When You Practice Gratitude, You Get What You Give

If you didn’t know I was homeschooled…Surprise!

And thank you if your initial thought was, “Wow!, really? You aren’t weird at all.” ;P

No thanks to the stereotype, but I’ve heard it often enough, at this point in my life, I usually just jump on and ride the elephant around the room. 

Growing up homeschooled to parents that owned their own business working with elderly clients a lot of mine and my sisters schooling was done by our parents’ older retired teachers.

(Don’t judge, I bet you quarantined parents are wishing you had a retired teacher living in your house right now lol). Growing up this way, there was a requirement for a lot of “yes ma’ams” and “yes sirs. “

That type of ingrained behavior that I learned in those early years of life doesn’t just go away overnight. Those manners have stayed with me my whole life. So, If you’re a day older than me, you can bet you are getting a yes sir or yes ma’am!

Why someone is not respectful to the elderly or just isn’t polite to others (when it really will get them much farther than being rude) is beyond me.

I’ve always found people will give you a lot more, like more of those Werther’s Caramel Candies (I’m really aging myself in this article), by showing gratitude.

More importantly, I’ve always felt happier when I truly show my appreciation. 

Although, having gratitude goes way beyond simple manners, ultimately you get what you give. As the saying goes, you will catch more flies with honey than vinegar (if flies are your thing). It really is as simple as The Law of Attraction!

How to Be Grateful During Rough Times in Life (In times like the one we are currently coexisting in with COVID-19)

We are in the middle of a very frightening and deadly pandemic that’s turned our entire world upside down.

We like our routines and all of our activities. And yes, most of us probably do normally take these things granted daily.

We may feel a need to act as if the world is still the same as it was before. But the reality is, it is not the same and it’s perfectly okay for you to be freaked out right now.

Scientific research shows that when people give up on the tight control they have on goals that are not reachable today, or on unrealistic “goals,” it can often be a powerful antidepressant and reduce fears causing anxiety. 

Doing this allows us to let go of the obsession we have to cling onto things, to be insistent the world stays the way it was. When we can let go of those unreachable goals there is a sort of freedom in that.

This does not mean that we surrender or give up to the things we want in life.

In fact, it’s the opposite. When we can really accept what is, it allows us to really look around and instead of being tortured by what isn’t here and spend all of our energy trying to make things more normal or different than they are. 

Instead, you can say, “okay, this is the situation that we are in and thank whatever higher power you believe in for the good things that you do have in your life. 

Just like bathing and exercising, this is not a one and done type of thing. We will have to accept certain things in our lives over and over again and that’s just part of the process. Our ability to do this will help both our mental and physical health. 

When we are in an ongoing state of gratitude, a state of being aware and thankful of everything good around us, we are more likely to see more good and more importantly the feeling and belief that there is more good coming for you.

Yes, more toilet paper is coming! 

Is there anything that you’re really great at or confident in? Like, you know that you’re going to rock this one thing every time you set your mind to it? Yet, after every time of rocking it, you’re still proud of yourself and grateful that you rocked it so hard? 

Gratitude can be like that. You can be grateful before something happens, grateful when it happens and after it happens, continuously manifesting itself with acceptance of your awesomeness and ongoing gratitude for it. 

In the state we are living in with COVID-19, a good example of practicing gratitude could be appreciating the wellness that is in your life. The beautiful weather, clear blue skies, and loving family that is constantly checking in on you is a blessing. Being thankful for the health of yourself and your loved ones is another example. If someone you know and love has had their health or life impacted, you can express gratitude that soon this will all be over and that thankfully the “it could always be worse” situation has not occurred.

How to Bring on the Gratitude

3 tips that you can start to implement today (yes, even in quarantine) to bring on the gratitude!

1. Borrowing this first one from one of my favorite authors, Jen Sincero. The practice is “This is Good Because…” 

Basically, every time anything happens to you, the good, the bad and the ugly you fill in the blank, “This is good because…” The more you do this the easier it will be for you to be grateful no matter the situation. 

Now, I personally know that there’s some situations that are just so WTF you may feel that there’s no finding the good, but trust me there is. It may take years to learn from a significant negative experience how the hell it was a good thing, but even some of the worst times in our lives we can look back on years later and find things to be grateful for. Like how your fiance cheating resulted in calling off the wedding that you spent quite a while planning all by yourself really was for the best (telling that story for a friend;-) 

2. Grateful Hand Washing 

Instead of singing that birthday song again for the 100th time when washing your hands today, why not say 5 things you are grateful for? Your fingers are right in front of you, you know, if it helps to use them to count. 

Pausing for a minute from all of the craziness that is life these days and identifying things you are grateful for will put your focus on the positive and away from the negative. 

We often weigh the good and bad of things, we love those pros and cons lists to make choices, yet we forget that by consistently thinking about the negative blocks us from identifying and thinking about all of the positives. The negatives often win in our lives by default. So let’s even the scales a bit and bring on the PROS! 

3. Self-Love 

Unfortunately, for us humans loving ourselves in today’s world is a tall order. 

When I see people becoming the most confident and truly happy and really feel like they are making it, what the actual change is or how bit it is doesn’t really matter. What matters is the belief that the changes can occur. 

Not to be all corny here, but… be the change you seek…aka. you are the positive in your life. Gratitude helps us to subconsciously believe in ourselves. We are learning that in being grateful we are being grateful to ourselves. 

When we can really understand and believe this we can do great things. This allows us to truly be able to be grateful for all that we are as well as all that we are becoming. 

Victoria