How to Allow Gratitude to Change Your Life
There’s no doubt about it, an attitude of gratitude can be life-changing. The only problem is that many of us don’t know where to start. Here is how to allow gratitude to change your life.

Reading to find out everything you need to know about being thankful including tips, benefits, and the science behind it. Learn why and how just a couple of moments of thanks can change your life for the better.
What is Gratitude
I think we’re all familiar with gratitude. It is being thankful for something. This is usually in response to compliments, gifts, or when we receive something.
It can also be directed at an event, a person, a place, or really anything at all. You might feel grateful if someone helps you carry in the groceries or if someone opens the door for you. During certain times of the year, we tend to remember to give thanks and celebrate, but what about the rest of the year?
Why Does it Work
So, why is gratitude life-changing? This is because gratitude is one of the only scientifically proven ways to drastically and permanently increase your baseline happiness. Baseline happiness is the amount of joy you feel neutrally. We as human beings operate on a hedonistic treadmill. This means that our baseline happiness is usually constant. While going to a party, getting a gift, or going on a trip may temporarily increase levels of happiness, soon after the event, baseline levels of happiness return.
Too long, didn’t read, our happiness levels don’t fluctuate too much after an event, gift, or party. This means that if there is a way for us to raise our baseline levels of happiness, then we can be happier overall in our regular day-to-day life.
Health Benefits of Gratitude
The benefits of gratitude are both physical and mental. As stated above, gratitude can increase baseline happiness. The more joy you experience on a normal, mundane day, the less stress and anxiety you are likely to experience. Stress in particular is damaging to the body. Cortisol, the stress hormone, tends to increase inflammation which can be detrimental to your physical health and can lead to long-term illness and disease.
Besides that, happier people tend to report more positive outcomes in life. This may be because when you are feeling more positive, you tend to be more solution-oriented, optimistic, and feel in control of your life. Happier people tend to make more connections with other individuals and feel more supported by life in general.
People also report less emotional pain, increased understanding of the world, and an increased value in life, in family, friends, relationships, health, work, etc. Gratitude allows the brain to change for the better, letting it focus on things that matter in life. People who are more thankful tend to have more dopamine and serotonin released, happiness chemicals that are related to joy, relaxation, pleasure, and tranquility.
The Gratitude Experiment
Let’s quickly talk about the gratitude experiment. Robert Emmons, a UC Davis psychology professor and author, researched gratitude for decades. In his experiment, he divided 300 people into three groups. One group had to write things they were thankful for. Another group wrote about what bothered them. The last group was random and could write about whatever they wanted.
He found that the people who focused on what they were thankful for reported much higher levels of wellness than the other two groups. This group which focused on gratitude also reported better quality of sleep and tended to have more energy throughout the day. The simple act of focusing on things they were grateful for set their brains up for wellbeing.
How to Allow Gratitude to Change Your Life
So, without further Ado let’s get right into it. Here is how to allow gratitude to change your life. Knowing how to practice gratitude is half the battle. The other half is actually doing it.

Say it Out Loud
A simple habit you can incorporate into your day is to simply say thank you more. Say thank you when someone hands you something, say it when someone holds the door open, say it when you eat something delicious. It’s helpful to say thank you out loud because you start to notice more and more things to be thankful for. You can even say thank you for something you do for yourself. Thank you legs because you got me from point A to point b, thank you hands for holding this cup, thank you eyes for seeing the sunset.
Mental Morning Thanks
Another simple gratitude habit that you can adopt is to start off your morning with thanks. Thank your pillow for holding your head, thank your bed, thank the roof over your head. Fuel gratitude for simple things, even something as simple as waking up.
Journal with Gratitude
Just like the experiment done with 300 people, you too can journal with gratitude. All you need to do is set aside a short time daily to journal with gratitude. Just think of a couple of things you’re grateful for. List them and take a moment to truly feel them. Think about what each thing you’re grateful for makes you feel.
Count Your Blessings
There are times in life when we feel like we have nothing to be grateful for. This can be very true, especially for those of us going through dark times. It’s okay to not feel okay, but it’s important for us to always seek out light and a silver lining. Think about simple ways that you can count your blessings.
Think about the Sun and how the Earth is the perfect distance from it for life to grow. Think about the moon and its effect on tides. Think about how grateful you were that you saw the sky. Just start counting on little things, and soon it might become an avalanche of ideas and thoughts you’re grateful for
Thank You Notes
Nothing’s better than a visual reminder of gratitude. A final simple habit that you can use to allow gratitude to change your life is to make some thank you notes and stick them all over your house. This can be as easy as writing down things you are grateful for on Post-it notes. Put these post-it notes in places where you will see them such as the mirror, the coffee maker, or the fridge. That way, you have a visual reminder of things to be thankful for.
The Takeaway
Being thankful can raise happiness, increase physical health, and make you a better version of yourself. Allow gratitude to change your life today and watch how every aspect of you and your surroundings starts to feel bright.
Remember that health comes from within. Eat nutritious food, exercise when you can, and take care of your mental health. The small daily habits you cultivate become the basis for overall wellness. Don’t forget about microbiota health too! Gut microbiota affects the entire body, from the skin to muscles, to immune and mental health! Get all the resources you need about microbiota health for free here!