In this article I’m going to show you fun examples of daily gratitude affirmations and how they work. You can use them to build a new habit — gratitude — or strengthen it if you’re already familiar with it.
Table of contents
Daily gratitude affirmations: what they include and why they are so helpful
Examples of daily gratitude affirmations
Daily affirmations of gratitude: a shift in perspective
Conclusion
Daily gratitude affirmations: what they include and why they are so helpful
When being grateful, what happens is you express gratitude for something you already have that brings you joy (anything really, no matter how big or small). Although, in all honesty, I realize that the term ‘joy’ may be a little bit too much.
In fact, the things you’re grateful for may not necessarily bring this incredible joy. Yet, you know for sure they play a positive role of some kind in your life.
So, one of the key aspects of practicing and incorporating daily gratitude affirmations into your life is that you are called to acknowledge the whole spectrum of positive emotions.
Like we said, the practice of gratitude can be about people, events, objects that spark authentic bliss: thinking of them puts a big smile on your face or even moves to tears.
At the same time, it can be about things whose positive impact is not as immediate and strong.
Take commutes, cars, laptops, pets, parents, cooking dinner, baking cookies, a TV show…
They are positive indeed but not so shiny that you would stop and thank the gods for them! Quite the opposite, actually. You may:
-think they’re not that big a deal;
-simply give them for granted.
Another aspect is given by the mundane.
We run from activity to activity like zombies, or at least on autopilot. Same old same old, right?
However, I’m afraid we pay enough attention to the incredible power that lies in our day to day. It’s all a giant miracle, the sum of a million little miracles: coincidences, synchronicity, running water, warm day, sitting on a sofa, a sweater, a warm ‘thank you’, perfect timing…
What if we gave them more recognition? Wouldn’t they be perfect candidates for our daily affirmations of gratitude?
“Gratitude is like a flashlight. If you go out into your yard at night and turn on a flashlight, you suddenly can see what’s there. It was always there, but you couldn’t see it in the dark.” Dawn Markova
This area of our existence deserves so much love and is totally worth of being included into a gratitude practice.
Examples of daily gratitude affirmations
See the variety?
Some affirmations are spontaneous responses to something exciting or brand new that is lightning up your world. They just happened, surprised you, came out of nowhere. They’re so huge you cannot help yourself: gratefulness must be shout out.
On the other hand, the sun, bedroom curtains, birds…. It seems like they have been around for ever. You’re like: “Well… Not too bad”. However, the moment you pause and look closer you may sense they’re not so ordinary after all.
So, daily gratitude affirmations can be done as a practice to which you devote quiet time and space every day (or so), perhaps a regular session to create and strengthen it as a habit.
In my introductory article to gratitude I list four ways you can practise it, they are solid techniques to get started along with daily gratitude affirmations:
1) Keep a journal or note the things you can be grateful for;
2) Mental subtraction, aka remember the bad.;
3) Say a heart-felt ‘thank you’ – don’t give people for granted!
4) List “three good things” in the morning or before going to sleep.
Daily affirmations of gratitude: a shift in perspective
What I guess I am trying to convey here is that through daily gratitude affirmations you get to shift the focus of your perception from:
- autopilot –> that zombie-like moving through routine tasks or objects
- a culture of celebrating only what is considered ‘huge’
To - a practice of awareness, which will hopefully teach how to become more and more conscious (of your surroundings, people, events, gifts, body, you name it.)
If you think of it, practicing daily gratitude affirmations does tie in perfectly with meditation, which is the first of the Fantastic 3 steps, outlined in a few articles here on Quietly Mary. And for a very good reason!
Meditation, and mindfulness more in general, teach us the art of awareness, the ability to become present to ourselves.
The more you do it, the more natural it becomes to go back to a place of presence & awareness.
We meditate to carve out quiet time, and we meditate also in hopes that place of presence & awareness becomes second nature.
The very first step to take in order to practice gratitude is to become conscious. This is why I encourage to work with the Fantastic Three, amongst other things.
How To Have An Attitude Of Gratitude
You may not have an attitude of gratitude right away, but if you can explore your capacity for becoming conscious, then you will be already halfway there. Actually, your whole holistic health and healing journey will be on the right track.
Anyway, becoming conscious means taking stock of your surroundings, where you are physically in this moment. You focus your attention to the body, hence to the here and now.
In fact, once you experience these states through meditation and mindfulness practices, you learn to lean into them in daily life, slowly and progressively. You unconsciously train yourself to be able to see — for real — what surrounds you.
That’s where the practice of daily gratitude affirmations kicks in. You cultivate the habit of observing every smaller and bigger thing that’s already working.
You develop an ability to notice all which you receive.
Therefore, whenever you make a list of daily gratitude affirmations, you are experiencing how positive feelings vary in form and intensity; nevertheless they are there, serving you.
You can be super grateful, joyful, ecstatic.
Or you can be glad.
Sometimes you’re just OK with it.
Some other times you don’t have any specific emotions connected to something but its positive impact is clear to you, undeniably.
As a consequence, you have different types of daily affirmations of gratitude.
Which will…
A. Guide towards more awareness of your here & now — and within!
B. make clear no one can be “happy” about everything 24/7. That ain’t gratitude, that’s spiritual bypassing: no bueno at all.
C. allow you to relax and welcome all of life’s nuances (instead of a paralyzing polarity: bad vs good, terrible vs awesome, black or white, etc… ) Positive emotions vary in intensity and it’s not a negative fact.
You slowly start to take in:
How rich your life is, as it is.
How lucky you are to live this precious existence.
There is just a ton more stuff to be grateful for than you imagined.
It doesn’t have to be all good or all bad. There’s plenty of lovely stuff going on in between, a space which is full of possibilities.
In that word, ‘possibilities‘, lies the link between gratitude and manifestation, the third step in the Fantastic three.
But back to gratitude…
Conclusion
Take steps as small or big as you want towards making daily gratitude affirmations a life-changing exercise.
You will notice affirmations of gratitude work perfectly all day every day, once you train yourself to see the good in the moment you’re in.
Before long, you won’t have to sit and practice gratitude as it will have become an integral part of who you are and how you live your life.
Additional resources from interesting websites
What is gratitude and why is it so important?
How to cultivate a gratitude practice.
