How to be Thankful and Grateful Everyday

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect and be thankful for the people in your list. This brings up a question, What Is the Difference Between Thankful and Grateful? Feeling grateful or expressing gratefulness means to express appreciation for benefits or blessings received, such as a meal or a favor. Being thankful means to be conscious of the benefits received. One cannot be grateful without first being thankful, and expression of gratefulness, or gratitude, requires both consciousness of a benefit or blessing as well as appreciation for that benefit.

Being Thankful and Grateful in Everyday Life
When life throws curve balls and nothing seems to go how you had hoped or planned, negative emotions take over the spirit, making it impossible to be conscious of the benefits or benefits you have received. On these days, finding even one simple thing to be conscious of in your life helps to center yourself and get rid of that feeling of negativity. Once conscious of that blessing, you can then be appreciative of it and showing that gratitude allows you to become a blessing or a benefit to someone else, perpetuating a positive cycle and turning around a negative situation.

Taking Time for Yourself
During the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and the ensuing holiday season, it is all too easy to become wrapped up in activities and forget to take time for yourself. Set the alarm for five minutes earlier than you usually get up, and spend those five minutes meditating on what you are thankful and grateful for each day. Express thankfulness for yesterday and for waking up into a new day. Be grateful for even the smallest of blessings, such as a ray of sunshine or a cup of hot coffee. Starting your day with a few moments of quietness sets a positive tone for the rest of your day and your interactions with the ones you love.

Tips for Parents
You cannot be a good example or of benefit to others until you take good care of yourself, which includes nurturing your own spirit. To set an example of thankful and grateful behavior, you must demonstrate it on a daily basis. When your children see that thankful and grateful behavior is not extraordinary, but rather, is a way of life, they will be more willing and able to express thankful and grateful behavior in their own words and deeds. Ask your child each day what he is thankful for. Express your own thankfulness and gratefulness in writing, spoken words or even singing. With young children, express your thankfulness in simple terms, such as saying thanks for trips to the park. For the older child, express thankfulness and gratefulness with more complexity, such as sharing a story from your own childhood of an experience for which you are grateful today. Do not be afraid to let your emotions out so that your children can see how to get past the small negative things in everyday life and see beyond that to the beauty in day to day living.

Taking Time to Help Others
Perpetuate positivity and the feeling of gratitude by being a blessing to others. Double a recipe and share half with a neighbor. Hold a child’s hand. The simplest gestures bring the biggest effects of thankful and grateful behavior.