11 Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude Daily

When we practice gratitude daily, it shapes our view of the world and helps us to be more mindful and appreciate the little things. It’s not always easy to start to a daily gratitude practice, so I recommend you choose one of these at a time.

Once you’ve created a new gratitude habit, add a second one. You may find that within a few short months your life has been completely transformed simply by practicing daily gratitude.

Here are Eleven Ways to Practice Gratitude Daily:

1. Wake up with gratitude.

What are your first thoughts when you wake up in the morning? Grateful to be alive or dreading another day? Focus on one good thing (hey, I woke up!) and you’ll change the tone for your entire day. I love this idea from Pam Grout, author of Thank and Grow Rich, to put a sticky note by your bed that says “something amazingly awesome is going to happen today.”

2. Write down three specific things you are grateful for today, before bed.

A gratitude journal is easy to start. The benefits of doing it far outweigh the time it takes to write out three things. Start tonight: Find an old journal or even a notepad and a pen or pencil. Place it on your bedside table and take five minutes before you go to sleep to express your gratitude in writing. In this blog post I go into more detail about starting to write in a gratitude journal.

3. Notice the abundance that surrounds you and all sources of income, big or small.

When we are faced with a mountain of debt, it’s easy to get lost in the negative balances and amounts owing. Shift your thinking by being grateful every single time that money comes into your life. Found a coin? Rejoice at the gift from the Universe! A friend pays you back? Give thanks that the money came back to you. The more we focus on abundance, the more abundance we attract into our lives. It’s a beautiful example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

4. When faced with a challenge, stop and ask yourself, what am I grateful for right now?

Gratitude grounds us in the present. It is the fastest way to reduce stress and calm ourselves down. By focusing what you have to be grateful for right now, it creates the clarity needed to deal with a challenging situation. Breathe deeply and say those three things out loud. By calming down, you’ll be able to shift your perspective and make better decisions.

5. Read an inspirational or self-development book for 15 minutes.

When you want to practice gratitude daily, first you’ve got to shift your mindset. By changing what you are reading or watching, the shift to a life lead with gratitude is easier. If you’re not sure where to start, this post from Entrepreneur.com gives some great suggestions for books to start with.

Take it one step further and curate your social media feeds. Starting by hiding posts that focus the negative news, and you’ll see even less of these in your Facebook stream. By clicking on the ... at the top right hand corner of a post you can choose to Save or Hide post, Snooze your friend or Unfollow them. When you hide the post, you will see fewer similar posts in your feed. If you Unfollow your friend, you will remain friends but their posts won't show up in your feed until you manually follow them again. You can do this by visiting their profile and changing from Unfollowing (right under their photo) to Follow.

6. Every time you pass a mirror, give thanks to your body for being miraculous.

It is so easy to forget how truly amazing our bodies are. There are thousands of processes happening every single moment of the day, which we have no control over, but are essential to keep us alive. Isn’t that amazing? Put your hand over your heart right now and feel it beating. It is truly a miracle how our heart keeps going, day after day, year after year, until one day; it stops. Since we don’t know when that day will come, let's choose to be grateful for every day we do have.

7. Use prayer or meditation to give thanks and to create your amazing life.

Faith is an important part of living a grateful life. It’s not important who or what you have faith in, simply having an unshakable faith is. I choose to pray and give thanks every morning when I wake up. It’s a habit I created when I did the 40 Day Prayer Challenge.

Meditation allows us to slow down, breathe and take a mental inventory of all that we have to be grateful for. It’s also a great way to become more mindful and to learn to slow down. There are many great apps you can use to help you stay on track with your meditation practice. My favorite is Insight Timer. Would you like a free Gratitude Mediation? I created a 10 minute meditation that helps to ground you in gratitude daily. You can download it for free here.

8. Clear the clutter & create space in your life to attract more things to be grateful for.

If your closets are bursting, your rooms are a mess or your car is a dumping ground, how will there be any space to allow more good things to come into your life? You can also choose to sell some of your items and attract even more abundance! Facebook Marketplace has been working really well for me over the past 6 months (since January 2019).

9. Send gratitude and Thank-You cards weekly.

There is always someone to be grateful for. Make it a weekly habit to acknowledge those who may not realize how grateful you are for their presence in your life. A recent study showed that writing and expressing gratitude for another person had a positive effect on brain activity. Next time you’re at the dollar store, check the cards section. They usually have a few packs of different Thank-You cards. If you want to splurge a little, I always recommend checking out the paper section of your local Chapters/Indigo. 

You can also purchase a set of custom sunrise gratitude cards right here on my website. 

10. Celebrate other people’s successes.

Being able to give the gift of a sincere congratulations for someone else’s success, without it taking anything away from your own, can be difficult. Know that by celebrating others; soon enough others will be celebrating you! The reason we sometimes have a hard time really celebrating others is usually jealousy. Deep down, we cannot be happy for someone else because we think that it takes something away from our possible success.

What I have found is that the more you celebrate others and surround yourself with successful people, the easier it is to be successful. It can be a lot of fun to show gratitude for someone who’s achieved a goal you’ve wanted to achieve. How is this possible? If they have done it, you can do it!

11. Become a gratitude ambassador and inspire others to practice gratitude daily!

I invite you to share your gratitude practice with others. And at the same time, teach your children to practice gratitude. Make is public and show appreciation for others in person or on social media. Lastly, choose to be intentional with your gratitude every day!

I would be honoured if you would choose to join our worldwide gratitude tribe! Not only will you receive the free Gratitude Meditation, you’ll also get my Gratitude Love Letter every week. In this short letter, I’ll share what’s on my mind with gratitude and any blog posts from the previous week will also be summarized.  Thank you for choosing to be a gratitude ambassador. Together we are making the world a more grateful place!