5 Easy Ways to Remember Gratitude

Excerpt from Courage and Croissants, Inspiring Joyful Living by
Suzanne Saxe-Roux and Jean P. Roux

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank-you," that would suffice.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) German Philosopher

When you stop and think about it, there are so many things to be grateful for. But how often do you stop and think about what you are grateful for? The answer for many of us, is not enough.

In the law of attraction, it is stated that one of the easiest ways to attract positive things in your life is to be grateful for things, people, ideas, and events. The more you focus on being grateful the more you will attract positive things. Makes sense, as when you focus on good things in your life, you aren’t focusing on the negative.  This is one easy tool that you can use alone or with your family to make a good day even better. Used each day, it all brings a great deal of positive energy into your life.

5 Easy Ways to Remember what you are Grateful For in Life

1. Write a gratitude list each morning when you wake up or evening before you go to bed in your journal. Every once in awhile go back and read it. You will be astounded at the small things that make you feel good!

2. Share what you are grateful for with your family at dinnertime. Talk about why you are grateful and how it makes you feel.

3. Each night when you tuck your child(ren) into bed, ask them to list as many things as they can think of that they are grateful for. Aim for 10-15 items. Then ask them if there are any things that didn’t go well in their day. Usually the list is pretty short. Talk about how many more great things happened to them and how lucky they are.  This will go along way in teaching kids to see the good things in life.

We have been doing the above ritual with our daughter for the last 4 years. Sometimes it is harder than other days for all of us. Sometimes she asks us to go first; sometimes she wants to go first. What is startling is when she sees that there are 10 or 15 great things that happened and only one negative thing, she feels better immediately. We then talk about how she can turn around the negative event, empowering her to turn the situation around the next day. For us, we get reminded of how much we all have to be grateful for.
 
4. Say "Thank-you" to everyone and anyone and see how great it makes you and the other person feel.

5. When you see someone who makes you smile, let them know that their smile and laughter made your day a bit brighter and you are grateful. Then turn around and give someone else a big smile in return.