“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life”
— Eckhardt Tolle
As the weather cools and the A/C is turned off, it is time to start thinking about fall decorating and how quickly the upcoming holiday season will be here. It also is time to start thinking about what we have to be thankful for.
Gratitude and thankfulness can have tremendous benefits on your quality of life.
Gratitude may be one of the most overlooked tools we all have access to every day. Cultivating gratitude doesn’t cost any money and it certainly doesn’t take much time, but the benefits are enormous:
- More friendships and meaningful relationships
- Improved physical health
- Improved psychological health
- Enhanced empathy and reduced aggression
- More peace of mind and better sleep
- Improved self-esteem
- Increased mental strength
- Improved happiness and satisfaction with life
- More success in work and home life due to mind-and-body balance
- Experience real joy in the presence of today
Presence of gratitude is about lack of negativity. It is choosing to live life in the now and be grateful for what you have.
We all have the ability and opportunity to cultivate gratitude. Simply take a few moments to focus on all that you have — rather than complain about all the things you think you deserve. Developing an “attitude of gratitude” is one of the simplest ways to improve satisfaction with life.
Attitude of Gratitude
- Develop compassion for people and circumstance
- Do something nice for someone else — and don’t tell anyone about it!
- Don’t snowball your thinking at the start of a bad situation
- Accept that life isn’t fair
- Live in the present moment
- Practice patience — life isn’t an emergency
- Resist the urge to criticize
- Choose your battles wisely
- Make peace with imperfection
- Smile at strangers, look in their eyes and say “Hello!”
- Live this day as if it were your last