This post is all about how to practice gratitude.

Looking to be more grateful on your day-to-day? Then you are in the right place because today I will be sharing with you 5 insanely simple ways you can practice gratitude starting today!

We are always looking for more and more. And we want it now.

We believe our life is always lacking something or that every bad thing in this world happens to us. 

We are never satisfied with our accomplishments and directly jump from one stage of our life to the next always looking for more, when we don’t realize that we have everything we need to be happy.

Yes, read that again: You have everything you need in your life to be happy and fulfilled. You just have been focusing on the wrong things.

One of the things I have realized this past year is that we are the ones controlling the story we tell ourselves. The way we see the world, the things that happen in our lives.

But what if we could change that dialogue, what if we could instead focus on all the great things in life and what we have instead of what we don’t?

We actually can, and the best way to do this is by practicing gratitude. But you probably already knew that.

So let’s answer the question you came here to find: how you can practice gratitude.

How to practice gratitude. The importance of this daily practice

Why is it important to practice gratitude? Why is it that so many experts talk about the importance of this practice and its many benefits?

Explained in simple terms practicing gratitude is really a reflection exercise where we choose to focus on the good things in life.

However, gratitude is so much more than that.

When you focus on the good things in life you are not only practicing positivity, but you are also raising your vibrations and maximizing the power of the law of attraction, which is a great benefit if you are trying to manifest something into your life.

To name just a few here is a list of more benefits that practicing gratitude daily has:

• Increases productivity throughout the day
• Acknowledges a new perspective
• Gives insight into simple things taken for granted
• Promotes clarity
• Boosts self-esteem
• Improves mental health
• Attracts abundance
• Stimulates a high level of consciousness
• Makes you feel happier
• Is a great way to practice mindfulness
• Releases Serotonin from the Brain

The best thing about practicing gratitude is that you decide how to do it. There is no exact formula or practice, you are the ones to set the rules.

And today I want to share with you these 5 insanely simple ways you can practice gratitude so that you can start implementing this incredibly beneficial habit starting today.

I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness- It’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude

Brené Brown

How to practice gratitude. Journaling prompts 

Journaling has many great benefits, but when it comes to expressing gratitude the best one without a doubt is the deeper connection you feel with the gratitude thoughts you put down on paper.

Another great thing about this method of practicing journaling is being able to look back at the things you are grateful for every day whenever you feel like you need a boost of happiness, motivation or just feel like having a little reflection time.

Here are some gratitude journal prompts to guide your daily gratitude practice:

• What was the highlight of your day?
• What is something someone did for you today that you feel grateful for?
• What made you smile today?
• What made you laugh today?
• What is something that brought you joy today?
• What are you most excited about today?
• Name something you love about yourself.
• What does gratitude mean to you?
• How did you overcome hardship today?
• Name something you learned today.
• One person in my life that I am thankful for 

You can use these journal prompts in the morning or at the end of the day as a reflection exercise to focus on the positive and raise your vibrations. 

If you find it difficult to find things to be grateful for, here is a list of things to be happy about.

Even though they might seem small and insignificant, we don’t always realize how important they are until we lose them.

How to practice gratitude. 20 Things to be grateful for daily (even when you think you have nothing to be thankful for)

1. Your freedom
2. Today, being fortunate to wake up
3. Your pets
4. Feet to walk
5. The health to enjoy your life
6. Access to clean and hot water
7. Having a place to sleep
8. Quality time with yourself
9. Clean clothing
10. Your heart
11. Your functioning lungs
12. Happy memories
13. Your voice in society
14. Any obstacles you have overcome
15. Your potential
16. Your strength
17. The people close to you (family, friends, significant others)
18. Life experiences that contributed to your personal growth
19. The vision that allows you to see all the beautiful things on this earth
20. Having food on the table

Ways to practice gratitude N2. Affirmations

The second way of practicing gratitude is through affirmations.

Affirmations are sentences used to reprogram our subconscious mind. They can also be used to make us believe certain things about ourselves and the world or environment surrounding us.

Affirmations are also used as a way to manifest the things we want in our life (wealth, love, happiness, relationships…). Affirmations are part of a method called autogestion.

Autosuggestion is a technique of control through which we can voluntarily feed our subconscious with motivating and empowering thoughts.

In other words with the repetition of this method, you can voluntarily create thought habits in your subconscious that favor your efforts to create the life of your dreams. And in this case, train your mind to see the good and have a grateful mindset.

Here´s the thing though, the tricky part of this method is that it´s not enough with reading these motivational sentences. Because for a thought to record in the subconscious, it MUST be accompanied by a strong emotion. This means that when we read our affirmations out loud, we need to combine them with a feeling.

Don´t worry, this is fairly easy to do. You simply have to read your affirmations and think about the emotions and feeling they evoke in you, let yourself be carried away by these feelings, by how they make you feel, and by how they influence your life.

If you want to learn more about affirmations, beliefs, or the subconscious, click here!

Here are a couple of gratitude affirmation ideas you can use in the morning to start the day with a boost of gratitude:

• I am grateful for this beautiful day
• I am overflowing with happiness, joy, and gratitude
• I am appreciative of all of the wonderful things this day brings forth
• I am grateful for who I am
• I am grateful for the opportunities this new day brings me.
• I invite gratitude into my heart now.
• Every cell in my body vibrates with gratitude.
• Today I will embody an attitude of gratitude
• I am grateful for the abundance of blessings in my life.
• I am grateful for my beautiful life.
• I am grateful for the love and support in my life.
• I choose to be positive and create a happy and fantastic life
• I am thankful for my body.
• I have the strength to get through any obstacle I encounter.
• I attract abundance.

How to practice gratitude by using a Gratitude jar

Personally one of my favorite ways of practicing gratitude is by using a gratitude jar.

A gratitude jar as the name suggests basically consists of a jar (you can use one from your kitchen for example) where you can store little notes of things you are grateful for in your life.

Personally, what I did was keep this gratitude jar in my bedroom for an entire year, and every time I felt grateful, happy, or excited about something that happened I wrote it down on a little note and put it in the jar.

Then at the end of the end, I would take those little notes and read them, reliving the most beautiful moments and highlights of the year, including something that I even forgot happened.

Another way you can use a gratitude jar is by the end of the day or once a week reflect on what things you felt grateful for or made you smile and put them in the jar.

If don’t feel very comfortable writing in a journal or feel like you don’t have the time to do it, you can instead try this great gratitude activity.

Gratitude Journals

If however you love journaling and starting (or ending) your days with a little reflection, then gratitude journals are definitely for you.

The great thing about this gratitude practice is that you can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want.

You could start your day by simply writing three things you are grateful for, or dive deeper with some thougth-provoking gratitude prompts.

When it comes to which gratitude journal, I have an entire article reviewing the 10 best gratitude journals and how to find out the best one for you right here. But my all time favorite will alwasy be the “Five Minute Gratitude Journal”. I love the simplicity and minimalism of this journal.

But above all, I appreciate that the gratitude practice is divided into morning and night. Giving you the opportunity to start and end the day on the best note.

This journal also includes a simple goal-setting and affirmations section, so that you use every day as an opportunity to get closer to your goals and keep yourself motivated.

Gratitude Meditation

If writing is not your thing and you are the type to reflect in silence, then you should definitely try gratitude meditation.

This type of meditation consists of focusing on all the things you are grateful on your life. The thing about this practice is that unlike what people think, you don’t have to sit cross-legged in silence in a dark room to meditate.

You can use this practice while you are drinking your morning coffee or on the bus on your way to work for example.

The important thing to have in mind with this practice (and anytime you practice gratitude) is to reflect and feel thankful not only for the good things but for everything in your life including the bad because this practice is about intentionally focusing on the good even with the bad things.

If you are interested in practicing gratitude meditation here is a guided meditation to get you started.

Watch the way you speak

The previous exercises we just talked about are great ways to dedicate a small part of your day or week to solely focus on what you have and the good things in your life. And they might seem like small and insignificant actions, but when you join them together their impact is incredibly powerful.

What we are trying to create here is a domino effect. Remember that it is the small things in life, the ones we do daily, that have the most impact on our life and our success.

But for the last activity on how to practice gratitude, I want to focus on something entirely different, which is being aware of the way you speak and your thoughts.

This last way of practicing gratitude might not be the easiest, but it is totally worth it.

Here goes a question for you: how often do you say thank you in your daily life? How often do you truly acknowledge the things you have in life and what other people do for you?

Being aware of the way we speak and think has a great impact on our life. Remember what we said earlier about the story we tell ourselves?

You are in complete control of this dialogue, and if you keep saying that your life is a mess and everything in this world is corrupt and negative that is the life you will live.

But how does this happen? It can easily be explained with the unconscious bias.

Our brain receives per minute about 11 million bits of information (the colors we see, the things we touch, and hear, our thoughts…) 

However, our brain can only process about 40 to 60 of those bits. And how does the brain determine what information to process and what to ditch?

You guessed it, based on your dominant thoughts and beliefs. You interpret the information you received based on your past experiences that built certain beliefs within your mind.

So if you think that we world we live in is corrupt, our brain will keep focusing and processing information that supports that belief.

In fact, it will automatically start looking for evidence that convinces you once again of that idea.

This also happens for example when you buy a new piece of clothing, you suddenly start noticing many people with the same piece of clothing. The same thing happens when you buy a phone, a car, etc.

But are those beliefs fixed? Absolutely not. You are in complete control to change those thoughts and what your mind focuses on.

And you can do this by changing your thoughts and the way you speak.

So for this last exercise on how to practice gratitude, I want you to become aware of your thoughts and the story you are telling yourself.

Is it a tragedy, a romanticized novel, or a rather a list of all the bad things in this world?

And lastly, what do you want your story to be?

Final thoughts on how to practice gratitude daily

We have been sold this huge and almost dreamy idea of happiness. So we go out in the world looking for this happiness without really knowing where or what to look for.

We believe the next milestone, next goal, promotion, car, or phone… will make us happy. But the truth is that more doesn’t always equal happiness.

You have and are everything you need to feel fulfilled and happy, you just need to change your perspective and the story you tell to yourself to actually see this.

And practicing gratitude is one of the easiest and most powerful ways you can do this.

Thank you for investing your time in this article on how to practice gratitude. I hope the tips, exercises, and tools in this blog post will help you incorporate the practice of daily gratitude into your life so that you can start benefiting from this incredible activity.

If you want to dive deeper into the world of gratitude here is a great video I highly recommend about Robert Emmons explaining the power of gratitude.

Remember that you are worthy of even your deepest and wildest dreams!

How do you like to practice gratitude? I would love to read you in the comments!

Hope you have a great day!