It is fairly well recognized that counting your blessings, as opposed to your burdens can have a huge impact on your psychological health.
Studies have demonstrated that showing gratitude for even the most basic things can have reduce depression and increase contentment.
How to Find Gratitude in life?
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.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
-Melody Beattie
We cannot travel to, own, earn, win or consume happiness, but we can find it in gratitude in our daily lives, as Albert Clarke said,
“We must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.”
-Albert Clarke
Feeling Thankful
Many writers and philosophers considered thankfulness to be the highest form of thought, almost a spiritual experience. Acting thankful is something that inevitably leads to gratitude.
Buddha took this to an extreme.
Let us be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
Buddha
Gratitude as a Daily Habit
Marc and Angel suggested making gratitude a daily habit by:
..intentionally identifying three things in your life you are grateful for. It could be as simple as feeling thankful for the clean water that comes out of your faucet or appreciating the cool breeze on a warm day.
Marc and Angel
List the things you feel grateful for over dinner, or make it a habit to identify what you’re thankful for before you go to bed. Over time, being thankful becomes like second nature, and you’ll experience benefits ranging from improved sleep to greater immunity.
Do you make gratitude a daily habit?
For me, feeling and showing gratitude can reset my mind from its daily worries, anxieties and concerns. Concerns that, at times, feel quite overwhelming.
Thinking of the things I am grateful fore, can help ground me, re-focusing my attention on what I do have, on what is around me.
Many aspects of my life are not ideal, are unfair and may never change. And yet, there is still so much I can be grateful for, even in circumstances not so ideal.
Could you identify three things you’re grateful for each and every day?
Something to Ponder About 
That is the truth✌️🤞I surely tried it and became my habit currently!! The more I become thankful, the more I become happy and wipe out all the problems or disappointments
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It can be a powerful concept but we do need to practise it. I am so chuffed that you find that it is working for you. Do you practise daily?
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Yes, always remind myself about the things I have!! Every day become happier
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Indeed. You’ve got it.
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Yes😀
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Thank you!
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You know how I feel about gratitude. If I’m breathing and today I still am, I’m grateful. It’s that simple. When I die, I’ll be grateful for the opportunity to transition. I subscribed to Marc and Angel for so many years and love the Buddhist teachings among many others that remind us that no matter how tough things seem, there is a plan to it and we will see how gratitude for the not so good will play out in the end. I was grateful for sunshine today, to see a sweet baby 6 ft in front of us in line for a bakery sandwich and dessert and cute puppies playing in many places. I’m still breathing. 😉 It’s good to keep reminding us that gratitude is a prayer of thanks for the opportunity to experience material existence on this earth plane. Even a moment of it is a big deal. Keep it up. We forget.
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You provided yet another Marlene gem with your words: “.. gratitude is a prayer of thanks for the opportunity to experience material existence on this earth plane. Even a moment of it is a big deal.” Moments is something that I am talking about a little in my post today.
And so it is Marlene – we can find gratitude for the most fundamental of things, grateful for the simple experience. It is harder to feel grateful for the lows, but feelings such as these means there could be a ‘method to the madness,’ and if we can preserve that rationalisation, it may put the hard times in perspective.
We can and do forget to keep up that kind of attitude and might easily slip back into old habits. We are all flawed (?) in this way. Forgetfulness is however useful when it helps us to bury the difficult emotions so it has its uses. Trouble is sometime we forget the helpful thoughts and emotions too. I seem to need quite a bit of reminding! Especially as I get older. Lol!
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My daughter gets it in a big way. She is so grateful for the pandemic (not for people getting sick and dying) in that she has been able to work from home and this has shown her she works best this way and it will continue at least through the summer. She is working to seriously find ways to continue it. On the other hand, I’m learning the skill of having someone in the house 24/7 and adjusting to it again. 🙂 Everything has a reason, no matter how awful it seems in the moment. We just need to see with different eyes.
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If only we could be taught that from a young age. See things with different eyes and the value that philosophy has!
I do like that the pandemic has forced workplaces to be more adaptable. It will help many of us work better and be in the home with young children more ( to an extent). For some extraverted folks, this could be really stressful and they miss the connections the workplace brings. It would be a fun world if we could offer workers the workplace that suits them best!
Everything having a reason – yes we are back to our often chatted about glass half full concept! So nurturing to our souls.
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Thank you for sharing these great ideas
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You are welcome.
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A thought provoking post… Very well written I must say 👍
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Thank you
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I’m grateful that I could enjoy the festival of colours- holi even in this pandemic
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You are lucky but I do hope that the group was virus free.
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Yes right
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So many helpful tidbits in this. This is definitely a keeper!
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I am glad you think so, and your visit is very welcome. Where are you situated? I am in Australia.
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A beautiful post. Thank you for writing this. Gratefulness is truly a great virtue and we should nurture it always. Feeling so positive right now after reading this. And the quotes you shared about gratitude are so amazing 🌼🌼
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Wonderful post, thanks for sharing
https://thepowersblogging.com/
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I do agree with your thoughts,”that showing gratitude for even the most basic things can have reduce depression”.
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“Showing gratitude for even the most basic things helps to ease depressive emotions,” is what I perhaps should have written to be more accurate. I am glad you knew the intention behind my words.”
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Felt grateful for this, thank you. Let’s live happily every day by showing gratitude
https://yourgratitudejourney.com/
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