Practicing Gratitude

When I meet with clients, they often express how they know practicing gratitude is helpful. But, they reveal how sometimes it’s hard to feel grateful when things aren’t going the way they hoped. The truth is that I can relate. When I’ve gone through tough times in my life, I’ve held on to my positive nature and appreciation for the process of life. But, I’ve also felt moments of defeat during those times.  And, I know it’s important to feel all of my feelings – the ones we’d identify as positive and negative. So, I do so while really aiming to practice gratitude for even the negative feelings. But, I’ve questioned…how is my positive attitude and gratitude really paying off?! It doesn’t always feel better.

What It Looks Like During Tough Times

That is when I catch myself.  I notice that in those moments of feeling deflated, I’m worrying about what will happen in the future and generally coming from a place of fear.  So, I recover and remind myself that gratitude is a choice and to practice it again in every moment I need to do so. (I call it “practice” for a reason:-)

In fact, scientific studies show that practicing gratitude DAILY improves your emotional and physical well-being.  It makes you 25% happier! So, it’s especially important to be appreciative of life during tough times when you really want to feel happier.

4 Key Principles

In the video below are the FOUR keys I discovered for practicing gratitude during the toughest time in my life. It was when my Dad was diagnosed with ALS years ago, and my family and I had to think about my parents’ overall healthcare needs. Each principle provided me a sense of comfort opening my heart to really experience the benefits of gratitude.

See if you can put these 4 principles in to play in your life? 👇🏻