4 Authentic Ways to Find the Meaning of Gratefulness

Life is a wonderful experience that all of us want to enjoy. But this is easier said than done. Things can take a downturn rather quickly and before we know it we are in some tight spot with lots of anxiety, tension, depression, and anger.

How to have an overall increase in our happiness? How to face the ups and downs of life in a better way? In short how to enjoy this life more?

Worldly success and reaching our goals may seem like the right answer but how to enjoy your life NOW at this very moment?

To increase our happiness we have to change our outlook towards life. Having a grateful attitude towards life can increase our overall happiness in surprising ways. Gratitude seems to add nothing tangible to life but it acts like some sort of amplifier and a damper. It amplifies our enjoyment of the pleasures and comforts we get in our life and it dampens out the effect of pains and miseries we experience. 

Here are a few tips that can help you find the meaning of gratefulness.

Write in a journal about gratitude

One easy way to turn your mind towards gratitude is through writing. When you are writing you have to concentrate your whole energy on the writing process. Your hands are writing the words, your mind is thinking and dwelling on the thoughts. In short, you are perfectly focused just like in a meditative state. 

Write every day about gratitude. You can fix a time in the mornings or evenings whenever you are comfortable and then just concentrate on whatever makes you grateful about life today. Then start to write. Write for at least five minutes to have this habit have a worthwhile effect on your gratitude level.

Take a journal or a notebook with you wherever you go or you can just install a note-taking app on your mobile device. Write down whenever you get some thought about how grateful you are for something in your life. These kinds of notes can act as reminders when you are feeling stressed and angry. This can cool you down to re-concentrate on your problem in a calm manner. 

Be grateful to people around you

We are not independent entities in this universe. We depend on many many things around us. Many people help us, nurture us and care for us in all kinds of different ways. If you want to be grateful for your life, you have to be grateful to all these people. 

Start with your parents. Think about how much they have done for you. Even if you don't agree with them on many things or if you have differences or negative experiences just don't think about them for a moment. Think about the positives. Think about how they cared for you when you were small and could not take care of yourself. What would have happened to you if they suddenly vanished from your life then? Would you be even alive today? 

Similarly, think about the people in your workplace. How many people make your life easier in the office? If everybody had been rude like one of your co-workers or someone else what would your office experience look like?

Think about all these people and more and then make an effort and start to thank everybody. You don't have to do it all at once. Just thank them whenever you interact with them next time. This may seem difficult at first but you will get a very positive feeling when you will start to thank people. You will see smiles on people's faces and the radiance of those smiles will shine inside your heart.

Have a grateful disposition towards life  

Life has positives as well as negatives. But if you concentrate only on the negatives life will seem like a nightmare. As we all know, it is very hard to be grateful in a nightmare. 

Look towards the positive things in life. Be hopeful about the future. Such kind of positive thinking might seem fake to you in the beginning and you might laugh at how you are thinking. You may think that it is useless to think about positives when your life is such a misery. But when you will force yourself to look towards the brighter side of life, you will at least stop yourself from thinking negatively. This in itself will be a big achievement. 

Appreciate the small things in life

Very often we don't think about the small things around us. Think about the chair you are sitting on, the house and ceiling on top of your head, the air conditioning system. How are all these things making your life comfortable? What would you feel like without them? If your chair suddenly became uncomfortable will you be able to read this article? There are many such things around us, serving us, helping us, and making our life better and more pleasurable. Just a few decades ago most of humanity lived without electricity. Isn't it a blessing that we enjoy all kinds of electrical appliances today? 

You pass many trees every day on your way to work. You may not feel their beauty and calm but if they are all gone how will it all look like? Will you feel better or worse? 

Have you ever thought about all these strangers around us? We think of these people as hurdles; something to move away from to get alone with people we know. But all these people are interwoven in the fabric of life. All of them are helping you in one way or another. People working in banks, telephone exchanges, power stations, workers in a factory, day wagers working on some building or a home, the traffic police on the road, shopkeepers in the market and many many other people in different professions all around us are helping us in one way or another. They are together running this society and making life better for all of us. If all of them just stopped working what would happen? You may think that they are all needy and dependent like you and they need to work but have you ever thought why are human beings wired like this? What would happen if one day they suddenly started thinking that they don't need to work and they can get whatever they want by force? What would happen to our society? 

The way we are, the way we do things, the way we need each other all of these things are a blessing for us. Without them, most of us would not have been alive. 

How can we increase our overall happiness and gratitude towards life? What has helped you in this regard? Let us know in the comments.