9 Ways to Create Gratitude in Your Life
Being grateful (and expressing that gratitude) are habits that take practice like anything else — especially since we have so many years of repeated behavior in the opposite direction. Gratitude is a key skill in life because it addresses the one single thing every problem seems to have in common: that something is not enough in our lives.
Over my life I’ve really tried to incorporate gratitude as a habit and see the difference it can make. The result? I noticed a huge difference in how I handle problems and every-day situations — and most importantly how I bounce back from those that are very challenging.
For me it struck a chord when I realized that gratitude was the thing it always came back to.
I believe that literally every negative state that we experience can be cured (or at least managed well) by building a habit of being grateful — a habit of being on the lookout for how “enough” life is. When we focus on the current moment and the people around us, and letting that permeate our entire being, the situation at hand that was previously sapping it of all life begins to disappear.
It’s not easy, and certainly there’s challenges to that state of being lurking every day — around every corner, in every interaction. Something will always trigger you that the world, you, your partners, what you have, your future — that it’s all just not enough.
We all have our mechanics and reactions to things that we have to deal with, and those are OK and will be there for life. Transformation is not about undoing our humanity, but rather adapting to its imperfections and cultivating good habits. Life exists in the process, not in the outcome.
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