Top 5 Mistakes That Can Be Preventing You From Being Grateful (Part 1/2)

Have you been struggling to practice gratitude despite trying multiple techniques? I’m happy to say that I have a different point of view to share with you today.

Have you ever thought that some unconscious beliefs can be preventing you from being grateful? If this is your case, insisting on behavioral attitudes won’t change the results.

Sometimes, when we’re stuck, we have to take some steps back and retrace the path, giving our minds new perspectives.

So, stay here, and in the next few minutes, I’ll help you to do that.

1. You’re Using Ingratitude As Motivation

It may sound strange if you’re hearing this for the first time, but let me use my life’s example to explain how it usually works.

Being ungrateful turned out to be a mechanism that my mind created to push me harder, “my motivation”.

My brain kept telling me that feeling ungrateful meant I hadn't achieved my life goals. So, I should keep working hard.

Also, I feared that if I started to feel grateful for what I already had, it would get me more relaxed and slow things down. Consequently, it would get me further from my life goals.

After some years of living with this unconscious belief, my therapist helped me to expose it to my conscious mind.

Upon becoming aware of the situation, I was able to manage it better. As a result, I have come to the following conclusions.

• Ingratitude is a weapon that can only harm yourself
• Being ungrateful can easily drag you into a cycle of negative thinking, anxiety disorder, and depression.
• Practicing gratitude is not only for successful people. On the contrary, it is the key to becoming successful.

In short, I would say that

Practicing gratitude gets you prepared for life's battles.

2. You Give Up Before Experiencing Its Benefits

Practicing gratitude is like building a new habit, it requires time, motivation, and dedication.

As with any other new habit, you’ll fail in the first weeks, and it’s OK.

There’s a myth that you’ll have to do the action every day for 40 days without missing one to build a new habit. Otherwise, you would be breaking the chain and would have to get back to the day 1.

As I said, IT IS A MYTH.

It’s all right if you skip a day, the most important thing is to keep trying until it becomes natural.

About the benefits, it’s like going to the gym, the greatest results come from consistency, not from spending hours on a single day.

You’ll have to be patient, but don’t give up, keep practicing and the benefits will come to you.

The Mayo Clinic says, “Feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain, and risk of disease.”

There are a large number of benefits you can get from practicing gratitude.

If you have difficulty building this habit, I advise you to start as easily as possible.

For example, you can use a simple notes app to create a gratitude journal and write down every day 3 things you’re grateful for. It will only take 5 minutes a day, and after a week you’ll already start to see the good effects in your life.

Next week I’ll post the second part of this story, so, don’t forget to follow me and subscribe to receive a notification as soon as I post it.

Now I leave you with this quote by Oprah Winfrey.

“Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.” — Oprah Winfrey

See you soon.