How do you have a grateful heart?
A grateful heart is a happy heart!
Y’all already know how strongly I feel about gratitude. It is literally one of the most important habits you can cultivate.
If you are on a personal growth journey or trying to live more intentionally, then learning to be grateful is essential. Science has proven that implementing a daily gratitude practice can literally retrain your brain. I mean, how cool is that?
What is the meaning of having a grateful heart?
What is a grateful heart? A grateful heart is a loving heart. It is a mindset. It is a way of living. It allows us to be more compassionate, empathetic, and forgiving. Having a grateful heart allows us to have a greater appreciation for life. It helps us to stay grounded, be more present, and be happier.
Anyone can have a more grateful heart, it just takes time and practice.
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”
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Interested in learning to live a little more intentionally? Grab my beginner’s guide to intentional living (along with some other cool stuff too!)
3 Keys to Cultivating a more grateful heart
A grateful heart is the practice of seeking and finding the good in life. When you focus on gratitude, you are always learning, improving, or growing.
The 3 ways to develop a more grateful heart are through these 3 steps:
- Shift your mindset
- Practice, practice, practice
- Give yourself grace
Let’s dive deeper into these three steps!
1. Shift your Mindset
Having a grateful heart is a choice.
When I had bells palsy, I just wanted for my eye to open and close on it’s own. I just wanted to be able to smile at my baby. I just wanted it to go away like all the doctors kept telling me. I was in a deep dark place that was hard to climb out of. But slowing but surely I realized how fortunate I was. I was able to shift my mindset to be grateful that something worse hadn’t happened to me. And I was thankful for a healthy baby girl. By focusing on the positives I was able to heal faster, both mentally and physically.
A gratitude mindset is a shift from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of abundance.
What the heck does that even mean??
According to Forbes, “Scarcity mentality refers to people seeing life as a finite pie, so that if one person takes a big piece, that leaves less for everyone else” whereas an abundance mindset “refers to the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody.” A gratitude or abundance mindset is best described as one that is mindful, optimistic, proactive (not reactive), and sees failure as an opportunity. It means we see each day as a gift and are truly thankful for it.
It is a mindset shift that occurs when you train your brain to go from “Ugh, I HAVE to do _____ today” to “I’m so grateful I get to do _____ today!” There’s actually scientific research that shows that by cultivating a gratitude mindset, you can increase positivity and happiness and decrease negativity and overwhelm.
Want to dig a little deeper? Learn more about who you are and what you want in life with these self love journal prompts.
2. Practice gratitude
Practice, practice, practice. They say it takes at least 21 days to create a habit. So the best way to have a grateful heart is to practice gratitude daily.
Here are some ways to to accomplish this goal:
- Make gratitude a priority. When we make time for gratitude, we have less time for stress and worry.
- Write down 5 things you are grateful for each morning. The act of physically writing something down actually forces your brain to remember things better. (Science people!)
- Start a gratitude journal. (Need some help? Grab my 30 days of gratitude journal prompts to get started.)
- Write thank you notes to 5 different people. Don’t make this difficult- send out cards if you wish but a simple but heartfelt text works too.
- Practice gratitude for yourself- try incorporating these self love affirmations into your daily routine.
- Look for best in the situation. Assume everyone else is doing the best they can.
- Gratitude is contagious- share your gratitude with the world! Social media isn’t all bad- grab my gratitude templates and have fun with it.
- Practice being humble.
- Look at other people’s gratitude lists to get inspired. Read my list of 100 things to be thankful for.
- Look for the little things. From the smell of your favorite candle to the way your puppy yawning makes you laugh. Slow down and notice the little things.
- Explore. One of the reasons I love travel so much is that it truly gives you perspective. I can’t tell you how many times I have come home from a trip reminded just how fortunate we are!
- Think of others and consider their feelings.
- Tell someone how thankful you are for them. From your mother to the mail carrier, verbalize your gratitude!
By practicing gratitude daily, you can easily create a habit. I’ve said it before, but it literally changed my life!
Consider sharing the love over social media!! Check out these fun and easy to use self love captions and quotes, thankful and grateful quotes, and my favorite motivational Instagram captions.
3. Give yourself grace
Progress over perfection.
Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. Everybody has bad days. Do your best.
Looking at your mistakes and failures as a learning opportunity is another essential key to creating a more grateful heart. We are all so hard on ourselves. Give yourself grace. Celebrate your wins and be proud when yourself when you look at the bright side or accomplish a goal.
Learning to love ourselves is hard too.
So…tell me which of these gratitude practices you’re going to try first??
Why is it important to have a grateful heart?
Gratitude is the single most important emotion we can cultivate.
There are so many benefits to practicing gratitude. From reducing stress, increasing self esteem, improving our relationships, friendships and ability to empathize, a gratitude practice has been proven to improve both our physical and mental health. Having a grateful heart can increase joy, happiness, creativity, and leads you to have a greater appreciation for everything in your life.
“A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.”
Want more inspo? Check out my 25 best gratitude quotes!
Having a gratitude attitude
I tell my children all the time: “Be the example.”
From kindness to mindset to gratitude, we can all be a better example of a grateful heart. Having a grateful heart is one of my core values. By practicing gratitude, I can be a positive example to my family and others. Intentionally being grateful will not make your life perfect. But having a gratitude attitude has certainly made me happier, and I think it might make you happier too.
And seriously, who doesn’t want to be happier?
A gratitude practice is an important component of self care- grab my best tips on creating a daily self care routine now!
