Increase Your Happiness: Five Effective Ways to Practice Daily Gratitude

Do you want an easy attitude adjustment? A simple way to instantly change your mindset? Listen and learn the superpower of gratitude practices that take only minutes and boost your mood instantly. Gratitude is more than a polite "thank you." Experience the transformative force that’ll lift your spirits. Imagine starting or rebooting your day with a deep sense of happiness and joy, just by adding in some gratitude!

In this episode, Lauren Abrams talks about the incredible superpower of gratitude. She reveals how this simple practice can unlock a life full of purpose and provide an immediate boost to your mood. Tune in and discover how gratitude can be your secret weapon for living a truly fulfilling life.

"Gratitude is a lot more than just a thank you, It shifts your mindset. Whatever you focus on grows. So if you look for the bad and what's wrong in the world, you will find it. But when you look for the beauty, that's what you'll see." – Lauren, (0:50).

Discover five practical ways to embrace gratitude in your daily life. Whether it’s jotting down moments of thankfulness in a gratitude journal, savoring mindful moments throughout your day, or starting a gratitude jar filled with positive reflections, these simple yet profound practices can lead to monumental shifts in your life.

Imagine boosting your self-esteem, enjoying better sleep, and feeling a stronger sense of connection with those around you. By trying a few simple practices that take minutes, you’ll not only deepen your appreciation for the present moment but also enhance your overall well-being. Join us in exploring how these small acts of gratitude can bring about lasting, positive changes in your life.

"The number one thing we need in this world is more community. It ends isolation, loneliness and everything else." – Lauren, (16:00).

Get ready to dive into the transformative power of gratitude with Lauren. Stay tuned till the end for an exciting preview of next week’s episode featuring self-improvement advocate Scott Stabille, where we’ll explore the vital themes of self-love and acceptance. Let’s start this journey together!

In this episode:

(00:53) - Gratitude and how to have an “attitude adjustment”
(01:57) - Gratitude journal
(03:57) - Thank you notes
(05:10) - Mindful moments
(06:20) - Gratitude meditation
(07:37) - Gratitude jar
(10:23) - Tune in next week for inspiring self-love.

Resources and Links

Weeks of Hope

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If you are feeling overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of everyday life, gratitude might be the key to finding peace and joy amidst the chaos Lauren will help you

Understand the importance of gratitude in leading a fulfilling life.
Discover five practical ways to cultivate and maintain gratitude in daily life.
Learn why it is important to keep a gratitude journal.
Understand the significance of expressing gratitude through thank you notes.
Discover why taking mindful moments each day is vital.
Learn why you should incorporate gratitude into your meditation practice.
Understand why you should write down notes of gratitude and place them in a jar throughout the year.

Key Takeaways

“By the time you get to the end of the gratitude list, that's when you're grateful, and it's just a great exercise. Try it.” – Lauren, (02:15).

“Being in gratitude increases happiness, amplifies positive emotions, and makes you feel happy, full of joy, and content” – Lauren, (8:16).

Lauren Abrams [00:00:00] Are you a burnt-out overachiever buried in responsibilities? Do you miss laughing with your friends just laughing from the gut? Do you feel like life's passing you by? If you've been wishing for some kind of shift, you're in the right place. Welcome to 52 Weeks of Hope, the show where we take you off the hamster wheel by ditching your to-do list for the to-don't list. This is where you learn how to make that lonely ache vanish. Learn self-compassion techniques and give yourself grace. I'm Lauren Abrams and I could help you feel that magic again. Since going through my dark night of the soul so you can learn from my experience and the mentors and experts I meet along the way. Today we're talking about gratitude, your superpower for a fulfilling life and an attitude adjustment. Gratitude is a lot more than just a thank you. It shifts your mindset. You know, whatever you focus on grows. So if you look for the bad and what's wrong in the world, you're going to find it. But when you look for the beauty, that's what you'll see whenever you tell yourself you're right. So learning how to stay in gratitude. It keeps you vibrating at a higher frequency and focused on the good, the beauty, the wonderful things in the world and then on others. There's a total domino effect in your life and in the lives of the people around you. So I'm going to give you five ways to get into or to stay in gratitude in this episode. The first suggestion to stay in gratitude or get back into it is a gratitude journal. Write down five things that you're grateful for every day or during the day. If you're just not in a good place or anything else it's an instant attitude adjustment. Write down five things and if you can't think of something right, I have electricity. I'm able to write these things down. And I recommend handwriting it. You don't have to you can just write them on your phone, whatever it is, and send it to a friend, somebody that you trust. Write down 510 things that you're grateful for. You can always come up with something once you start writing. I have somebody, one friend. She's like, But I'm not grateful for anything right now. And I said, well, that that's the point. By the time you get to the end of the gratitude list, that's when you're grateful. And it's just a great exercise. Try it. You could be grateful when you start. You don't have to be. You can be angry if you're mad at somebody, if you're mad at your partner and you start writing everything that you're grateful for. I mean, you're angry when you're writing it, so obviously you're not going to be in some great place and full of love and the birds flying and some Disney movie kind of thing. Just write down all these things that you're grateful for about them, and by the time you're done, you've done a total 180 and suddenly you're grateful for them. Oh, they're so great. It's a great exercise. I've been exchanging gratitude list with Nancy for 14 years. She writes hers at night. I wrote mine in the morning. And studies actually show that they increase your self-esteem and they help you sleep better. So if you write them in the morning, you'll be more confident all day. And if you write them at night, you get a great night's sleep. So anyway, you can let me know how that works for you. Okay. The second is thank you notes. Let somebody know that you appreciate them by a handwritten note or some kind of gesture of appreciation. I promise you, you will feel great for doing that. Of course, they're going to feel really touched and everything, but you will feel good for having done it. It will change your entire day. It also enhances creativity. It opens your mind to all these new possibilities and all this innovative way of thinking. I still there's one I wrote almost 20 years ago, and I still have these warm feelings for the person that I wrote them. I mean, of course I have warm feelings towards her, but like, it's this extra warmth. It's an incredible exercise and also increases your productivity after doing it. And I didn't find any proof of this, but it's common sense tells me that once you do it, it's going to promote all this community for you. And the number one thing we need in this world is more community. It ends isolation and loneliness and everything else. So it's such a good practice to do. Is writing it some kind of a note of appreciation to somebody that means something to you? All right. Number three mindful moments. Just take a few minutes each day to focus on the present moment and just really acknowledge what you have to be grateful for. That's just a couple of minutes. And then my little addendum to that is to feel into it, just not just acknowledge it, but to feel it. And that's how manifestation works anyway. So you can manifest even more gratitude that makes you vibrate at even higher frequency. And gratitude motivates you to pursue your dreams and celebrate your achievements anyway. And so that's going to attract more positivity from others. And who doesn't want that, right? So just take a few minutes. What are you grateful for right now? Think about it. Grateful for the ability to hear and to see and to look for the beauty and the good and the green. And what's growing the blue sky that we can still see. And. And for pets and babies. Babies. Always babies. Like a baby laughing, if nothing else. So that's number three. Number four. Gratitude meditation. Do a gratitude meditation that focuses on a sense of mindful generosity and gratitude. The benefits of meditation. They are long and adding in gratitude to the practice that's going to enhance your energy levels. And it lowers your blood levels. The physical benefits are amazing, and I mean that alone. You can go. I have a playlist for all kinds of meditations. If you go to 52 weeks, I hope on YouTube there's also a playlist for meditation. So I'll, I will add in there, gratitude meditation. And if you want to learn how there's some beginning intro to mindfulness meditations, there's short ones and the benefits of that. It lowers the blood levels, increases resilience, and also in decision making. It makes you make choices aligned with your values, not somebody else's, because you're really in touch with what's right for you. And if somebody is like, well, you should be doing this or telling you what they think is right for you, and you know, it's not aligned with your values and you know you should be doing something else. You could just kind of say, okay, thank you and then move on. And it's a great place to be. Okay. The suggestion just to get into gratitude is how did you jar keep a jar and collect all your notes of gratitude? Everything you feel grateful for. Write a note and stick it in a gratitude jar and collect it all year. It's fun to do this with other people too. And then at the end of the year, go back and look at everything you're grateful for from the year, and it's super fun. Go, oh my gosh, look at all these things I have to be grateful for and to do it with others and just collect that for over the year. It just just keeps putting things in your gratitude jar. Just keep putting things in it. Another thing that reminds me of is when you've got an issue and something going on, and there's really nothing you can do about it, just put it in the jar. Just that's a way of taking the problem and putting it in the jar like I've put it. It's out of my hands. It's over there. That's a different jar. By the way, did you just, like, put it away and that's over there. And anyway, the gratitude jar and it's just it's very fun to do that. And being in gratitude, it's the studies show it increases happiness, and amplifies positive emotions. It makes you feel happy, full of joy, content. I feel balanced and alive. I mean, I've been doing this for so long. I used to have a license plate. It said pause energy. What am I grateful for? It's like I get to do these things instead of I have to. It's all those little things that you tell yourself again. I mean, I start with whatever you tell yourself. You're right. And whatever you focus on grows. So it does self esteem because you're recognizing your blessings. You're not looking at the lack. If I'm scrolling on social media, which is not real, sorry, it's just not real, then that makes me think, oh, I should have these things. And I just heard there was a newscaster who said she not only was she tried not to look at social media, she stopped buying any new clothes for one year. So she stopped receiving any emails from any clothing manufacturer or clothing store or clothing outlet or anything. She did unsubscribe to all the clothes stores so that she wasn't constantly being pressured via email to purchase new clothes or shoes or anything else. And when she had a wedding or something like that, she just borrowed from another newscaster or a friend or some other sister. And anyway. And so she didn't buy any new clothes for a year. I just thought that was great. Anyway, so the self-esteem and the confidence and the community and emotional balance and better sleep, but all of these things just from practising the superpower of gratitude and it's so easy, I think it was write down things you're grateful for and your vibrational frequency increases. You feel better. You get to go out in the world with all these positive emotions, and all you do is write a list of things you're grateful for. So I think that's a pretty easy superpower. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode and take with you the messages of gratitude. Of course, openness and community. Such great messages to take into your week ahead. Be sure to tune in next week when inspirational leader staff and Advocate Steve join us. He's all about loving yourself. How to quit comparing your insides to anybody else's outsides and learning how to give yourself the compassion you deserve. It's a great episode, super upbeat, and it's one of my faves. That's next week. If you haven't already, please subscribe, rate and review the podcast. If you don't know how to do that, you can go to the website at 52 weeksofhope.com down and click and link and subscribe and review. It's appreciated. All the podcasts are in there in show notes. It's all on the website at 52 weeksofhope.com. If I haven't told you this already, I really appreciate you listening. If you're enjoying the podcast, share the love and tell two of your friends. I'm Lauren Abrams. Thanks for listening.