When life is going well, it's easy to count your blessing. But being grateful when the times get hard is a challenge. It is precisely under crisis when we have the most to gain by an appreciative perspective on life.
"Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Once life hits you hard, staying grateful is the last thing on your mind. No one feels thankful for losing a loved one or getting fired. Yet, being grateful is a mindful choice, which will give a chance to recover and see things in a better light.
Being grateful by no means suggests you should put things under a rug and pretend that everything is fine. Denial leads to suffering; gratefulness makes everything less painful.
Learn to be grateful for every day
No one is guaranteed tomorrow, so treat every day with gratitude. Write down a shortlist of things that made your day. Your gratitude journal will be another useful tool for your bad days.
Cherish the ones you love
Express gratitude for the people in your life. It doesn't matter if that list is long or short.
The older we get, our circle of friends is getting tighter. Cherish the people who know you and love you, and get excited by the idea of meeting new friends or lovers.
Don't forget your sorrows
Living in the past can lead to depression. Living in the future creates anxiety. But if you can't find a reason to be grateful at this moment, go back. Every trauma, loss leaves a scar, but you got through it. Be thankful for surviving the past, and look how far you've come.
Confront your mortality
The bad can assist us in recognizing the good. Most people have a fear of the unknown, and death is the ultimate mystery. Instead of obsessing over it, be curious, and stay grateful that you are still here.
Appreciate the good times
Be thankful for all the times you felt happy. Those moments are usually small and seem insignificant at the time. But, if you remember them during the bad periods, this implies that you were delighted.
Appreciate every happy memory because it's a great lesson and a reminder that you can get back to that feeling.
Gratitude is backed by science
Gratefulness maximizes pleasure in multiple ways; it that helps us reframe memories of unpleasant experiences in a way that reduces their nasty emotional impact.
Everyone agrees that gratitude should be your everyday attitude, researches proved it on and on. While we can't fully understand these experiments, we believe in science. And it merely states: be grateful.
Be grateful to the higher forces
It can be God, the universe, whatever you believe that helped you during the hard times. When your faith is strong, problems seem smaller. Keeping faith during the hard times is the ultimate reflection of gratitude, and that's why you will be rewarded.
