3 Easy Ways to Start a Gratitude Practice Now

Gratitude is one of those things that everyone knows they need, but when you think about it too hard, it becomes elusive and impossible. It’s easy to spiral into asking “but how?!” repeatedly when thinking about gratitude as an overarching practice or something to do every day. However, gratitude in the form of a daily practice is something every single person can benefit from because it shifts our perspective to focusing on the good things in life and away from the things we lack.

Let me be clear: when I talk about gratitude I’m simply naming the act of giving thanks. I’m not talking about the act of describing why you might be grateful for something or anything further than simply saying “thank you.” It seems to me that many times when gratitude is mentioned, there’s an image evoked of playing a child-like game of How Many (Creative) Things Can I Be Grateful For.

That is not what I’m referring to here.

The concept is very simple: say “thank you” for things that deserve it.

At this point, I’m sure you’re asking the question: well, what deserves a thank you? And that’s where this gets really fun because it’s completely up to you what that means. This is where you can get creative. I’m not saying you have to or even that you should get creative, though -- you’re more than welcome to keep it as basic as you see fit. As you practice this more and more, what tends to happen is that you get more and more creative anyway, and start broadening your definition of what deserves a "thank you."

Now that we’re on the same page about definitions and what the point of all this is, let’s talk about how to implement gratitude in everyday life. These are three examples that you can use as either templates or starting points as you work on your gratitude practice:

Example 1:

Personally, I like to do this little sequence every morning as part of my morning routine just as I start my sun salutations, but it works just as well at any point in your day when you have 3-5 minutes to spare, preferably alone. Here’s how it goes:

    Step 1: Find a window or go outside. The window doesn’t have to be necessarily large or let in a ton of light, the point of this is to get some natural light on your face in whatever form is accessible to you.

    Step 2: Stand with your feet planted firmly on the floor about hip width apart, hands at your sides with palms facing forward, and chin parallel to the ground so your head is comfortably up. In yoga, this is known as Mountain Pose.

    Step 3: Inhale and count to 4, hold and count to 4, exhale and count to 4. It may be helpful to close your eyes for this step.

    Step 4: Inhale and exhale again, only this time as you exhale, smile. The smile can be as big and bright or timid as you’d like -- do whatever feels natural in that moment.

    Step 5: Inhale and exhale again, deeply. This time as you exhale, say or think to yourself “thank you.”

    Step 6 (optional): Bring your hands to prayer position at the heart, or lay them one over the other at the heart for one breath cycle (inhale/exhale).

    Step 7: Slowly come out of this stance, and go about your day. 

Example 2:

This is probably the easiest to implement right away and doesn’t require a lot of time. It’s very simple and goes like this: every time you want to complain about something, for example, “My sister is always down and it brings me down, I hate talking to her”, reframe it by phrasing it instead like this “wouldn’t it be nice if…..?” With the example above, that could be reframed as “Wouldn’t it be nice if my sister was in high spirits more often?”

BONUS POINTS: use this format to reframe and shift the perspective completely. In our example, this could be something like “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could talk to my sister and not take on her pain as my own?” or, “Wouldn’t it be nice if my sister could find something that truly makes her happy, independent from me?” or even, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I decided to just love talking to my sister, no matter what her mood is like?”

This one is tricky because it doesn’t seem like gratitude at first glance, after all, where is the “thank you” to be found? It is gratitude, however, because the “thank you” is implicit. When we complain, we’re basically saying we’d rather not have anything than have a specific problem with something in our life. When we reframe in this way, we’re saying we’re okay with problems because we’re thankful to even have this thing, but wish we had a solution to the negative experience we're having at that moment.

When we reframe this way, we’re actually doing double duty: practicing gratitude and manifesting a better outcome that we maybe hadn’t considered possible before. It’s amazing how we can trick ourselves into solving problems when given the opportunity by focusing on what we really want and what we're grateful to have in the first place.

Example 3:

I prefer to do this at night as part of my nighttime routine, though this can be done at any point during the day when you have 5-10 minutes. If you’re more of a visual person and need to see things written out, I’d suggest grabbing a piece of paper and pen/pencil for this.

    Step 1: Find a place to sit comfortably

    Step 2: Close your eyes and take three deep breaths - try to fill and empty your belly with these. Place a hand on your belly to further connect with your breath (optional).

    Step 3: Open your eyes and immediately say out loud (or write on paper) the first 10 things you’re really glad to have in your life as quickly as you can. That’s your gratitude list for the day!

It takes some practice to trust your stream of thoughts, so don’t be discouraged if you try this one out and it takes a really long time to get to 10 things. Remember: these don’t have to be things that any reasonable person would be happy to have in their life, they just have to be things that you are really glad to have. If you’re doing this specific practice daily, a really common pitfall is thinking you have to have 10 unique things every night. Not so! You can be genuinely glad to have the same 10 things every single day. As long as you’re taking the time to breathe and center before saying or writing your list, you’ll know what to say/write.

It’s taken me a lot of practice and a lot of trial and error, but I include all three of these gratitude practices every single day. If you’re just beginning your practice, start with the one that is most intriguing to you and just try to do it every chance you remember to. Nothing about gratitude has to be perfect; nothing in life has to be perfect. The goal is to do it as often as you can so if that turns out to be once a week at first, great! The chances are that if you stick with it, you’ll actually want to do it more and more and more.

Do you have a gratitude practice? What does it look like? Are you struggling with an aspect of gratitude or regular practice? Tell me in the comments!