Five Ways to be Thankful

“The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.” – William Penn. Want to make thankfulness an everyday habit? Follow these five steps and become a more grateful person.

1/ Appreciate Everything You Have – Being thankful doesn’t have to be saved for the ‘big’ things in life. If you went to bed with a full stomach, woke up with a roof over your head, flipped on a light and had a hot shower, be thankful. Someone, not far from you, doesn’t have these privileges.

The habit of being thankful starts with appreciating every good thing in life and recognising that there is nothing too small for you to be grateful for.

2/ Use a ‘Gratitude’ Jar – This is very simple. All you need is an old jam jar and scraps of paper. Every single time something good happens or something that you're grateful for, write it on a slip of paper and put it in the jar. After a month or two, or whenever it’s full, empty the jar and be consciously thankful for the amazing life you have.

3/ Practice Mindfulness – Sit down every day and think of five to 10 things or people you are thankful for in your life. Close your eyes, picture these things and people in your mind and sit quietly with a feeling of gratitude in your body.

Doing this every day will rewire your brain to be naturally more thankful.

It only takes eight weeks of mindfulness practice for people to start showing changed brain patterns that can lead to greater empathy and happiness.

4/ Keep a Gratitude Journal – After your mindfulness session, write down your positive thoughts. Keeping a journal of all of the things you are thankful for can help you keep track of, and refer back to, the good things in your life.

Physically writing down positive thoughts further focuses your brain on feeling thankful and dispels unhappy dissatisfied thoughts. If you haven’t time to journal every day, do it on a weekly basis.

5/ Volunteer – For many people, the key to being thankful is to give back to others in the local community. Not only will it make you more grateful for the things that you may take for granted, but studies have shown that volunteering for the purpose of helping others increases our own well-being, and thus our ability to be more thankful.