OMG Digital Magazine July 23rd, 2015 - Vol 4 Issue 168 | Página 6

10
PAGE 6 • OMG Digital Magazine | Thursday 23rd July, 2015 , 2015

It’s no accident that all of the major world religions employ
some form of gratitude in their rituals. It’s simply because it
makes our daily life better, even if you’re not religious nor
spiritual.
Gratitude is the feeling of being thankful and showing
appreciation for what is in our lives. And thankfulness and
appreciation are a pathway to a life of happiness and wellbeing. When you pause and recognize all of the wonderful
things in your life, you feel happier. Appreciation keeps us
focused on what is already good in our lives, and opens up the
doorway to more goodness to flow into our lives. Gratitude
also equips us to handle setbacks and failures in a more
resilient way. Science is producing mounting research that
our lives are much better when we practice gratitude.
And indeed, gratitude does make your life better in the
following ways...

1. You Feel More Satisfied

Not completely happy with your life? Gratitude is a lasting
feeling that sustains you longer than other fleeting sensations.
Grateful people are more satisfied with their lives because they
focus more on what they do appreciate in their life. When you
practice gratitude, you take time to appreciate the things that
you’re thankful for in your life. And this means that you won’t
be longing as much for what’s missing in your life, because
you won’t pay as much attention to it.

2. You Motivate Others

When you say “thank you” to someone, they feel that you
appreciate what you did for them, even if just a little bit. Saying
“thank you” is therefore a powerful motivator for others to
keep helping you again, because you are rewarding them with
your appreciation. Have you ever noticed how it feels when
someone doesn’t appreciate what you did for them? It makes
you not want to help them again in the future because they
don’t appreciate it. Small thank you’s go a long way, whether
it’s a simple text message or a thoughtful email, you can never
show someone enough gratitude.

3. You’re Happier

Grateful people are happier. They’re more in tune with what’s
going well in their lives and focus more on the positive. When
you actually count your blessings (I’m grateful for today’s
beautiful weather, for my new shoes, for my close friends, etc)
it puts you in a positive and uplifting mood. It’s very enjoyable

Ways gratitude
makes your life
better

to recognize the things that you might have been taking for
granted, and to feel joy for having them in your life.

4. You’re More Resilient

Throughout your life you’ll experience many setbacks and
failures. So having good coping skills is vital for us to have a
thriving and successful life. When life knocks you down yet
you still practice gratitude, you can humbly appreciate the
temporary defeat as a learning lesson. When you’re faced with
challenges, you can thank God or the Universe for giving you
an opportunity to practice your patience and strength. When
you’re grateful you focus more on the opportunities that
failures give you, rather than their negative consequences.

5. You Deepen Your Social Ties

Gratitude has the power to deepen your social bonds and
connections with others. When you live in a state of gratitude,
you have better relationships with your peers. It also enhances
your ability to form and nurture relationships, as your friends
and family members experience the positive vibes of your
appreciation for them and for life. Your energy changes when
you’re grateful, and you go from being a “downer” to being
a positive person. And this is very attractive to everyone else
around and strengthens your relationships.

6. You Have Better Health

Gratitude has been linked to better physical health, as well as
better sleep and reduced stress levels. You can live a much
better life when you’re grateful because as you improve
your relationship to the world, you feel better within your
body. Grateful people take better care of themselves as they
appreciate their health more.

7. You Increase Your Self-control

As David DeSteno says, “When you’re faced with a
chal¬lenging temptation in the moment, rather than solely
trying to exert willpower, simply stop¬ping and thinking of
some¬thing you’re grateful for should enhance your ability
to make a wiser decision.” As life coach Peter Lambert says,
gratitude gives you mo re patience and makes you less selfish.

8. Your Relationships Improves

When you’re more grateful and generous to the people
who you care most about, your relationships improve. Not

TOM CASANO

only will they feel more appreciated by you, but when they
feel more appreciated and cared for, they’ll reflect positive
feelings back towards you. As opposed to taking each other
for granted, when you truly appreciate your significant other,
your relationship becomes more magical again.

9. You’re Less Materialistic

When you appreciate what you already have, you realize that
a bigger house or a new car are not the things that will really
make you happier deep down. In fact, material things can
actually feel sort of empty and meaningless. But when you’re
thankful that you have a roof over your head and plenty of
food to eat -- something not everyone around the world has
-- you won’t be as tied to physical things anymore.

10. You Enrich Your Children

Research has shown that when you encourage gratitude
in children, it has some remarkable effects. It turns out that
kids who are grateful are happier, experience less volatile
emotions, and feel that life has more meaning to them.
Gratitude is an emotion that’s worth cultivating as it will make
your life better. You can start simply, by thinking of five things
in your day today that you’re grateful for. There’s no doubt
that we all want to be happy, have good relationships, and
good health. The only thing you need to do to create more
of these good things in your life, is to cultivate the gratitude
within you.