3 Reasons Why Gratitude Is Important

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

Happy new month guys. May things get better this new month.

The theme for this week is gratitude. As you can already guess, something led to me picking this as the theme of the week. So let me give you ups, initially, we didn’t use to pick themes for the week but we will do this henceforth. I decided to start picking themes for the week so that we can focus on one thing and talk about it extensively. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this and so will I.

In a world with so many problems flying around, I understand that people are focusing on problems and how to survive. The world we are in presently is so full of hate, killings, poverty, struggles and so much more. We are just trying to survive, making plans for how tomorrow can be better. It is painful that things are this bad. Nothing seems to be working.

That is why I feel we should talk about gratitude.

Just yesterday I was going through my books and I found old jotters, certificates, and some books I don’t even remember I still have. I decided to open some of the jotters and I found out that some of the things that I wrote down as goals are things I had done or currently doing now. It was clearly written in one of the jotters that I want to have a blog that I already have now. This shows that I’m no longer where I used to be.

Thing is that sometimes we focus on things that are not working in our lives that we forget to be grateful for the things that are working. The truth is, you are not where you used to be, and that’s something to be grateful for. The opening quote simply explains what gratitude does. When you think of your past, some things that happened definitely contributed to your growth journey, where you are, and things you have accomplished. Looking at where you are now, you can create a vision for your future.

Gratitude is important for so many reasons

Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals. Whether to other people, nature, or a higher power. It is an amazing thing to be thankful and appreciative of the seemingly little things that we experience in our lives. Research even shows that there are many psychological benefits to being grateful.

1. Gratitude helps you to stay happier

Being grateful can increase your overall level of happiness. Just before I started going through my books, I was bothered about how to get money for something I needed to do urgently. I was beginning to feel bad but I remembered that I had come a long way and that brought back a sense of hope. That’s what gratitude does, it helps you shift your mind from all the bad things happening in your life to the good things that have happened. This in turn gives you hope of a better tomorrow.

2. It reduces your level of stress

Focusing on pain and hard times have a way of mounting unnecessary pressure on people which in turn leads to stress. And as you can already tell, a stressed person will likely not the productive. Being grateful will help you understand and appreciate the process. It’ll help you better understand the way things work and why you should be patient.

3. Gratitude helps you to stay optimistic

When I was through checking my books out, I said to myself, if I am where I am now, doing the things I’m currently doing with everything that happened to me, then I can do more. My level of optimism rose when I looked back at how far I have come. That’s the same thing you’ll feel if you are grateful. It will help you stay positive that things can turn good later in life.

There are many more reasons why gratitude is important. Okay I know it is very easy to feel gratitude when things go your way or good things happen. It could be very difficult when bad things happen. How then can you develop an attitude of gratitude? We’ll talk about this in the next post.

Before then, what are you grateful for? Share with me things that you are grateful for in the comment section. Do well to scroll down to the love icon to like this blog post. Also share it with your friends.

With love,

Opeyemi Omidiji

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