Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice

Gratitude is one of the simplest, sometimes challenging, and rewarding of spiritual practices.  On the surface, it is just saying thank you for the good things in your life, but in reality it is so much more than that as it can change the course of your life.

Benefits of Gratitude

Studies have shown that gratitude has many benefits including better physical and emotional health, better relationships, improved self esteem and even better sleep.  Harvard Medical School posted an article that detailed the results of multiple studies. In one study, people were asked to write about what they were grateful for while another group wrote about what irritated them.  Not surprisingly, the group that wrote about what they were grateful for were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.  They also exercised more and took better care of themselves.  Another study listed in the Harvard Article found that employees whose managers thanked them and told them they appreciated their efforts were more productive.

Gratitude Practice

Starting a gratitude practice doesn’t have to be complicated and can take a variety of forms depending upon what you’re comfortable with.  Some ideas for your gratitude practice:

Saying Thank You—We’re all taught to say please and thank you, but sometimes we get busy and we forget or we only stay thank you for the monumental instead of the mundane.  One of the best ways to gain—and share—the benefits of gratitude is start looking for opportunities to express your gratitude to others.  Say thank you to the person who serves you your coffee.  Express your appreciation when a loved one takes out the trash.  Call your mom or an old teacher to say thank you for something you learned from them.  If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could also pen emails or letters expressing your gratitude to someone.  You can even tweet your gratitude to public servants or others who are doing great things.

Gratitude Journal—Gratitude journals are a favorite of the feel good crowd and with good reason as taking time to sit down and express what you’re grateful for helps refocus your thoughts on the positive instead of the negative.  The best gratitude journals are specific and require you to truly think about the unique and wonderful things that happened instead of just saying thank you I have a place to live and food to eat.  If writing things in a little notebook isn’t your style, you can post your gratitude lists on Facebook, Instagram, or other forms of social media.  As I write this, I’m thankful for:

• The beautiful green color of my walls and the fact that I got to get up close and personal while painting them
• The fact that my 13 year old dog is still healthy and acts like a puppy
• My daughter’s sweet thank you note for the Cleveland Mobsters hoodie I surprised her with
• The fact that none of my big old trees came down in the windstorm we had last night
• My son helping me to drop off the recycling without complaining

These might not be big things, but they are important and each and every one of them makes me smile.

Prayers

Other human beings aren’t the only ones we have to thank for this wonderful life we live.  Higher Power, Deity, God, or whatever you call that force outside of ourselves also deserves some thanks for the beauty and wonder all around us.  As you sit down to dinner, take a moment to thank Spirit for providing.  When you are awestruck at the beauty of nature, take a minute to thank the God and Goddess.  Saying prayers of gratitude truly does help us build a connection with the divine.

Gratitude in Tough Times

Gratitude when the car starts, the kids are healthy, and there’s money in the bank is easy as there seems to be so much to be grateful for.  It’s harder to be grateful when things go wrong, but that’s exactly when we need to dig deep in ourselves and find something to be grateful for as gratitude changes our attitude and better things begin coming our way.  As Daniel Paralta wrote in Louise Hay’s book, Gratitude: A Way of Life, “When you express gratitude, you raise the vibrations around you to a higher frequency. You create positive energy that emanates out from you and returns to you as wonderful experiences. You become magnetic. Good things and good people gravitate toward you because you’re such a joy and delight to be around.”

The best part about cultivating an attitude of gratitude is that it doesn’t cost you anything and the rewards can be huge.