HOW TO BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE

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1
Take a break. Sometimes a good way to get you back on track and feeling better is to take a break. You’ll need to create things to be grateful for, sometimes, and a break can be a good one.At work (or school, etc.), go for a walk around your building, or step outside for 15 minutes to breathe the fresh air. Spend this time musing on how thankful you are for the opportunity to take a break, to stretch your legs, to feel the sun.

Sometimes you just really need a vacation. If you have the ability to take one, you should! A vacation and taking a break from your usual activities can give you a greater appreciation for them, as well as recharge you to deal with the things that you’re less appreciative of.

2
Tell someone you appreciate them. So often life gets busy and you forget to tell people that they matter, that you’ve noticed what they do and it means a lot to you. People will remember you more fondly if you thank them. It will cultivate an atmosphere of thankfulness that can spread out gradually.

Talk about gratitude with family. Set aside a time, like the evening meal, to talk about the things you were grateful for that day. Let each family member have a few minutes just to discuss what made them thankful.

Send a thank you note. it is really amazing what sending just a small thank you note can do. A thank you note acknowledges that they gave you something (time, effort, a gift) that they didn’t have to and that you appreciate what they’ve done. You don’t have to write a massive novel thanking them, just a few lines that let them know what they and their gift (a thing, of time, of energy, etc.) meant to you.

3
Give back. Being thankful isn’t just about telling people you are thankful, it’s also about giving back to your community and to your friends. This doesn’t mean that you give back so that everything is even and no one “owes” anyone anything. That isn’t how gratitude and thankfulness work.

Do something for the people in your life who have helped you. You don’t have to tell them that you’re doings something for them because they’ve done something for you. That comes across as self-serving. Instead, when they need an extra hand, you provide it. For example: helping your sister’s family clean their house during a really busy season, taking your grandmother to her doctor’s appointments, or giving your friend a hand moving into her new place.

Do something for people you don’t know. Sometimes people do things for you that you can’t easily repay (in the sense that you want to thank them and show how much it meant to you). Of course you should thank them, tell them how important their action or gift was. But you can also pay the kindness forward. For example: your professor helps you out in ways that you can never repay (writing letters of recommendation, being a mentor, reading your work), so you instead pay that forward and mentor someone else.

4
Focus on intention. When someone does something nice for you–gives you a gift, brings you a hot meal, offers to read over and edit your thesis–focus on how someone tried to bring something good into your life. Someone gave up their precious time, or money, etc. to do something for you.

This focus cultivates an atmosphere of gratitude that is then passed on to other people through your actions and words, especially if you have children.

5
Just say thank you. Speaking the words aloud can help cement the feeling of gratitude in your life. Not only that, but it helps others to know that you are thankful for the things that they have done for you. It can, also, help get you back on track when you’re starting to feel put-upon by the world, or anxious.

Use the words “thank you” as a sort of prayer or mantra. You can thank specific things, or you can just repeat the words over and over to yourself. For example: if you’re on the bus to work, you could start quietly (or in your head) thanking the food that you ate that morning, the rain for watering all the trees, the bus for carrying you promptly to your destination, your rain jacket for keeping the rain off.

You should also remember to thank the people you see throughout the day. Thank the barista who makes your coffee, thank the person who held the door for you, thank the customer service person who helped you figure out why your phone wasn’t working. Thanking people fosters an atmosphere of gratitude that will extend throughout other people’s days, as well.

Remember, that it is impossible to be in a state of fear and appreciation. By cultivating gratitude (speaking it aloud) you can do things like ease anger, anxiety (even chronic anxiety), depression, and other health problems.

6
Find the thankfulness in specific events. Sometimes it can be really hard to be thankful in your life. Things like having a significant other break up with you, or make you angry, or when you really dislike your job. These are the times, however, when it is even more important to cultivate gratitude, because that will help you get through the hard times better than getting angry or upset will.

To cultivate gratitude for something like a difficult or boring job, make a list of the good things about the job: it gives you money so you can buy food and have a roof over your head, it gives you a chance to take the bus into the city and see the early morning sun, you brought a delicious sandwich for lunch that day. You may have to start really small to find the things to be thankful for, but it will put you in a better mood and when you’re starting to get down or depressed about it, pull out that list and start adding to it.

For something like a relationship break-up, you should definitely allow yourself time to grieve and be sad (being grateful doesn’t mean doing away with emotions like sadness, anger, etc. it simply means making them more manageable). After you’ve given yourself time to grieve, make a list of the things that you learned or are grateful for from the relationship (you learned you don’t want to be with a morning person, you learned how to compromise, etc.) and then what you are thankful for about the relationship being over (now you can leave your stuff wherever you want, now you can eat blueberries because your ex was allergic, etc.).

Basically, you can apply your thankfulness technique to any situation. There is always something to be thankful for, even if it’s a very small thing (the sun is shining, etc.). Finding those things and acknowledging them can help you to lead a more fulfilled and content life.

Source: HowWiki & Bright Side