This year, as the new year rings in, many will turn once again to New Years Resolutions. Now I’m all here for a good goal, it’s what helps bring change and growth. However, resolutions can result in disappointment in self when we fail to meet them. This year, why not try making the means more of the end goal, by incorporating gratefulness and a slower start to new year’s beginning.
When we practice gratefulness, we shift our thinking from a “have not” mentality to a grateful awareness for what already exists. Bringing a grateful balance to our resolutions can make them revelations in our lives, not just a long list of “shoulds.” Revelations reveal things to us in ways we might have missed otherwise. Every day we can remind ourselves of the truth of what we already have, and already are. That, itself, is revelatory.
Here are some ideas of ways to incorporate gratefulness into your new year:
Make gratefulness the center of your list of goals for the year:
· Try imagining a centerpiece of gratefulness, or a source of “great-fullness,” for each of them. How would each of your longings shift if you used “gratitude for what already is” as an source for changes that you want to make?
Try writing the list again with a more grateful focus and see if it feels different to pursue your longings with this energy.
Make a list of things for which you would like to be and feel more grateful for this year. These can be:
Aspects of your life you would like to stop taking for granted
Blessings you want to keep in your daily awareness
Privileges you want to be sure to leverage for the greater good
Opportunities that appear even in challenging times
Daily gifts of the body and being alive, etc.
Write a list of people with whom you would like to share gratefulness for this year, and become energized by the intention to write them.
Try thinking of people:
With whom you have lost contact with
Who have been caregivers for you or your loved ones
Who are role models or mentors
Who have had significant influence in your life
You know your gratitude will bring joy or healing
You see every day but forget to thank
The benefits of grateful living are an overall sense of well-being, according to the majority of empirical studies (Sansone & Sansone, 2010). This year, instead of the push for bigger and better resolutions, instead try incorporating gratefulness into your daily practice.
Sansone RA, Sansone LA. Gratitude and well being: the benefits of appreciation. Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2010 Nov;7(11):18-22. PMID: 21191529; PMCID: PMC3010965.
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