1) You will feel healthier
When you are grateful you will find that you can live a much better life because your relationship with the world as a whole improves. You then start to feel much better within your body as well. You see great health is not only about the physical body. It is about mind, body and spirit. All of these things are interconnected. So that when things improve in more than one of these areas, you will see a marked improvement in your health and general wellbeing and each has a beneficial knock on effect on each other.
Ultimately, when you are grateful for your body, you will naturally start to take better care of it.
2) You will feel happier
When you are more in tune with all that is going well in your life you start to have a more positive outlook on things. Also, when you focus on the good things that you have in your life, no matter how small it will have a positive effect on you and will uplift your mood. So start to recognise the things that are good in your life that you may have previously just taken for granted and really feel the joy of having them in your life.
Gratitude doesn’t have to be for the big things, in fact the more you focus on all the little things, the better. You might be grateful that you have a car that gets you to work each day, because it makes your life easier than having to take public transport. You can be grateful for the rain, because it helps food to grow so that you can eat. You can be grateful that you have food to eat each day.
3) You will help others to feel better
Have you ever noticed how it feels when someone doesn’t appreciate what you did for them? It makes you not want to help them again in the future because they don’t appreciate doesn’t it? However, when you say “Thank you” even if it is for a very small thing it makes people feel good about themselves. I am sure you have experienced this when people have thanked you for doing something. This then becomes a powerful motivator for them wanting to help you again in the future. So take the time to thank people as often as you can.
4) You will be better equipped to deal with bad times
The reality of life is that there will always be ups and downs. That is just the way it is. The difference comes from how you view the knocks, setbacks and failures. In the face of setbacks you can still practice gratitude by not being defeated by them but just seeing these as learning opportunities. You can give thanks to the Universe or God for giving you the opportunity to practice your patience and your strength for example. You then focus on the opportunities that failures give you rather than focusing on the negative consequences.
5) You will become more satisfied with your life
When you focus more on what you do appreciate about your life, you will become more satisfied on a daily basis. So you will be focusing on the good things, rather than the bad. This will lead you to not focus on what you are missing in your life, but on what blessings you do have. You will notice that the feeling of gratitude is a feeling that lasts a lot longer and goes a lot deeper than other fleeting sensations you might have.
6) You will enrich your children’s lives
If you can create a home where you practice gratitude, you will find that this rubs off on your children. They will benefit from learning about gratitude and they will be happier, and calmer children who will feel that life is a good experience for them.
7) You will see your relationships improve
When you take the time to be more grateful and generous to the people you care most about, you will see your relationships improve significantly. It will make them feel more appreciated and cared for and so they will start to reflect back those positive feeling to you.
So focus on some small things that they have done to help you rather than on the things that they haven’t done and show your appreciation. You will be surprised at how more helpful they will become as a result. This will also have big benefits if are running a business or looking to start one.
