Is Gratitude The Healthy Habit That Will Really Change Your Life?

If you’re one of more than four million people who’ve listened intently to the words of David Steindl-Rast in his TED talk on gratitude, then you’ll know that it’s the sure way to happiness. With mindfulness on the rise in Britain as a means to combat stress and anxiety, is gratitude the practice we really ought to be honing in on?

We asked founder of The Gratitude Journals, Emily Riggs, to help us into a grateful mindset with simple ways to practice on a daily basis.

Gratitude is a superpower

A while ago I met someone outside a talk who told me she thought of gratitude as a superpower, the more I think about it the more wholeheartedly I agree. Gratitude is a superpower, one that is completely free and available to us all, what could be more powerful than the appreciation of what we already have.

When was the last time that you felt truly grateful

When you have an answer, try to think of ten things that have happened in the last 24 hours that you are thankful for – they can be big or small. How do you feel now?

Gratitude makes us happy

David Steindl-Rast said “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness that makes us happy” and I have found this to be true in my own life and also with others I have met. What’s even better is the more I have practiced gratitude the more I have found to be grateful for!

7 ways to practice gratitude:

1. Start a Gratitude Journal and write three things you are grateful for every morning or evening
2. Play the A-Z of Gratitude, solo or with friends, go through the alphabet one letter at a time and think of something beginning with that letter you are grateful for. Have fun with this, in a health bloggers talk I did someone used R for Ryan Gosling!
3. Draw a Gratitude Mandala with the word gratitude at the centre and things that you are grateful for coming out of it
4. Take a Mindful Gratitude Walk, get in touch with your senses and notice everything you are grateful for around you
5. When you find get yourself getting stressed just stop, bring yourself back to your breath and be grateful for the air going in and out of your body
6. Smile and say ‘thank you’ to friends, family and strangers – so easy to do yet so easily forgotten
7. Finally, I created a site to inspire the practice itself, and would love for you to share an image and description of something that you are grateful for on The Gratitude Journals if you would like to!

Join Ella Woodward, Ruby Warrington and Lauren Armes and share what you’re most grateful for at www.thegratitudejournals.co.uk