“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu

An attitude of gratitude brings more happiness, better health, deeper relationships, also increased productivity. A five-minute a day gratitude journal can increase your long-term emotional wellness by more than 10%. That’s the same impact as doubling your income!

How can a free five minute activity compare? Gratitude improves our health, relationships, emotions, personality, and career. Gratitude and vitality are strongly correlated – the grateful are much more likely to report physical and mental vigor. Gratitude means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive. It means learning to live your life as if everything were a miracle, and being aware on a continuous basis of how much you’ve been given. Gratitude shifts your focus from what your life lacks to the abundance that is already present.

Effective management requires a toolbox of skills. Criticism comes all too easily to most, while the ability to feel gratitude and express praise is often lacking. Science has proven that the things you focus on will neurologically predispose you to see those things in your life. Being and staying in your mind see the good that is all around you. If you’ve ever wondered how to make yourself start seeing the glass half full, then the answer is right in front of you – start getting grateful for the simple little fact that you even have a glass of milk at all.

A common method to develop the practice of gratitude is to keep a simple journal of gratitude. This exercise basically consists of writing down every day a list of 3 to 10 things for which you are grateful; you can do this first thing in the morning or before going to bed at night. Another exercise you can try is to write a gratitude letter to a person who has exerted a positive influence in your life but whom you have not properly thanked. Some experts suggest that you set up a meeting with this person and read the letter to them face to face.

Some days you will write without feeling a shred of gratitude. That’s OK. Just do it anyway. And when you can summon up the feeling of gratitude in your heart, let it percolate through every cell in your body. Embody it. Place your hands on your heart. Raise your head, lift your body up, and raise your arms. Move into the feeling. Dance it. Sing it. Aspire to a fullness of heart, no matter what is going on around you.

Practice present-moment gratitude. As you move through your day, pause now and then when you remember, and think as you do something “I am grateful.” I like to do this with my morning cup of tea. Try touching your tea or coffee cup with gentle love and appreciation before you take your first sip. Moving through your day with awareness and grace in this way will mean that when you do sit down to write your gratitude list those things will come to mind. You may want to do this when you first wake in the morning or late at night before you go to sleep.

Gratitude is no cure-all, but it is a massively underutilized tool for improving life – satisfaction and happiness.

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