Future Habits Archives - Page 20 of 22

8 Simple Ways To Help Boost Your Gratitude Every Day

By Adam Smith

In today’s article, 8 Simple Ways To Help Boost Your Gratitude Every Day. I will show you effective ways to help build your mental strength through gratitude. By the end of this article I hope you find that motivation to develop your mindset with gratitude.

Gratitude Is A Way Of Life

“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” Gerald Good

After 30 days of practising gratitude daily. I reviewed to find 8 Simple Ways To Help Boost Your Gratitude Every Day.

It’s amazing how giving thanks helped in such an effective way.

With the busyness of life, it can be hard to find time for anything for yourself. Just try being a father to two children or a demanding work environment where people need your constant attention. It can be challenging to say the least.

What has had a huge effect on my life is finding time to work on myself. Being selfish in a positive way allows me to improve. In turn, it has allowed me to give more to everyone around me with my energy and my focus has been transformed.

Practising gratitude daily. I am a more peaceful person. A happier person. A more focused person. A more present person. A better father and husband. Overall simply just a better person.

As simple it is to practice gratitude the results you get are tenfold.

This technique should be in every school, workplace, sports club. It’s no wonder people from all walks of life who have become super successful in their chosen field have it as part of their daily routine.

It’s because it works.

Now I want this for you, so I have compiled 8 Simple Ways To Help Boost Your Gratitude Every Day.

8 Simple Ways To Help Boost Your Gratitude Every Day

1. Apply gratitude blitz to everyday life

Throughout your daily life, it can be challenging but also really busy and having time to sit down alone to write a gratitude list might be difficult. A great way that can help you overcome this is by applying quick-firing gratitude to everything around you that you can see through your eyes and in your mind. I call it the gratitude blitz and it can be anything from the air your currently breathing or a smell of the plants around you. This helped me regain my positivity in a negative setting and put me back in control of my mind to regain balance.

2. Have a gratitude journal

When alone without kids, spouses or your mobile phone unless for a gratitude app. You can now unwind your thoughts into your gratitude journal. This helped me to think in-depth about what I’m thankful for and have time to imagine and feel that joy from being thankful for your day.

3. Don’t be too hard on yourself

It’s also ok if you forget to do it for one day or when you’re in a negative situation you forget to use the strategy to regain your happiness. Just be conscious that it’s happened and have plans to overcome it. I started putting alarm reminders when I should do it throughout my day which held me accountable to do it or sticky notes in places where you know you will be reminded.

Remember we are forming a new habit and when learning mistakes are always going to happen so learn to enjoy the process.

4. When in doubt get your sand timer out

To be able to perform a quick gratitude burst. Having something to focus on is essential to keep you on track. You can use any form of stopwatch but I prefer a sand timer that I take with me everywhere. I know when it comes out it’s gratitude time and it allows me to focus and calm my thoughts.

5. Instead of finding negatives, find positives

When people make you angry, frustrated or dam right annoyed before you lash out the inner chimp (Ego). Say something positive instead. It will quickly defuse any negative emotion harbouring inside you and the response you will receive back will be more agreeable. By disarming any situation with positive words will allow you to stay calm and centred.

6. Make sure you breathe

Of course, being grateful in a certain situation can be difficult. So when you are in any situation where you feel your blood rising. Just breathe! This will increase your oxygen back to your brain allowing you to return to your normal state, then return to being thankful.

7. Schedule slots upon awakening or before bed

Having a fixed time slot is essential to sticking to your daily practice of gratitude. So in the morning where I’m busier, I perform quick gratitude from my surroundings and then at night with more time, I journal my thoughts then. This has helped me form the habit as part of the day.

8. Freshen up your thanks so it doesn’t get too boring

What really stops someone from continuing the practice of gratitude and even myself in the past is saying the same things over and over again. This can become boring and something that’s easier to forget about. That’s why it’s important to freshen up your thankfulness and make it more specific to your day rather than general stuff.

Last Word With The Future Mindset

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie

Practising gratitude for me is still a work in progress. Sometimes I have days that I forget or my ego gets the better of me.

95% of the time I definitely can see the benefits of this practice and I will never look back again. The overall health benefits it can have on your mind allows me to think more clearly and keeps me living in the moment.

Start slowly with an evening journal or voice notes and start being grateful for your life today.

I hope this helps you with your mindfulness journey.

FUTURE MINDSET

At Future Mindset, we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Let’s change our mindset to change our future.

For all of our latest blog posts on developing your mindset, make sure you sign up to our weekly newsletter to stay informed. Thank you so much for your support and would love to discuss any comments on this post and if you have any suggestions on future posts I’m more than happy to research and deliver that for you.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!

Why practising gratitude unlocks more than you know

By Adam Smith

“If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” Frank A. Clark

What is gratitude and why it’s important?

I never learned what gratitude truly was until my early 20’s.

Of course, you’re always told be grateful for the food on your table or comparisons with other poorer countries on why you should be more grateful for what you have.

But it was never fully explained to me the true benefits of what gratitude can give to you. Especially with all the studies I have read on the benefits on your mind and body and overall happiness with life.

For me, gratitude is taking the good from the past and making it present that fuels me for my future. It allows me to calm my mind and be free in that moment.

Studies have shown those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended. This shows the importance gratitude can have on the mind.

It’s a practice that has been performed for thousands of years amongst religious leaders and philosophers. The benefits are documented and have been proven to work even if we don’t quite understand how.

So why in western culture it’s not part of our education or taught within our workplace? With the advancement of industrialisation and technology, is it something we have taken for granted?

These are questions i wanted to answer myself.

So I decided to go 30 days without fail to practice gratitude myself. To learn the true benefits of practising it daily and making it a habit that’s part of my life.

The best thing about this challenge it’s a win-win outcome.

Here’s how I got on,

Why practising gratitude unlocks more than you know is best when written in a journal.

My 30-day story of practising gratitude

Week 1

With all the information at my disposal, I was ready to start my gratitude challenge of at least 1 minute a day. (I choose 1 minute to make it impossible not to do)

Understanding the time of the day I enjoyed best I choose the morning as the best time to do it. I could either do a quick gratitude of my surroundings or I could write it down.

After my first week, on reflection, I was definitely more conscious of my surroundings and everything good in my life.

It’s easy to get lost in the future of where your headed and dragged back to past experiences but with practising gratitude I truly felt present and defiantly happier for feeling that way.

Week 2

Beginning my second week I was happy with this technique being part of my daily routine but as the day went on this feeling slowly went away.

So I scheduled a quick 1-minute gratitude wherever I was within my surroundings to keep me present. Especially when my thoughts were starting to drift towards negativity and things got out of my control.

In the evening when I was winding down to review my day. I added in a gratitude journal time that allowed me to gather my thoughts from the day.

It enabled me to let go of anything bad or picture experiences I had again and find the positive from it instead.

Week 3

After 3 weeks I felt a lot happier and much calmer than I have felt in a while.

I was defiantly more conscious of my surroundings and how I respond to situations.

For example, I walked into a local shop and I didn’t get a good vibe back from the person serving me. I remember coming home and explaining this and 3 other negative things I spotted on my way to the shop.

Then my brain was triggered with being more grateful. I went back over the situation and changed from looking for the bad in my experience to looking for the good.

For example, I am grateful that the shop is just a minute walk away. They have the food I wanted and I had someone to serve me so I could purchase it.

For me, this was a big turnaround and showed the importance of being grateful for the experiences we have every day. Understanding that you can either have a positive or negative experience is down to your perspective.

Week 4

This was now becoming a great daily routine and also a conscious one with my experiences. It was a lot easier to apply and I was seeing the benefits of it in my interactions with others.

What were my findings?

On reflection, this technique is highly talked about and practised because it works.

I have learned to be grateful for what I have, who’s part of my life and the world around me.

It has also challenged my negative reactions to life that was deemed normal. Now I have a different approach that makes me happier without any more energy.

Overall I feel a lot more balanced and my whole body language is a lot more positive for it. I have better interactions with my family, colleagues and even strangers. When your brain is calm it’s in a positive state and the benefits you gain from this are exponential.

I challenge you to start a 30-day gratitude challenge!

Let me know how you get on.

I will leave you this quote

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” Charles Dickens

FUTURE MINDSET

At Future Mindset, we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Let’s change our mindset to change our future.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!