The One Shift in Perspective that Will Change Your Life

Do you know your mind can only think about one thing at a time? This means if you focus on all the negative you will see more negative, but if you train yourself to look for the good, you will see more good.

That’s what gratitude does. It helps you shift your perspective and change how you see the world. But focusing on the good isn’t always easy and doesn’t necessarily come naturally to everyone. It can be a constant effort to reframe your focus, especially if you have spent many years focused on the negative.

So how can you train yourself and your mind to focus on the good? By incorporating a habit of gratitude! A recent Forbes article gave these 6 ways to have more gratitude each and every day:

Appreciate everything
Find a positive in your challenges
Practice mindfulness
Volunteer
Express yourself
Look at all aspects of your life

Appreciate the Small Things

It’s easy to get swept up in life and only focus on the big, pivotal life moments, but a daily practice of gratitude can help us be thankful for the small, everyday things in life, like a hot cup of coffee or time spent in the park with our dog. A life well-lived is one full of gratitude and overwhelming thankfulness for the simple pleasures or ability to wake up to another day.

Find a Positive in Your Struggles

This is something I am super adamant about. Your pain is not your purpose, but your pain can serve some purpose. Your challenges and setbacks are what spark growth in your life. They wake you up to new realities about yourself, help you change your perspective or the world, make you more compassionate, and take you to the next level of who you are. Hardships can help you appreciate what you do have and how far you have come. I wouldn’t be here following my passion and helping others follow theirs if it wasn’t for some really tough times in life and for that, I am forever thankful.

Practice Mindfulness

I encourage you to sit down daily and think of 5-10 things you are grateful for. Give yourself time to take in those emotions of gratitude. It only takes 8 weeks for this activity to start rewiring your brain, so don’t delay getting started! Your brain is a powerful tool. Sometimes it takes a little mindfulness and intentionality to shape it.

I would also encourage you to keep a gratitude journal. Writing things down helps you rewire your brain. A physical journal is an amazing resource to have when you are feeling down or in a slump. You can flip back and read through all the amazing things you have experienced to trigger fresh feelings of gratitude and joy. You can do this every day, once a week or just once a month. The more you write, the more power you have over your mindfulness.

Volunteer

Not only does volunteering help others in need, but it can also benefit you. Volunteering provides a chance to learn new hard and soft skills, as well as a chance to form new relationships and connections. Giving to others can also help protect your mental and physical health by reducing stress, combating depression, and providing mental stimulation and a sense of purpose (helpguide).

Express Gratitude to Others

Similar to the effects of volunteering, expressing your gratitude to others can also increase your own happiness and gratitude. “Soul Pancake, a group that works to discover the “science of happiness,” ran an experiment where they encouraged people to write a letter to a person they were grateful for. By itself, this exercise increased their levels of happiness from 2 to 4%. However, when the same people made a phone call to the person they were thankful for to express their gratitude directly, happiness levels jumped from 4% to 19% (Forbes).”

So try to make it a habit of reaching out to one person a day or week to connect and express some positive praise or gratitude.

Find Additional Ways to Increase Happiness

As humans, we are multidimensional. It’s important to have various things in your life that you can be grateful for. To increase feelings of gratitude find hobbies and activities that boost your mood. I am a huge proponent of exercise to boost self-image, confidence, energy and mood.

If you can incorporate intentional moments of gratitude into your everyday life, you will see significant changes in all aspects of your life. Remember to be thankful for all the in-between, all the challenges, all the people who lift you up and don’t be afraid to show others how grateful you are for them!

If you want a little help incorporating habits into your life that will shift your perspective and allow you to step into your best self, I would love for you to enroll in my self-paced online course, Habits for Higher Level Living. This is for the women ready to make transformational shifts in life, and live up to all they are capable of.