How Gratitude Can Help You Live a Simple Life - Life's Little Pleasures and Struggles

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Are you trying to slow down and enjoy a simple, more intentional lifestyle? Maybe you are struggling to choose simplicity and be happy with less. Having an attitude of gratitude can help.

When we think about simplifying our life, showing gratitude may be one of the simplest ways to feel better and more content. In fact, numerous studies have shown that expressing gratitude on a regular basis is one of the easiest ways to lift our spirits and boost our mood.

A study by Harvard Medical School revealed that “in positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Gratitude is not a challenge but a conscious choice. It’s a choice that we all can make intentionally, regardless of our present situations – to live a more fulfilling and happier life. Practicing gratitude is a direct pathway to the qualities of mind and heart which lend themselves to simplicity and sustainable motivation.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never, ever have enough.“ ~ Oprah Winfrey

One of the barriers to a simpler life is our desire for more, better, and bigger stuff. Our society is highly consumption-oriented, and it tells us that “more is better”. We are taught that in order to be happy and successful, we constantly need more than what we already have. Because our society tends to define us by what we do, own, or have, rather than who we are.

We secretly compare ourselves, our homes, our cars, and our possessions with that of our friends, neighbors, colleagues, or even strangers. We see what they have but we don’t. These unhealthy comparisons steal our happiness and affect our self-esteem. We feel less. We feel discontented. We even feel unworthy. And we feel like a failure!

When you don’t count your blessings and always complain about what you don’t have and what’s going wrong in your life, you can never appreciate the good things around you. You tend to fill your home and your life with unnecessary, fancy stuff just to feel more accomplished. Eventually they end up being physical, mental, and emotional clutter that complicate your life even more.

Gratitude is the cure.

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Gratitude Helps to Trim Down Your Cravings for More.

Being thankful for what you already have can be a huge help in trying to curb the urge to accumulate more and more stuff. This isn’t settling for material possessions, but really training your eyes and mind to see how much you already have. Gratitude makes what we have enough and more, and teaches us to be content. You learn to focus on all the positive things, and finally realize that owning more stuff won’t make you any happier.

Gratitude makes us appreciate the true value of the things we have in our life. And when you appreciate the value of something, you extract more benefits from it. As a result, you are less likely to take it for granted.

Gratitude Enhances Your Self-esteem and Confidence.

Being grateful improves your levels of self-esteem and self-respect. It increases your happiness and boosts your productivity, and you become more confident of yourself. You feel less resentment towards other people that appear to be doing better than you and having it all! Instead, you learn to appreciate their accomplishments, and recognize that your story and your journey – both are different from theirs.

Gratitude Discourages Unhealthy Comparisons:

Practicing gratitude helps you get out of the “glass is half empty” mindset and get into the habit of looking at the brighter side of everything. It also helps reduce negative comparisons with other people and pay more attention to what you have instead of what you don’t.

Due to cultivating gratitude in your heart, you are less likely to compare yourself with other people around you, and will experience a much greater satisfaction in your life as well. When you are content with what you have and who you are, you feel more confident of yourself and stop striving to have what someone else does or be like someone else.

By shifting your focus from materialism to what is truly important and meaningful in your life, gratitude helps you slow down and live a simple life. It’s not more stuff but more gratitude that you need to enjoy a happy, fulfilling life that you have always dreamed of.

Like this post? You may also like to read these beautiful gratitude quotes to feel more inspired. I also recommend checking out these best-selling books below in order to gain a greater understanding of the importance of gratitude and what it can do for you.