5 Notable Benefits of Writing a Gratitude List

Howdy, Peeps! I'm back with yet another easy-to-read blog post. We tend to talk more about attitude and less about gratitude. We already know that practicing gratitude daily is a wonderful tool to be thankful for our higher power and the universe. 

Showing our gratitude when our head hits the pillow in the night and after we lift our head from the pillow in the morning is a practice conducted to be grateful for the things we have in life.

Gratitude List 

Writing down anything that is cooking in your mind always has its benefits. This is because it gives us more clarity when we jot things down on a piece of paper. (Pen and paper/ typing) The same goes for the feeling of gratitude. It's good if you are taking time every day to recall the things that you are grateful for. 

But writing the gratitude list will be more significant. You will realize this after a few days of consistently writing the list. It is a simple thing that usually requires less than 10 minutes of your day. You already know the things you are thankful for or grateful for. So, by allocating some time you can easily adapt this habit which can make you a modest person.  

There are two ways to express your gratitude. One is to be thankful for parents, friends, spouse, ( girlfriend - it's optional, haha), or the eyes through which we can see the beauty in nature (and the beauty of the girl next door too). Let's say this kind of list is a grand gratitude list. Now there is another option to write down the things which made you feel good even when the day sucked. Take an example below - 

4th September 1992 

1. Meeting a friend after 10 years 

2. Finally reading the most awaited book (for example - Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jethá. Just never mind if you are a prude) 

3. Licking the favorite ice-cream 

4. Jogging 

Yes, even if you regularly jog, it can be jogging too. It can be anything that made you feel good but you failed to notice it as you were quite trapped by stressful tasks. 

Now, let's head towards 5 notable benefits of writing a gratitude list. Keep scrolling (and reading too). Reach the end of this blog to find the motivation for starting this new ritual of writing the gratitude list every day.

1. Something to be Thankful About 

This is a major benefit. Even if you are going through a bad patch of your life and it seems like everything sucks, take a moment to notice the things you already have or the good things that happened to you throughout the day. Most of the time, good things happen to us but we are wrapped up in stressful situations which keep instilling a lot of negativity in our minds. 

We fail to notice the good and tend to complain about our life's journey. Writing the gratitude list will not only help you recall the happy moments but also implant a habit of feeling thankful. Yes, a thankful attitude towards the things you already have or the little fun moment you had amidst a tough day. It is said that being grateful or thankful helps you with your future blessings.

Even if you are depressed, just climb upstairs and look at the mountains, the birds, Sunrise, and Sunset. Feel thankful for nature's miracles. The gratitude list works wonders. Even if we leave everything aside, the least optimistic effect of the Gratitude list is that you find something to be thankful for. 

 2. Melting Your Ego 

We aren't a saint to have zero percent ego. But we can save ourselves from being an egoistic satan. One such way to melt the ego is through expressing gratitude. Wanna know how?

A feeling of thankfulness can make us directly or indirectly feel respectful towards the things and people in our lives. Gratitude fosters a feeling of modesty. And the modesty, in turn, dwindles the ego. 

I haven't come across a man who is egoistic and humble at the same time. So keep this in mind, Gratitude = modesty and modesty = lowering of ego. In the realm of your work or relationships, you will have better influence and connections if you are less egoistic and more modest. 

3. Better than a To-Do List 

If someone asks me to write a to-do list and a gratitude list, the latter will happen inherently. But I'll hesitate to go for the former. I have tried many times to write a to-do list for me but I have badly failed. Yeah, I don't deny the benefits of a to-do list but think of it this way - If you write a to-do list, you feel the rush to complete the tasks on time. If you succeed then you are satisfied. But if you fail then you stress out and feel less inspired the next day to make a new list and follow it. Then gradually you tend to stop making any to-do list. 

Of course, this can't be the case with you. But coming back to a gratitude list, it's not as pressurizing as compared to a to-do list. You only have to note down the good things that already happened or the things which you already feel grateful about. 

There is more fun writing out the fun we had and the things we feel lucky to have in life. On the other hand, it is less fun to write a list of things to do though it may be important to us. 

In the context of emotions or fun excluding the importance of daily planning, the idea of writing a gratitude list is better than writing a to-do list.  After all, the work should be mixed with the play. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. 

So, I won't recommend skipping a to-do list but I would highly recommend writing a gratitude list too. It will also help you to maintain a balance, that is, the balance between feeling regretful for not being able to perform a task included in the to-do list, but thankful for a task ( task included in the to-do list or some new or different task) you managed to perform and mention it in a gratitude list.

4.  The Voices of Complain Fading Away

If you are a person who has set the complaining vein towards life, please keep reading. The idyll picture of the life we paint in our minds in the early teenage years starts fading away as life happens. We begin to incline towards the role of protesting everything around us which we never imagined to happen. This results in the formation of a pile of negative thoughts in our heads. 

Even towards the benefiting service, we tend to find faults and complaints. The pile of negativity keeps growing and includes unwanted things like jealousy, greed, and a complaining tonality. Practicing gratitude will introduce you to a brighter side of the world. On the brighter side, you will be able to find beauty in your struggle, pain, hardships, and failures. 

Gratitude shifts our paradigm from complaining about what we don't have or what is wrong and appreciating what we have or what is right instead. Hence, the inner voices of complain will fade as we allot some space to think about what is going well and what we feel grateful about in life. 

5. Enjoying the Simple Things 

Many of us usually keep daydreaming/chasing big dreams like getting filthy rich, buying the dream car and house, owning a lot of properties, and so on. Most of our dreams are about occupying the materialistic pleasures. While in this chase, we sometimes fail to appreciate the smallest but the greatest magic moments like having a great family time, having a deep convo with your soul mate, keenly watching your kids grow, playing with your little ones, telling them bedtime stories, etc. 

While smartphones may be one of the major reasons we can't find space to enjoy these magic moments, our quest to find joy only in the materialistic stuff is another big reason. Then someday even after achieving all the worldly pleasures, we sit silently in a gloomy room wondering why we still feel so empty. That's because we failed to enjoy the simple joys of our life's journey. 

If we inculcate the habit of enjoying the little but big things in life simultaneously while pursuing worldly stuff, we won't find ourselves feeling empty. The best way to rejoice in these tiny moments which are filled with great emotions is by feeling a sense of gratitude. As we take time to recall the small joys that brought a smile to our faces, we will also be grateful for the big venture towards our purpose. 

Here I conclude without making this a long-winged write-up. Make a habit of writing a gratitude list, either in the morning while recalling the last's days moments which you are thankful for or at night, recalling the thankful moments right from the morning. You will get habitual to it gradually. After a few days, if you feel less motivated, come back to this blog and either read the whole blog or at least go through the sub-headings and resume writing your gratitude list.

Note: (The Images in this post are downloaded from the royalty-free image sites)