In this post, I have listed five ways practicing gratitude will make you happier, as experienced when I started writing a list of what I’m grateful for earlier this year.
“Knowing is not half the battle.”, my instructor, Laurie Santos, told us during an online course I took during the quarantine. I was learning about “The Science of Well-Being”, and I was now on my way to “knowing” how to be happy. But as her early declaration suggests, “knowing what to do” is a lot less important than “actually doing what you need to do”. You’ll never feel happier knowing that gratitude improves well-being, what helps you is practicing gratitude.
And so I started practicing gratitude by listing things I’m grateful for weekly. I know some people do “daily” journal, but I know myself and the time I have for journaling (mine was more of a planner, where I put my to-do list prior the start of the work week), so I went on the weekly schedule, instead.
Setting time to list what I’ve been grateful for the week was easy enough for me. I found myself a little more satisfied about how my week went by after writing my list. I was looking forward more and more to my journal time, which is usually Sunday night. In time, I decided to just input things I’m grateful for as they come, and then just do one more run-through during my journal time.
Practicing gratitude really improved how happy I feel and here, I have listed how it helps.
1. Practicing gratitude makes us feel blessed.
Being thankful makes us realize that we have received a lot of blessings in life. It makes us happy that we have a family that loves us, we have a house to go home to, and we still have work that provides means to support our family.
2. Practicing gratitude decreases worrying.
I can say that I have never felt worry, as intense as after I became a parent of a very cute and energetic boy. And this pandemic did not help. I worried about his education, his social interactions and his happiness while staying at home. But when I look for things I’m grateful for, I have realized that our family have more time together; to play, to eat, and to just spend time with each other’s company..
3. Practicing gratitude improves the way we perceive ourselves.
There are times when I’m just not very confident with how I look and how I feel (I hate back pains). But when I think about things I have achieved with the body I have, I feel intense joy and pride. I have run a half marathon, climbed mountains and most especially, gave birth to my son, and that is enough to feel happy about being me again.
4. Practicing gratitude makes us more satisfied.
Sometimes, I feel that I have not achieved anything good throughout the week, especially when I had to take time off work. But when I sit down for my journal time to write what I’m grateful for, I always find out that this is not the case. I remembered that I was able to learn a new dish (Honey-glazed Chicken Wings), and that the plant I almost killed before, finally bloomed.
We never really see the achievement while we’re barely making it through the week but looking back with grateful eyes enables us to see the positives.
5. Practicing gratitude helps us live in the moment.
I like planning (I am always listing stuff and to-do’s in my mind), and though people think that’s good, one drawback is that always looking at the future takes away from the present. And doing a gratitude list reminds us to enjoy things as they happen because they may never happen again. And as the saying goes “Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called present”.
Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.
– Bil Keane
Practicing gratitude indeed made me happier and I know it will help you too!!!
Note: The Science of Well-Being is one of the free courses in Coursera. This is not a paid article but I definitely recommend taking the course.
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Krisabele R. Bautista
Hi! I’m Krisabele and welcome to my blog! I created Paper Trails to Happy to make the web, and the world, a little more positive one article at a time.
101% Agree!
🙂
[…] To know how gratitude makes you happier, read my post “Five Ways Practicing Gratitude Will Make You Happier“. […]
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