who serve you – the bus driver, the mailman, the delivery driver.

Call an old friend. Tell your grandparents you love them and tell your parents too. There will come a time when you wish you would’ve said it more often.

Be thankful when learning something new and learn from your past mistakes.

If you have a negative thought, try to see the positive side. Try to go one day a week without complaining. Both of these are hard for me, and my girls. In other words, smile more and worry less. Hopefully, we can come out of the 28-day challenge with more positivity.

Keep a gratitude journal and write about things you are thankful for each day. Another idea, which I really like, is to keep a gratitude jar. Have your family write a small note about something they are thankful for each day and keep it in a jar. At the end of 28 days, read the notes to see just how much you are blessed.

One good thing is that being grateful is free. You can either choose to be grateful, or ungrateful, for all the “things” in your life. It’s up to you.