Feeling gratitude isn’t always easy.
In this article, I’m going to write about How to Feel More Appreciation and Gratitude, and also offer some questions on gratitude.
We’ll explore what gratitude is and I’ll share a bit of my own experience with gratitude practices. We’re also going to talk about some questions on gratitude that might actually help you to feel it more, even when it feels difficult to do.
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude is a feeling that we have deep inside of us. We could also say that it’s a practice or an action.
We could have a practice of gratitude such as expressing thanks when we have a meal, perhaps expressing thanks at the end of our day or expressing thanks when someone does something really kind or nice for us, and simply being appreciative of what we see in the world around us.
Personal Perspective on Gratitude
There’s action that can be involved in experiencing gratitude. However, there’s also a deep feeling within where we feel this sense of contentment. I believe it has its own emotions.
I feel a sense that all is well with my Soul in a state of deep gratitude. I’m feeling so grateful and appreciative for everything that’s happening in my life. Maybe I feel that in specific circumstances when someone says something that makes me feel so grateful for them, or what they said, or what I was able to do that they were grateful for.
It’s the sense of feeling an underlying joy that makes gratitude so powerful. It helps us connect with a state of acceptance.
Feeling grateful might be difficult if things in your life are challenging and overwhelming. Perhaps you’re having financial struggles, or there are loved ones that are hurting or that you’ve lost. There’s a lot of suffering going on in the world. We can’t deny that there’s so much happening that breaks our heart, and sometimes it can feel really difficult to know what to be grateful for, or to find gratitude for anything.
One of the things I have done in my own history when I’ve felt those lows is to start with my breath. I’m grateful for my breath, the in and out of my breathing, the air, the rise and fall of my lungs. Gratitude can be that simple.
Another thing that made a huge shift in the way that I showed up and how much more I was able to feel gratitude, even in challenging times, was starting a practice. I decided to bookend my day with gratitude.
I’d wake up, and before I’d even pull off the covers and sit up in bed, the alarm might go off or I might just wake up naturally, I’d practice laying there thinking, “I’m grateful for my breath. I’m grateful for another day. Thank you for this beautiful day. Thank you for helping me to create a wonderful day.”
I’d talk to Source or talk to my Inner Wise Self or my guides, and simply be with that space of gratitude, appreciating the cozy covers, the soft pillow, the good night’s sleep, or whatever it was I’d find to wake up in gratitude.
Then I did the same thing at the end of the day. As I was climbing into bed, I’d pull the covers up and be so grateful for the puppy sleeping next to me, for my cozy blanket, or for a day’s work that felt accomplished and effective.
Gratitude journaling is also a wonderful practice which I have done in the past. If you haven’t already, be sure to download my Journaling as A Path to Come Home Guide, because there are different journaling techniques in there, and gratitude journaling is one of them. It can be a really powerful tool.
What really shifted for me was the practice of bookending my day, starting and ending my day with gratitude. I focused on being grateful for whatever was in front of me. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Over time, I didn’t have to try or remember to be grateful. I literally started waking up grateful.
I’d get up and stretch in the morning, and I’d be so grateful for the day and everything that it was bringing me. The gratitude was washing over me.
I invite you to consider how you can begin to practice bookending your day with gratitude. Even in some of my lowest lows, this was one of the practices that really kept me going and ignited something in me to remember that there’s so much more than the challenges I’m perceiving.
We all have something to be grateful for.
If nothing else our breath, or maybe the beauty of a bird sitting outside on the deck railing, or the sun shining and rising every single morning and giving us the moon every single night to shine. These are simple, little things we can practice gratitude toward.
The Power of Asking Questions
I mentioned the idea of looking at questions on gratitude, and I want to explain why this is important.
First of all, I love the concept of what I call living in the question, which I teach about more deeply in my Solace program. When we can bring questions without judgment, there’s an opportunity for us to refrain from preconceived notions, and to find gratitude more easily.
We can use questions with self inquiry. We can also use questions, with what’s around us, our experiences, the people we engage with, to be curious and to wonder.
It’s important to refrain from having or holding preconceived ideas of the way things are.
When we bring questions, we might find ourselves getting surprised, saying, “Oh, I didn’t know that!,” or “How lovely that is!” Using questions to inquire within can stir up feelings of gratitude and joy.
Questions help us get to know ourselves better, understand parts and aspects of ourselves that maybe we’ve lost connection to. We can start to feel more and more grateful for all we’ve learned, the various ways in which these parts of ourselves have taught us things, and protected us over the years.
Inquiry and questions are so powerful.
Questions for Cultivating Gratitude
I want to give you some examples of questions you can begin to ask to practice questioning, and connect more with gratitude for yourself. This is a list of questions, in no particular order, that you can work with as you wish. Pause between each question to journal a bit about each one if that’s helpful. I want to give you something you can use practically to help you connect with gratitude.
The first question is, what or who are you grateful for right now?
Think about the different people in your life. This might be people from your childhood, people in your life now, or other people from your past, such as teachers, guides, or whomever.
What aspects of Nature do you find beautiful or something that you can appreciate?
Do you love and appreciate looking at a babbling brook or maybe a tall, beautiful, and full tree? What aspects of Nature do you particularly find exhilarating, beautiful or moving to you?
When was the last time you expressed gratitude to someone who’s made a difference in your life?
This can be really powerful to help put you in the space of gratitude as you’re remembering these people you have gratitude for. Think of the last time you actually expressed gratitude to someone, actually speaking with them face to face and eye to eye to say, “I want to thank you for being in my life.” This can be a really powerful way to reconnect with gratitude.
What are some simple pleasures you often overlook but actually could be grateful for every day?
I get in and out of my covers every single day to go to sleep and to wake up, and simply appreciating the warm blanket I get to have cozied up around me is a powerful way to honor those simple pleasures we take for granted sometimes.
What lessons have you learned in your life that you could be grateful for?
This is such a powerful question to ask because sometimes some of the most difficult challenges in our life are giving us the most powerful lessons that shape who we are.
When we can look back and ask ourselves, “What did I learn?” Then can we be grateful and find gratitude for that learning. We shift out of being a victim of our circumstances into being the creator that we are here to be.
What opportunities have you been given that you’re grateful for?
Perhaps it’s personal, professional, educational. Any kind of opportunities. A new opportunity to do something special, to experience something special, to learn something new, or to see a certain person or experience. What kinds of opportunities have you been given that you can tap into gratitude for being able to have had those?
The final question is, how do you express gratitude in your daily life?
I gave you some tips on some daily practices, but I can add to that things like saying a blessing every time you have a meal, or allowing yourself to focus on gratitude when you go for a walk with Nature, and imagining you’re giving something of love with every footstep, and receiving something of love with every footstep.
These are things that can really help us to enhance our sense of gratitude. When we enhance our sense of gratitude, we deeply come to love, and find peace within ourselves. With all of life, we find ourselves able to accept, able to love, able to have compassion and able to know that everything in our life is happening for a reason and a purpose.
I hope this has helped you to find greater appreciation and gratitude, as well as enjoy some questions to help you get more into that space of gratitude. I wish you a beautiful holiday season.
I’m grateful for you.
For a video version of, How to Feel More Appreciation and Gratitude, watch here: https://youtu.be/VJnZGL9YNmY
