We’ve adopted a whole new way of bringing happiness into our lives in this New Year. I have placed a small vase on our dinning room table and every day we write on a piece of paper what we are grateful about and then put it in the vase. At the end of the week, we sit around the table and take turns reading our grateful notes. By the time we are done reading it all we are all smiling. It shows us just how much we have and how happy we should be.
Being grateful is to be keenly aware of the good things that happen to us and never take them for granted. Researchers are finding that people who express the most gratitude are happier, healthier, and more energetic. The more a person is inclined towards gratitude, the less lonely, stressed, anxious and depressed he or she will be.
It appears that counting our blessings on a regular basis can improve our moods and overall level of happiness and health! But, what if you feel like nothing is going right? What do we do when life presents challenges and adversity? How do we express our gratitude when we aren’t feeling like we have anything to be grateful about?
Yes, it’s very difficult to feel grateful when we are going through a difficult time, but that’s why it makes so much sense to practice gratitude. In good times and in bad. Instead of focusing on all that is going wrong which can be so easy to do we need to notice and acknowledge all that is going right. On a regular basis we should notice all of the gifts and blessings we have in life. The more you practice gratitude, the more you’ll find those not-so-great days becoming few and far between.This way we can increase our sense of well-being, and create hope and optimism for the future—no matter what is going on.