3 ways to express gratitude more deeply

We have the power to build up our gratitude feeling muscles, so to speak. We do this by creating a practice of gratitude. A practice of expressing gratitude more meaningfully and getting more creative in how we express it will allow us to indulge in the richness of this emotion. This will, in turn, make it easier for us to recall and feel this emotion when life gets tough. 

Simply saying "thank you" for things and making that a part of your daily vocabulary is a fantastic start. That habit is just a start and is arguably the bare minimum. If you really want to upgrade your gratitude game, take the following methods under consideration: 

Resist the urge to get up and go. I know we all have things to do and places to go but taking that step back and not rushing to go out into the world the moment you wake up is a powerful expression of gratitude. 

When you wake up, whether naturally or by alarm, stop and take a moment. Close your eyes again and call to mind things that you are grateful for. Anything that you are grateful for. It can be something as small as the smell of the morning air or as big as the presence of a loved one. When you are just starting out, try to recall only 1-3 things. Once you call that thing to mind, begin to think about why you are grateful for it. Think about and remember how this thing or things make you feel and how they impact your life. Allow yourself to breath in any emotions that come up. Sit with those thoughts and feelings and after 3-5 minutes get up and go on with your day. 

This expression of gratitude is so quick, so simple but so impactful. This puts us on path towards feeling good for the day, appreciating the little things and doing right by the people we love. 

Sometimes we can feel so grateful to someone for things that they do for us, but we express that by simply saying "thank you." Sometimes that simple exchange of: 

"Thank you" & "Your welcome" can become monotonous and feel like such an autopilot thing. 

Every now and then, when you want to say thank you to someone, express to them why you are saying thank you. Look them in the eye and tell them with sincerity. For example, if my partner were to bring me fancy juice when they came back from the grocery store I would say,

"Thank you so much, I was so thirsty and I'm happy that I now get to drink something fun. It makes me feel so special when you think about me and my needs while you're out." 

It might sound a little awkward at first, but when you tell someone the entire reason why you are telling them thank you, they feel that emotion of gratitude right along with you. So by expressing your gratitude in this way, you are also gifting that emotion to another person and they in turn will feel grateful again that they made you feel good. 

As a bonus, this method can also help improve your relationships with those around you. 

Using a gratitude journal is one that we often hear about here on the internet. And for good reason. When we expend our energy to write about gratitude we unlock this ability to feel all of those things again and in new ways. It really helps us understand our own gratitude and ourselves more deeply. I recommend doing this at least once a week and by hand because it forces you to slow down and really puzzle out all your thoughts and emotions. It might be difficult to do at first, but just like with the first method I mentioned (wake up to gratitude), you can just start with one or two things. Write that you are grateful for those things, then start to go into why, and how it makes you feel and allow yourself to just write whatever comes to you. If that sounds a bit challenging, there are also gratitude specific journals with prompts in them. You can also go online and find free prompts that you can use. A simple notebook or some paper plus a pen is all you need. To take this method even further, reread what you have written in the past every now and then to take yourself back to those emotions.