5 Easy Ways to Bring Gratitude into your Life

As we are in Thanksgiving Week, I thought this would be an appropriate time to touch upon the topic of gratitude.

We are constantly hearing the buzz around us that we need to develop an attitude of gratitude and that gratitude can completely change our lives. And yes, this is true.

But maybe a reason some of us are not incorporating gratitude in our lives is because we simply don’t know how to.

With this post, I bring to you 5 simple ways you can make gratitude an integral part of your life. In fact, make gratitude a lifelong habit. Read on to find out how.

1) Start your Day with Gratitude

Anything well begun is half the battle won. Make it a habit to say thanks the first thing when you up in the morning. As you place each foot on the floor, mouth the words “thank” and “you”. You woke up, you have received the gift of another day to live your life, love your family, work towards your goals, eat your favourite foods and so much more.

There are many who didn’t wake up today.

Try this simple exercise and you will instantly see a difference in the way your day unfolds.

2) Maintain a Gratitude Journal

Start with a book or your phone and call it your Gratitude Journal. Set aside 10 minutes in your day in the morning to write down just 3 things you are grateful for. There are no rules. You can write whatever you want.

You could be grateful for the sunrise, you could be grateful for the coffee, you could be indeed be grateful for the book you are writing in.

Spend few minutes, look around…you will be amazed to see the number of things that you took for granted, but for which now you feel you can express gratitude.

You might express gratitude for the people in your life- your parents, partner, friends, children…the list is endless.

What is important here is to create the habit and consistently spend those 10 minutes to write in the journal.

Taking it Further

The suggestions I have given above are some of the easiest ways to incorporate gratitude in your life. Now let us take it a notch higher

3) Gratitude in your Day’s Review

Set aside a few minutes before you turn in for the day. Mentally review your day and identify activities, people or even your own thoughts to express gratitude for. Maybe you had an amazing idea for a story. That’s something to be thankful for.

Our days are often long and packed with tons of stuff. Some things go our way, and some things don’t. Most of us tend to focus on what went wrong. Once you develop the habit of being grateful for what went right, you will experience an amazing difference in how you end your day.

4) Finding Gratitude When It’s Not So Obvious

It is easy to be grateful for the good things that happen to us. It’s a piece of cake to express gratitude for the people we love and who support us.

Move out of your comfort zone and look for gratitude in things that do not go your way. You worked hard on a project,but eventually did not get the final result you were hoping for. Do not be disheartened. Be grateful for what you learned along the way. You are now better prepared for next time.

Every event that happens to us changes us. We learn and we grow. When we express gratitude for everything that does happen, it changes our perspective. With an attitude of gratitude, we become more focused on the positive aspect of the event rather than the negative. And we can use this insight to grow as a person.

5) Alphabetical Gratitude

Here is a fun exercise you can try. Try and identify things that you are grateful for from each letter of the Alphabet. For example:

A- Achievement, Animals, Amazement, Architecture

B- your body, balloons,

C- cuddles, cars, creativity….

You get the idea. This is a nice game to play with family. And it makes you think a bit. And when you take just a few minutes to think about what you are grateful for, it’s amazing how many things you’ll find you already have in your life to be thankful for.

On that note, Happy Thanksgiving to you.

Intentional Imbalance

Balance is the way of nature. This is what we have learned. And this is what most of us believe. We talk about work life balance all the time.

But could there be another way? This is what I’d like explore in today’s blog – “intentional imbalance”. I came across this term for the first time in Brian Moran’s blog. And it really got me thinking.

What is Intentional Imbalance?

Intentional Imbalance is a term Brian uses to convey a state of affairs, where one or more of the areas in our lives demand (and get) more attention than others. And this is perfectly OK.

As we live our everyday lives, there are several areas that demand our attention. Work, relationships and family, health, travel are some of the aspects that are important to us. Ideally, it would appear that we should strike a balance between all these areas to live a successful life.

But that is not always true.

Intentional Imbalance in Practice

Often we choose to focus more on certain areas in our lives over others. If there is a big project coming up at work, the balance tends to be skewed towards work. We may find ourselves spending more time at work and consequently not as much time as we’d like with family and/or on our health.

Similarly, if we are training for a marathon, our attention is wholly focused on our health and we may find that the other areas are taking a back seat.

The above are examples of intentional imbalance.

It is indeed intentional imbalance in practice when you prioritize attending your daughter’s piano recital over a meeting at work.

The intentional imbalance may last for a brief period or extend over a certain course of time (for example, till you complete the project). The decision is completely yours.

Why is Intentional Imbalance Important

The concept of intentional imbalance is important for two very specific reasons:

Achieving Results

Intentional imbalance is a very precise and intentional approach to prioritizing and achieving the desired results. When your goals are clear and you know your desired outcomes, intentional imbalance helps you allocate more time to the most important area in your life (at the time). This is nothing but prioritization and effective utilization of time.

Frees you From the guilt of Imbalance

Once you understand and internalize the concept of intentional imbalance, the guilt associated with imbalance disappears. You, for instance, will no longer feel guilty about the long hours at work. Because you know this is a choice you have made for a brief period, till project is complete.

Likewise, you will not feel you re neglecting work when you spend more time with family, because again you have worked it into your schedule.

When you are guilt free, you are more present where you are (as opposed to thinking about work, when you are at a family get together) and able to be more productive.

How to Practice Intentional Imbalance

The following three steps can be precursor to create intentional imbalance in your life.

1. Identify your Goals

When we are clear about what we want in all areas of our life, personal, professional, it is amazing how things automatically fall in place, When goals are set, it is easier to identify time bound actions that need to be taken to achieve those goals. And based on the actions that you need to take relative to when they need to be taken, you can work these into your schedule. And when you have prioritized your actions, you have created intentional imbalance.

2. Constantly review your Progress

When we identify our progress, it not only motivates us, but also helps think about what the next step can be. It also helps us evaluate if we want to change strategies, and bring to fore another area of our life. Then the balance tips in favor of another role, as we are (at this moment) satisfied with progress achieved on an earlier one. Thus the cycle of international imbalance is continuous and dynamic, helping you grow.

How have you applied intentional imbalance in your life.