The act of expressing gratitude has become almost a lost art—it’s as if it has become a foreign language that Duolingo can’t even teach you. Why is this? A few observations that I have made from coaching clients from all walks of life is that there is something internal that is blocking gratefulness from freely flowing in the words we choose to describe our life with. There’s this mentality that if you aren’t literally crawling into bed at night that you didn’t give it your all. The notion that your job should be so tough that you can’t help but hate it and chasing your passion can’t be a career leaves many people feeling empty in the daily grind of life. This is a huge contributor to the decline of mental wellbeing which leads us to feeling more stressed, depressed and genuinely unhappy with life.
So what does gratitude have to do with it? I recently attended an organic networking session for women in business. As with any networking event, we went around the room and told everyone what we did, but there was a catch, we had to use a language of gratitude to do so. As these women, in all types of professions, began to share about themselves where many were moved to tears, expressing thankfulness for how happy they were and were able to drop all the titles they carried day in and day out to be authentically themselves. As more women shared, the easier it became to speak about our lives with gratitude for our passion in life. Gratitude elevates our perspective. Like the new mom who shared her struggle with sleepless nights but was choked up by expressing how grateful she was for the health of her family—this is what gratitude can do in someone’s life.
Life Coaching has a lot of great resources on gratitude and there are few that I would like to share with you that you can practice on your own without a life coach:
Sentence structure is extremely important even in the conversations you have in your head. Try something like:
I am so frustrated/tired/disappointed/angry/ect. that [this is going on] however I am so grateful for/that.
Saying thank you for the basic things in life provides a strong foundation for gratefulness.
Negativity can clear itself from your life quicker because it is inoculated by gratitude.
Gratitude opens a door for the miracle that is just beyond the threshold by shifting your perspective to look in a new direction with fresh focus.
The language of gratitude is life-giving. This is something that people cannot afford to not do. It’s as simple as changing the way you speak to yourself in private and letting that permeate the grammar you use with other people. A foundational belief of life coaching is that we can only control how we are showing up in life and the better version of ourselves that we put forth each day can change the world.
Are you desiring to take control of your life’s legacy and integrate the grammar of gratitude into your daily routine? Contact the center today to see what life coaching can do for you! #unpackyourinnerawesome