Do you take time out of your day to give thanks? Not to anyone in particular, but just focus on words of gratitude for everything that you have in your life? Many of us are guilty of taking all that we have for granted. Why? I don't think we intentionally go out of our way to not give thanks, but it just happens that we tend to just not say anything. What would happen if we just started with a simple act of gratitude? Would our lives be that much different?
Words of Gratitude: How Can it Change Your Life?
When we live with gratitude, we focus on the wonderful things in our lives. We express graditude to the people around us and the lessons we learn along the way. Expressing gratitude can be transformational. Simply focusing on the positive in our lives, help tune out the less trivial. It strengthens our bond with the world and the people in it. It helps us grow and continue in our abundance. One such story of a transformational experience is this book called A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life. It is the memoirs of a man who felt hopeless, and things in his life were not going the way he had planned. Then he got the idea to start sending thank you letters to everyone he knew. He set out to do this for every day of the year. So as he was doing this, he started to notice things were different within him. He was opening up, having stronger connections, becoming healthier in body and mind and having overall inner peace. All from sending out thank you notes.
How is this transformation possible? Well, think about it. When you write a thank you letter or note, you write in a positive tone. You focus on giving thanks, gratitude to someone else. You show appreciation. You feel inspired enough to reach out and write to another human being. You focus on the other person's good qualities. You can't help but bring in positive energy as you yourself are releasing this positive energy into the world. On a daily basis.
It may seem strange that simple words of gratitude can have such an effect on a person's emotional state, but isn't that what meditation and affirmations do? Both help in empowering us and focus on our well being. Both attempt to center us. Expressing gratitude should be no different. Even on a smaller scale, when done on a consistent basis, you can't help but notice positive changes in your life. You tend to start appreciating things in your life that you would not have before.
Throughout this gratitude book, the author was sending out these positive messages to people in his life, and in turn, he was receiving positive gifts as well. He started to see the power and effect of his words of gratitude in his life and those around him. This book even show how to write thank you notes if you are inspired enough to start on this same gratitude path. I think you will be after reading this wonderful book.