3 Easy Ways to Include Gratitude In Your Day

There’s truth to the saying “you never know what you have ’til it’s gone,” and for that reason alone it’s so important to be grateful for everything we have because our lives can change in the blink of an eye. But with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s quite obvious that a lot of us don’t take the time to show gratitude because we believe we don’t have the time to do it. Here’s three easy (and simple) ways to start adding gratitude to your life every day, starting right now!

1. Make it apart of your morning routine: The first thing many of us do in the morning, especially millennials, is reach for our phones! This isn’t only to hit the snooze button or turn off our alarms, but to look through our texts, our messages on social media, or skim through our emails. If we make showing gratitude as important as it is to check our phones, brush our teeth or get dressed, we’ll be able to add this to our daily lives with ease. So start by making this a practice even before reaching your phone. Show thanks that you have another day to conquer your goals through a prayer, devotional or just by saying thank you!

2. Don’t talk, just listen: Everyone wants to be understood, heard and appreciated, yet even we or the closest people to us may not understand how important this! So during any interaction you have with someone today, take the time to actively listen to them, and not only to the words they speak, but their body language. This is helpful because you might just be able to provide that person with advice or words they really need to hear, and they’ll be grateful for that!

3. Give a compliment a day: Similar to the “apple a day keeps the doctor away” analogy, compliments can do a lot for your spiritual and emotional health. The compliments I’m referring to aren’t about someone’s physical appearance, but more about their presence in your life! Whether this compliment is to a boyfriend, girlfriend, co-worker, parent, or sibling, compliment them about what you admire, love or are thankful for about them! This will not only make the person you’re speaking to feel great, but you as well since you’ll start to see how important that person is in your life!

Gratitude is as simple as that! Start daily with these three ways and you’ll be on your way to not only being thankful for what you have in your life, but to appreciate those around you!