Living in Gratitude
Part of our inner well being comes from appreciating the people and things around us but often we get so caught up in the chaos of our lives that we can’t see outside of our own misery. When life isn’t going our way we often close ourselves down to the world around us, become skeptical, pessimistic and negative, trapping ourselves in a self imposed storm bubble. It is not easy to get out of our bubble once we’ve created it. Sometimes we’ve been in this state for so long we don’t even realize we’re in it. So how do you get out? How do you prevent it from happening?
Be Grateful Everyday!
Being grateful everyday is HUGE for our mental health and happiness. It changes our focus and challenges us to look outside ourselves and see things in a different perspective. With practice, even in your darkest moments you will be able to find something to be grateful for.
The Sun Rises. The Sun Sets.
It’s no coincidence that in many of my posts, I use a lot of photos with sunrises and sunsets . I use the constant of the sun rising and setting as my daily reminder and queue to take a few minutes to be grateful. Give it a try!
When you awake in the morning, I take just a minute or two to look out the window before you start the day to appreciate something. It’s not always the same thing, it could be the sunrise, hearing birds chirping, thinking of something funny that happened the other day, just random positive thoughts you invite into your consciousness. It really helps to start the day right!
In the evening after the chaos of the day is over and it’s time to settle for the evening, take a few minutes and do the same thing. Some things you can ask yourself are “what are the positive things that happened today?”,”what can I look forward to tomorrow?”. Most of the time this helps to start and end the day positively and with practice you it can get you through some of your toughest days, it certainly does for me.
Practicing the sunrise/sunset method works but sometimes I just have a really bad day and have a tough time finding anything positive and get stuck in my head. On these days I either look for a distraction or reach out to someone to talk it through or just vent. Some things I do are: listen to music, , watching funny shows on TV, silly videos, Ted talks for inspiration and smile at strangers (I know it sounds strange but when they smile back I feel like something is right in the world and maybe they needed it too). Either way by the end of the day I am grateful to the person or the distraction and it helps me reset, refocus and end my day positively.
What are some of the strategies you use to stay positive?
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