Three Powerful Benefits of Gratitude

Before we dive in the three powerful benefits of gratitude, understand that to feel gratitude is to have the capacity to receive and accept something helpful or good. 

Willan Aurthur ward said, “ Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”. 

We all love to give gifts, and we love to receive gifts. Being grateful and expressing gratitude is life affirming, for both the giver and the receiver.  

Here are some of three powerful benefits of gratitude:

1. It can encourage a positive mindset

Expressing gratitude for the people and situations in my life, that they are the people that surround me.   Others express gratitude to, or for me – boosting my self-esteem.

My life is richer because of the relationships I have with the people I care about. 

My life is more interesting because of the relationships I have with people I don’t know all that well, as I’m discovering more about them, and I express gratitude for the opportunity and hence creating a positive mindset. 

I am grateful for the learning I get as my relationships test me!  

The more you share your gift of appreciation, the more others grow, and you grow in return. 

2. It can make us healthier

When we are not grateful we are resentful, bitter and disappointed. This conflicts with any sense of wellbeing and happiness. We cannot be grateful and unhappy at the same time. 

When we express genuine gratitude, even for the smallest thing, we actually feel better. The more we can find to be grateful for, the better we will feel. Keep looking. Keep writing it down. Over time you will have a whole journal full of what you are grateful for, allowing you to be grateful for almost everything in your life! 

3. It can Improve sleep

Using the gratitude journal to reflect and think on a few things that you are grateful for at the end of the day that induce a relaxation response, reducing the time required to fall asleep and increasing quality and duration of Sleep.

 Gratitude is like smiling

We love to celebrate Birthdays, Anniversaries and Holidays by offering a thoughtful, beautiful or useful gift.  We love to see the delight on their face when they open your gift. That look is often gratitude enough. 

Why wait for these ‘special occasions’ to express our gratitude to and for the people in our lives?

Of course, if we look at the chaos in the world today, it looks like there is not much to be grateful for. Conflict, stress, struggle, illness, hunger, poverty, disease,  … how can  we find anything to be grateful for? So we wait for that special occasion .. because we feel we can only be grateful for what we perceive to be the good things in life. 

It’s easy to be grateful when the good things are obvious and visible – like a sunny day. 

It’s more challenging to appreciate that the reason we can enjoy the sunny day is that we are alive, we have the freedom to be outside and the sight to see the world in sunshine. 

Writing in a journal forces us to put into writing some of those thoughts that we don’t ordinarily think!

Even if it’s just that you have a journal and a pen, the ability to write, and the sight to see what you have written, and a day in your life to write about. 

“When you choose to look at the world through grateful eyes, the world will never look the same again.”