6 Essential Resources To Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

The phrase “develop an attitude of gratitude” is important because it indicates effort.

Effort to slow down. To notice. To respond.

When we’re buzzing with delight, this effort can feel like an interruption. When we’re sinking low, it can feel naive and pointless.

Cultivating gratitude means recognizing the good and giving credit to the source that made it appear in your life. Sometimes this is easy to see, sometimes we have to dig a bit.

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Why Develop an Attitude of Gratitude?

The Greater Good Science Center at University of California, Berkley, “studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society”.

According to the Center, a gratitude mindset is life-giving and life-changing because it powerfully benefits our mind, our physical body and our relationships.

• Gratitude leads to a more positive outlook making us feel more alert and joyful, while lessening our stress response.
• Gratitude pushes us to care better for our bodies, builds our immune system and lessens the risk of heart attack.
• Gratitude makes us more forgiving of others and creates a willingness towards compassion and generosity. In turn, gratitude helps us create relationships where others more willingly support us in these ways.

Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin and an antiseptic. ~ John Henry Jowett Click To Tweet

A grateful heart is good, good medicine! Below are a handful of invaluable resources to help you build a gratitude mindset.

 

Check out these resources for cultivating gratitude!

Books to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

Our obsession with bigger and faster is spinning us out of control. We move through the week breathless and bustling, just trying to keep up while longing to slow down. But real life happens in the small moments, the kind we find on Tuesday, the most ordinary day of the week. Tuesday carries moments we want to hold onto–as well as ones we’d rather leave behind. It holds secrets we can’t see in a hurry–secrets not just for our schedules but for our souls. It offers us a simple bench on which to sit, observe, and share our stories.

This holistic discipleship book helps develop an attitude of gratitude in the small moments, or as I like to say, in seeking sacred in our everyday routines. Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World highlights how Jesus lived small moments well, slow moments fully, and all moments free.

 

Recent dramatic advances in our understanding of gratitude have changed the question from “does gratitude work?” to “how do we get more of it?”. Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity explores evidence-based practices in a compelling and accessible way and provides a step-by-step guide to cultivating gratitude in their lives. Gratitude Works! also shows how religious, philosophical, and spiritual traditions validate the greatest insights of science about gratitude.

This 21-Day Program approaches gratitude through 7 different perspectives, having you repeat a writing exercise for each approach 3 times over the 21-day period. Consistency is key and you won’t find it difficult with this program!

 

Just like you, Ann Voskamp hungers to live her one life well. Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. ‘How,’ Ann wondered, ‘do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long–and sometimes even dark? How is God even here?’

In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God’s gifts. It’s only in this expressing of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we’ve always wanted…a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved–by God.

Let Ann’s beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive. Develop the attitude of gratitude with the best dare of all!

 

Journals to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration is an interactive journal designed to help readers nurture their creativity, mindfulness, and self-motivation. I love gratitude journals and practices that encourage finding appreciation in all situations, not just in the best of times. This gratitude journal makes the cut! It helps readers navigate the confusion and chaos of daily life with a simple reminder: we can appreciate the world around us and achieve our dreams.

Plus, it is GORGEOUS inside! Featuring vibrant hand-lettering and images that have attracted a large following for her stationery and textile line in boutiques across the country, Meera Lee Patel’s uplifting book presents supportive prompts and exercises along with inspirational quotes to encourage reflection through writing, drawing, chart-making, and more.

Featuring inspiring quotes from writers, artists, and other visionaries paired with open-ended questions and prompts, with plenty of room for writing and reflecting, this appealing full-color book will make a perfect gift and keepsake as well as being a powerful tool for positive change.

 

Gratitude: A Day and Night Reflection Journal will help you center your day around positive feelings and gratitude. It’s the perfect place to record and celebrate anything that you are grateful for and to preserve important memories. This 90-day journal gives you a path to creating a habit of daily gratitude that you can carry with you throughout your life. Cultivating gratitude is one of the most potent and important mindfulness exercises, and thankfulness has proven to have a positive effect on a person’s mental health and general well-being.

I love that each page of the journal includes space to record expressions of gratitude, personal affirmations, memories of positive interactions, and commentaries on the significance of it all. The journal is intended for those who want to foster deep reflection as well as for those who simply want to discover the effects of thankfulness. Having filled the journal with statements of gratitude, you will end up with a personal trove of wonderful reflections, which can be a source of positive inspiration at any time.

A morning meditation and evening reflection for each day brings structure to your practice and effectively reinforces a gratitude mindset. There’s even a back pocket perfect for holding mementos! Definitely one to check out for yourself or gifting to a friend!

 

Good Days Start With Gratitude is a 52-week guide to develop an attitude of gratitude! This Journal is the simplest pick on our list for building a gratitude mindset.

It is a self exploration journal designed to focus on being thankful for what we have, the big things in life, as well as the simple joys. Each well designed weekly spread contains an inspirational quote, space to write 3 things you are thankful for each day of the week, and a weekly checkpoint. If you start each day by writing down three things you are thankful for – a good cup of coffee, the smell of rain, starting a good book – you begin each day on the right note. Do it daily and make it a habit to focus on the blessings you have been given! Grab a copy for a friend and share the journey together!

 

Holistic Faith Lifestyle Resources for Cultivating gratitude

I have been foraging for gratitude resources online and have a small, but growing collection over on my Holistic Christian Resource Page.

Gratitude gets a lot of hype as we ease into the holiday season, but clearly, everything we gain from cultivating a gratitude mindset is beneficial year round. We know that thankfulness leads to divine peace that guards our hearts and surpasses understanding, enabling us to focus on all the good in life (Philippians 4:6-8).

I hope you’ll check out all the resources listed in this post and find a combo that serves you well, leading to real peace during the holiday season and throughout the year!

 

 

Just for Fun!