How Do You Show Gratitude? Here Are Some Empowering Action Steps

We had the subject line that would become this page up on our story board for a little while when we received a reader review about our fledgling website. Lets diplomatically say it didn't offer rave reviews of our content, nor our writing styles. But it did help us add some things to this page that would delve into the question, "How do you show gratitude?"

We were able to look within ourselves to be sure we followed the advice we offer within these pages and look for the good in the criticism and be grateful that at least something in those pages evoked some thought and consideration. In addition, it confirms an end result of being consistently grateful.

We'll offer some benefits of gratitude a little further down this page. So we offer our sincere thanks to that reader for those comments and we won't simply ignore them but will consider how we can improve.

How Do You Show Gratitude As A Daily Practice?

The difference between gratitude and thankfulness is slight, but still important. Being thankful is a feeling or thought, but showing gratitude is a positive action. It takes more effort as all positive actions do and in most cases involves putting ourselves out there a little farther than might be within our usual comfort zone.

For this page, we'll move past the singular actions like taking the time to write a thank you card or even better, going right up to someone to show that gratitude. We're looking more at creating a mindset. How do you show gratitude? By developing good habits that just naturally lend themselves to seeing the good in people and responding to situations where you are able to make a positive difference.

Begin by really noticing the things you are grateful for and recognizing why you are grateful and how these things have impacted you. Don't rush through the mechanics of life. Enjoy all the positive feelings that come from being grateful for small favors and big successes. And then pay it forward.

Part of that reader response was, "Your writing is frivolous and Pollyanna. Not everyone wants to go out of their way to help people. They just want to live their lives. Not everyone sees rainbows and unicorns. Some are just tired of everything in their lives and don't want to read this kind of drivel."

We can't argue with any of those points. The reader hit the nail on the head. Well, maybe we might call out the part about rainbows and unicorns. We've tried to be upfront about some of our life struggles and failures.

We're grateful for the opportunity to provide something to help the people who do want to go out of their way to help people. We're grateful to be able to share part of our stories to show that we aren't done when we get knocked down. Only when we stay down.

How do you show gratitude as a daily practice? By displaying common courtesy. Just as in our page about common sense, courtesy is not always common. But it could be. Make it a priority to be courteous to everyone you meet. Everyday, even when things aren't going so well. Trust us here. Gratitude has tremendous benefits, which we'll detail in the next section.

Common courtesy means showing patience, offering a hand to strangers, a smile to people we don't even know, and a calmness that will rub off on people. We never know when one random act of kindness, one instance of common courtesy, will make a difference. Which leads to....

Be ready and able to demonstrate random acts of kindness. Step in to help someone who is in distress even when it would be easier to cross the street and avoid the whole thing. Holding a door is so simple, but for the person with arms loaded and already overly stressed, isn't much, but so effective.

It doesn't have to be something big like helping an elderly person who has fallen, but it means quite a bit to that person. Random acts of kindness show our personal gratitude for the things we have, the abilities we possess, so we never take those things for granted.

How do you show gratitude? Volunteer. Share your time and your talent. Yeah, share your treasure too, but for many, that requires the least effort and smallest personal impact. We can promise you this and if you don't believe it, try it and get back to us. If we're wrong, we'll admit it. When you show gratitude by volunteering to help in worthwhile causes that lift people in need, up from difficult spots, good things will come back to you. Kind of a boomerang effect.

Keep a diary of gratitude. In our recent page, one of our editors who openly stated a dislike for writing, detailed how this had such a positive impact and it all came about from random acts of kindness and from volunteering.

Some Benefits of Showing Gratitude

We know this statement is true. When you show gratitude on a consistent basis, you will handle the inevitable negative events much better. You won't get rattled so easy, you won't lose control of emotions and lash out. You will take the hard parts in life a little more in stride. There will be hard parts, but since you are in the habit of recognizing what you should be grateful for, the hard parts won't always be as hard to manage.

There are many studies and research projects that describe how showing gratitude, how acts of kindness improve physical health, increase personal happiness, and reduce depression. Read our page about finding purpose for one example.

Your self-esteem will go up because your talents will be put to good use. Maybe this sounds too Pollyanna or frivolous for some, but some other folks might draw inspiration from this page and might decide to test it.

Then the benefits of showing gratitude will extend to another place and then another, and then another. Could there be a better way to show gratitude than to be part of an enormous wave of volunteers and a legion of people performing random acts of kindness?

We'd be really grateful for that!

Return to Accountability As A Core Value

Return To Home Page

Privacy Policy