A Grateful Mindset Helps You Lead a Fulfilling Life
A grateful mindset helps you find happiness in your journey and aware of the blessings you encounter every day, all of which help you live a fulfilling life.
Dear Spirited Earthling,
A grateful mindset or attitude of gratitude can be a life-changing way to see your world and support your self-development and spiritual journeys. For the most part, our world is one of materialism and overconsumption, ever-changing trends and hypes. Not a day goes by with no advertisements, distractions, or reminders of what you don’t have and what you need to be noticed and fit it. It’s on the radio, in the podcast ads, on public transport stops, every social media scroll, in series and movies, and reading material. It’s all too easy to slip into the habit of wanting more, achieving more, and ultimately comparing yourself to others. Gratitude is a simple and powerful practice to get out of these cycles, become less influenced, and feel more content with life.
What is a Grateful Mindset?
A grateful mindset is a consistent appreciation for the people, places, things, situations, and experiences in your life. It recognises the big and small blessings that come to you throughout the day.
Adopting an attitude of gratitude in no way dismisses challenges, hard times, and difficult emotions. Instead, it helps you value the people who support you, the places that keep you safe and hold special memories, the many things that you have, and the experiences that helped you grow. Maybe unexpectedly, gratitude builds resilience for tougher times because you are aware of how much you still have to be thankful for, how much you have been through and grown stronger, and a support system with strong bonds.
A grateful mindset supports an abundance mindset and helps let go of a scarcity mindset. While goals are important, constantly chasing more can overshadow the beauty of what’s present. Gratitude encourages you to see joy in the here and now, helping us balance ambition with a sense of fulfilment. Striving to do better and achieve more is valuable, but constantly feeling like you never have enough isn't. Gratitude differs from a positivity mindset and a hopeful attitude in that it focuses on the present rather than the future. It's about finding happiness in the now, not just anticipating a better future. This is why gratitude complements these other mindsets so well.
In published literature, there's no consensus on the definition or nature of gratitude. Some research aligns it with assistance from others, while other studies show gratitude can be felt for oneself and one's own abilities (e.g., when your perseverance leads to achievement). However, what's agreed upon in the literature is that gratitude is deeply linked to all aspects of a person's wellness.
The Benefits of Gratitude
Viewing your life through grateful eyes can profoundly improve your mental and emotional health. Appreciating what you have, rather than fixating over what you don’t, can help you sleep better, feel happier, and have higher life satisfaction.
Having healthy friendships is essential to a happy life and you deepen your bonds when you regularly show thanks for these relationships. Everyone wants to feel valued, trusted, and appreciated. As you acknowledge these important people in your life, you are reminding yourself how fortunate you are to know and love them.
Gratitude anchors you in the present moment with thankfulness. It gives you perspective and can help you see the forest through the trees. This can boost your resilience to help you embrace failure and have the courage to expand your comfort zones.
How to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude
Like any mindset type, building a grateful mindset takes intention and time, and is worth the effort. Here are some practical ways to start:
1. Daily Gratitude
Set aside a few minutes each day to reflect on things you’re grateful for. This could be part of your morning routine, during a lunch break, or before bed. You could write it in a gratitude journal or think about it when you sip on your morning coffee or bedtime tea. It can be as simple as listing three things you’re grateful. The only suggestion is to be more specific than I’m grateful for my cup of morning coffee and rather I’m grateful for my morning coffee that warms my hands and wakens my mind.
It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate—a simple list of three things you’re thankful for will do. Try to focus on specific details: “I’m grateful for the warmth of my coffee in the morning” or “I appreciate my friend’s listening ear.”
2. Saying Grace
Expressing gratitude for your meal and the many hands that brought it from farm to table has less to do with your chosen faith and more to do with appreciating this blessing. Hold hands or don’t, bow your head or don’t, have a set grace prayer or don’t – simply take a moment before eating to give thanks for your meal, the land and farmers, and the people who cooked it.
3. Shift Your Perspective
In challenging times, try to shift your perspective and remind yourself of what you still have to appreciate, like supportive relationships or personal strengths. Gratitude will not negate your challenges, and it is not intended to dismiss the hard feelings you have while experiencing them. Gratitude is the silver lining and looking for hidden blessings, even if you can only see it on the other side of the challenge.
4. Express Gratitude to Others
While it's easy to feel thankful when someone supports you during tough times, a grateful mindset helps you appreciate people in your life at any and every phrase of life. Thank the person who helps you with the children, has your back in a meeting, and the person whose mere presence brightens your day.
Extend gratitude strangers through random acts of kindness and a simple ‘thank you’ – double the tip when you can, compliment the service of a sales person, thank the shelf stocker.
5. Use Visual Reminders
Keep gratitude reminders in places you can see daily:
Write gratitude affirmations on sticky notes and stick them on your mirror, on the fridge, on the coffee machine. Our brains normalise things in our homes very quickly, so you need to make an effort to look at the sticky notes or move them around, so they keep catching your eye.
If you’re going to gratitude journal, keep your journal where you will see it and use it – on your nightstand, near the mugs, at your home altar.
Print a few photos of important people and favourite moments and put them on your wall. Have a digital or physical album or scrapbook of the people, experiences, and achievements you’re grateful for.
5. Mindful Gratitude
Mindfulness brings you to the present moment and encourages you to notice the beauty in it, like gratitude.
Mindfully spend time in nature (forest bathing, mindful walking) to spend time alone, ground, and raise your vibration.
Dedicate a few more minutes in your day to gratitude meditations.
Mindfully appreciate what you’re doing, feeling, and seeing – the quiet of mornings, the rain nurturing your plants, and the way someone lights up when they see you.
A Grateful Mindset for a Fulfilled Life
Developing an attitude of gratitude takes time to become your ‘normal’ state of mind, like any habit. As you shift from scarcity to abundance, from frustration to appreciation, and from feeling lacking to feeling blessed, you’ll find peace and joy in the life you already have. A grateful mindset makes you feel fortunate to live a fulfilling life.
Remember, there’s no such thing as a perfect life, and you may always have desires and goals. But with gratitude, you can find happiness in the journey and the blessings you encounter every day.
Spirited Earthling is more than just a blog – it's a gathering place for kindred spirits drawn by an interest in self-discovery, the appeal of self-care, and a desire for a deeper connection to themselves and the world. Written and created for curious minds and spiritual hearts seeking meaning in everyday life, this blog aims to help you curate your wholesome personal growth with free weekly ideas and affordable resources for sale.
As you navigate your personal growth journey using the words and ideas shared here, consider sharing this blog with someone looking for inspiration or motivation on their own journey. We are all spirited earthlings, and can lift each other together with mindful, connected living.
Thank you for being part of this community.
Best wishes, warmest regards
Jordan
Affirmations: I am thankful for all that I have and all that I am becoming. Gratitude fills my heart and brings peace, joy, and abundance to my life.
Journal Prompt: What small moments from today am I grateful for, and how did they make my day better?
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