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In honor of Thanksgiving week, I thought it would be fun to dive into what I’m thankful for this year, and how I incorporate gratitude into my daily life. Oftentimes we get caught up in day-to-day tasks and sometimes forget to reflect on our blessings. There are groceries to be bought, laundry to be folded, and tiny humans to take care of. With our seemingly unending to-do lists, we often forget to look up and give thanks. Not because we aren’t grateful. But when you’re crunched for time every day, it can feel like there isn’t a second to spare. I know this feeling all too well. That’s why I want to share 3 ways to incorporate gratitude into your daily life. I practice this every day, and it’s changed the way I approach my days.
3 Ways to Incorporate Gratitude into Your Daily Life
Prioritize Time for Yourself Daily
The first thing I do is prioritize time for myself. This can be waking up just ever so slightly earlier, so I can go downstairs and drink coffee in peace. Even if you have to schedule this time into your calendar, do it!
Sometimes it’s taking a warm bath after I put the tiny babe down for the night. I recommend doing something that makes you happy, has a little self-care built in, and gives you alone time to reflect. It’s amazing what just 10 minutes of peaceful time can do for your mental health. Now I feel like I should mention, that this isn’t the time to scroll Instagram or check your inbox. This is purely time to think. However you choose to spend some quiet time alone, it’s important to let your mind wander and reflect.
Write Down Small Things You’re Grateful For
Your ten minutes of quiet time is the perfect time to write down small things you’re grateful for. Not the big things like you’re thankful for your house, husband, and kids. What are the smallest things that you recognize are blessings?
For instance, I might be thankful that my husband refilled the water in the coffee maker for me. This may seem small, but this means he was thinking of me. Even though he wasn’t planning to make coffee in the morning, he wanted my morning to be stress-free. So he did this small act of kindness that shows that he cared. Another small blessing might be that Beckham asked me to read him a book or told me that he loved me, just because. You’ll know what those small joyful moments are for you.
Do I sometimes jot down big things that I feel need to be noted? Heck yeah! When I launched The Virtual Assistant Studio course, you better believe I wrote that down. If I land a new client or enroll a new student that gets written down too. The key is to really focus on the abundance of small blessings that equal up to be big blessings in your life. It’s also really fun to look back on what you’ve written down over the course of a few months and see what’s changed. It’s a fun way to be reminded of where your heart was on a certain day.
Shift Your Mindset
Finally, the third way to incorporate gratitude into your daily life is to shift your mindset. I can’t take credit for this in the least bit, but I feel like it’s worth sharing! This approach comes from Susie Moore’s new book, Let It Be Easy. In her book, she says everyone has a to-do list. I know mine feels like a game of whack-a-mole most days. As soon as I knock one thing off, three more things pop up. This can sometimes make me feel stressed. I’m thinking to myself, I don’t have enough time to do XYZ, and I’m dreading doing a certain task.
But instead of thinking, “Oh man I really need to fold the laundry, and I need to return that email that I’ve been putting off,” I challenge myself to put one small word in front of “to-do.” That word is “get.” So your to-do list now becomes your “get-to-do list.”
So instead of I need to do the laundry, it’s I “get to do the laundry.” And that’s because I have beautiful clothes that need to be washed, and I have a family that I prayed for who needs clean clothes. This tiny little word changes the meaning completely. Instead of me feeling overwhelmed, it gives me a sense of pride that I get to do seemingly mundane things.
Remember What You Hoped For
I read a quote on Instagram a few days ago, and I’m not sure who the source was. But the quote said, “You are currently living at least one of the prayers you used to pray for.” This hit home in so many ways, especially as we get closer to meeting the newest tiny member of our family. But I can’t help but think of all the things I used to dream and pray about that I now get to live out. I bet this is true of at least one thing for you too.
I hope sharing these 3 ways to incorporate gratitude into your daily life will change the way your days are approached. Because when we start thinking about things from an abundance perspective and have joy around what we already have and all that we’ve accomplished, anything is possible!
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