10 Ways to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing more of what you want into your life. The feeling of genuine gratitude opens the channels for more goodness to enter into our life experiences. Gratitude has also been said to have one of the strongest links with mental health and according to research, Grateful people reported higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress. Below we have laid out for you 10 steps to take which will help you on your way to becoming more grateful.

1: Be Thankful & Grateful

Thankfulness is an attitude that you can practice and develop. Cultivating gratitude as the norm in your life will make keeping a gratitude journal much easier. Be thankful even for the small things in your life like being able to put on your own shoes every morning. I know for me personally, this became a Huge one as at the age of 21 years of age after I fractured my skull and suffered a brain injury I had to learn how to do all this again. I am now so grateful every day to be able to do this that this is something I am grateful for every morning I get up. Having a bed to sleep in at night is another one most people take for granted. Food to eat each day etc. They are small examples which I hope you get a feeling for where I am taking you with this.

2: Write down things you are thankful & grateful for every day

Avoid repeating the same things. This will make writing in the journal more challenging as time goes on, but that's how your awareness and thankfulness will grow. You'll be challenging yourself to find new things to be thankful for that perhaps you never noticed before. In The Dore Diary which I created, I added a section each day where I and my clients can write down 3 things they are grateful for each day. You can download this free 1-page TTD Planner or check out the actual diary itself on www.DoreDiary.com

3: Start by writing down basic material things

It's easiest to recognize things that sustain your life here on Earth like your house, your bed, your clothes, your food etc. Be sure to explain how this makes you feel and why you're grateful for it.

Example - I am grateful for my house. My house warms my body and shelters and protects me. It gives me a sense of relief knowing that there is always a comforting place to come back to.

4: Write about extended material things in your life

These things vary from person to person depending on what you like and take interest in. For example, if you love to paint, you may be grateful for the paint that you have. Or, if you like music you may be grateful for your CD collections. Have fun with this process and let it flow from your pen to paper.

5: Describe how you are grateful for yourself

You can start by feeling grateful to be alive at all. Then start writing about feeling grateful to have the body you have, even if you don't like everything. Avoid the trap of being grateful for something that is better than what other people have. Instead, compare whatever you are grateful for with how you would feel if you didn't have it at all.

6: Think about your abilities

You may start with basic abilities like your ability to see, your ability to hear, your ability to walk. Then progress to the extended abilities that are unique to you. Think about skillful things like dancing, singing, writing, and features that make up your character like your listening skills, your skills in cheering up people, your skills in being a good friend.

7: Consider the people in your life

Think about all the people you care about, like your parents, your friends, your significant other, your pets. Write why you are grateful for each person and how they make you feel. This helps you to appreciate them and see only the good in them. It's also good to write about the people that you don't really like and find a reason to appreciate them. This can be difficult as we don't really appreciate people we don't like but it can be very uplifting. There is good in everyone and it's very mood shifting to find the good in even people we dislike and feel grateful for them.

8: Write about situations and experiences

There are always situations that have made us happy. For example, you may be grateful for a fun party, a good day at school/work, a fun holiday or day out with your friends or family.

9: What you focus on grows

Whatever we feed grows and expands. Energy flows where attention goes. Once you focus on having an attitude of gratitude and write what you are grateful for down on paper this really is the start of developing what you truly desire from life.

10: Stop and appreciate good and tough times

Life can always throw us curve balls but sometimes we just have to stop and really appreciate things in life. When you do this things start to flow much easier and your outlook becomes much more grateful. Take the time to watch the video we done for you as this topic as I jump right on into how cultivating a good attitude and appreciating even the tough times you might be in can help you burst right through it.