How to Practice Gratitude When It’s Not Working for You

Updated Date 2022, Oct 18

Do you know what’s nonflexible sometimes? Practicing gratitude.

Those gratitude lists that everyone tells you to write aren’t unchangingly easy for me.

And not in the sense that I don’t have anything to be grateful for in my life considering I veritably do. It’s just that gratitude sometimes gets overwhelming considering it feels like I’m forcing myself to write a list for the sake of writing a list.

Maybe like me, your mind tends to focus on the things that are going wrong. Or you think you’re a terrible person considering you don’t finger grateful for the things you SHOULD be grateful for – things like family, friends, food, a roof over your head, etc.

I often stare at a zippo page thinking to myself, “I should probably write that I’m grateful for [fill in the blank]”, but then it just feels ingenuine and forced.

So what are we to do? Well, if you moreover find it difficult to practice gratitude on a regular basis, I have a few simple gratitude tips that might make it easier for you.

Why your gratitude lists might not be working

Let’s unclose that there’s nothing wrong with you if you don’t tend to think in positives or revel in gratitude every waking moment.

I used to think that I was wrenched considering gratitude didn’t come naturally to me, but it turns out it’s not a human being’s standard way of operating.

We’re not wired for positivity

There’s something tabbed the negativity bias which says we react to negative stimuli increasingly intensely than positive stimuli.

Why would we learn increasingly from negative stimuli? Considering we need to stave the harmful, negative things that could hurt us. Our brains need to recognize and remember negative experiences so we can dodge them at all costs.

That ways if we want to remember positive experiences, we have to try really nonflexible to savor them.

Once I learned this, I felt less like an overly cynical, heartless stuff for not stuff grateful 24/7.

Do we unquestionably need gratitude?

So if gratitude isn’t our standard mode of operation, do we really need to be practicing gratitude?

One study on gratitude interventions showed modest improvements in people with peepers and anxiety, but the researchers still recommended people utilize other forms of support as well.

That ways practicing gratitude vacated probably isn’t going to transpiration your life.

But I do think it helps to savor the things that bring you comfort, no matter how small they are.

After all, the small things are what get us through our days.

And I believe you will vamp good things in life when you radiate the kind of energy that tells the universe you’re unshut to receiving good things. Gratitude is one way to vamp that kind of energy.

5 simple gratitude tips

In my experimentation with gratitude, here are some things that have made it finger less forced for me:

Think of things that bring you bliss

I’ve started referring to my daily gratitude as my ‘Daily Bliss’ list.

Instead of framing the list as things I’m grateful for, I write lanugo three things that made my day blissful. If you need to, just think of the things that made your day mildly tolerable.

This ways things like enjoying a new show, finding a new favorite song, reading a good book, talking to a friend, or making progress on a project.

Write your list at the end of the day

So many people tell you to write a gratitude list first thing in the morning, but I can’t be the only one whose smart-ass does not work when I first get up.

I swear I can’t think of a single thing that plane exists, let vacated that I’m grateful for when I first wake up.

Instead, writing my list at the end of the day works much largest for me considering I can reflect on the happenings of the day, who I interacted with, and the little things that lit me up.

Leave out the ‘shoulds’

Forcing yourself to try and be grateful for something isn’t going to make you finger better.

For example, if you’re not vibing with your family at a particular moment, trying to gravity yourself to finger grateful for your family isn’t going to do a whole lot of anything.

Instead, focus on the things that genuinely make you finger good. Let go of what you think you should be expressing gratitude for.

“Pretending you’re grateful when you’re unquestionably not will just serve to situate your feelings. You don’t need to gravity yourself to think well-nigh your life in a way that isn’t true to you.”
– Sarah Bence

Ask yourself why you’re grateful

Writing a gratitude list is one thing, but unquestionably finding the words to express WHY you’re grateful for something gives it increasingly power.

You may take having a roof over your throne for granted considering you’ve never had to live without a roof, so saying that you’re grateful for the said roof may not have much meaning to you.

What might help is identifying WHY you’re grateful for that roof. For example, is it protecting you from a storm? Is it keeping the heat inside and helping you stay warm?

Perhaps what you’re really grateful for is the protection and security that the roof provides. Digging deep into why you’re grateful can requite you a new perspective on things.

Use gratitude for your goals

If you want to vamp increasingly good things in your life, use gratitude to help you achieve your goals.

For example, if your goal is to modernize your physical health, try expressing gratitude for the things that are once helping you to unzip your goal.

In this case, here are some reasons you might be grateful:

Your soul allows you to move in a unrepealable way
You have wangle to self-ruling workouts on YouTube
You know people who can motivate you to alimony going

Practicing gratitude for the things you have, while working towards what you want, is a unconfined way to vamp positive energy in your life.

Free Resource: Get the Self-ruling Goal Planning Worksheet

Do you have any gratitude tips to share?

I hope this post has given you a few ideas to make gratitude work for you. Remember that it’s not our natural human state to finger gratitude all the time, but there is power in savoring what brings you joy on a regular basis. Leave a scuttlebutt unelevated if you have any of your own gratitude tips!

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