Little Known Ways to Appreciate your Life!

Do you need more gratitude in your life? Our chaotic lives tend to leave us feeling deflated and unfulfilled. We are always searching for the next thing, trying to reach the next “stage” in life. Sometimes we get caught up in the past or the present, and we forget to live in the moment. We start obsessing about future or past events, hurts, pains, situations, and we forget to take time to relax, reflect, and appreciate today. In the end, today is all we really have.

Is it possible to increase your gratitude and appreciation for everything in your life? Yes! These simple activities can act as powerful propellants to a more enriched and satisfying life!

Write a gratitude letter: Take time to reflect on people in your life to date. Think about one person who positively influenced you in a big or small way. Maybe this person is a secretary at your elementary school, or maybe this person is your mother. Sit down and write a well thought letter describing why and how this person positively influenced your life. Once the letter is complete, you can either send the letter or arrange to visit the person face-to-face and read the letter to them.

Gratitude journals: Take at least 5 minutes every morning to write down everything you appreciate about yourself and your life. If you think, “I don’t have anything to appreciate about myself!” Start with your head and work your way down your entire body. Write down why you appreciate being about to talk, see, hear, smell; sometimes we forget to appreciate life’s basic miracles.

Family & Family Positivity journals: Write down the names of the people you love in your life. Sometimes these people get on your nerves, irritate you, or disappoint you. Then, we begin to define the people we love based on our negative feelings about the past. We forget to step back and appreciate why we love them. Write a positive journal entry for everyone you love. In the entry, do not write anything negative, no matter how hard it is.

Believe it or not, if you take the time to do one of these activities, you will feel incredibly blessed. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with life, I let anger about the past and worry of the future eat me up inside. But, when I take the time to appreciate what I have and remember why I love everyone in my life, I feel like the luckiest person alive.