The Power Of Gratitude And The Best Ways To Show Gratitude In Your Life
Unless you fall from the Moon (which would be a very rare case; please inform someone), you know that expressing gratitude goes beyond the boring “Thank you!” Yet, it’s a crucial sign of good manners to whisper these words wherever needed, but when we talk about how to show gratitude to the people around us, we must be a little bit more creative.
Today, we’re talking about all the ways in which we could show gratitude to everyone around and ourselves too (loving ourselves is always nice, right?). More specifically:
- ways to show gratitude to parents
- ways to show gratitude to your family – yes, the extended aunts, uncles, and hundreds of cousins you grew up with
- ways to show gratitude to your loved one – some special ways to express love and gratefulness they’re still willing to live their lives with you around
- ways to show gratitude to friends – they deserve special “Thanks” for putting up with you for so long
- ways to show gratitude at work – your colleagues want to be appreciated too
- ways to show gratitude to strangers we encounter every day
- ways to show gratitude to yourself – yes, surprisingly, you matter a lot too
- ways to show gratitude to life – just because it’s nice to mention these things too
As a bonus, you will also get some very deep and meaningful gratitude quotes that could inspire you even more.
Have fun!
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Why is gratitude so important?
I’m glad you asked! If you didn’t – you should’ve!
I love talking, writing, and speaking about the immense power of gratitude and the things we could achieve in life by simply implementing more gratefulness into our hearts and actions. People often get used to their everyday life and forget that life itself is a gift along with everything in it.
Gratitude is important because it helps you see what you already have inside and outside of you. People often get used to their everyday life and forget that life itself is a gift along with everything in it. By expressing gratitude, we show appreciation for what we experience, we remind ourselves that we already have so many things, that we’ve achieved a lot, and in this way, we invite happiness within us.
Gratitude could help you manifest the life you want while enjoying the life you already have. The one thing doesn’t exclude the other, and that is why gratitude is so crucial. It cultivates humbleness, kindness, helps us stay good to others and ourselves.
Overall, gratitude is the greatest way to live our days, and we are obliged (in a positive way) to have it always in our hearts.
With that in mind, expressing gratitude to those around us is simply a habit that we could develop with the right positive mindset.
77 Gentle Ways To Show Gratitude For Others And Ourselves
Ways to show gratitude to parents
1. Help with chores. No matter if you still live with your parents or you visit them twice a month. Take over some of the house chores and let them have a free minute to enjoy your presence. Make them proud of themselves.
2. Call more often. Yes, more often than you do right now.
3. Say “Thank you!” more often. We easily forget to express verbal gratitude towards the closest people around us. But they aren’t entitled to do what they do; it’s their choice and act of love.
4. Spend quality time together. Spend the day out together, go on a holiday together, have dinner without any distractions such as TV and guests.
5. Hug them.
6. Be patient. They are only doing their best.
7. Be present. Step away from the phone! Meet their eyes! Listen!
8. Be respectful and polite. Just because they could put up with your attitude, it doesn’t mean they should.
9. Appreciate their efforts to make you happy.
10. Spend the holidays together. You can go out with your friends on any other day of the year. Save the special holidays for the people who need you the most. That’s the best way to show gratitude to your parents.
Expressing gratitude to your family
11. Acknowledge the things they do well and let them know about it. We all like it when our efforts are appreciated. Your family isn’t an exception.
12. Smile and say, “I love you!” more often. Of course, you love them. You just keep living your life without saying it to them.
13. Call them often. Yes, you see each other every Christmas and Thanksgiving, but the birthdays aren’t the only other occasion you should call your family. Try to surprise them with an unexpected call every once in a while.
14. If possible, organize a family gathering without any reason (2020 content here!).
15. Cook something nice for them and visit them.
16. Remind them of the moments they helped you. It will show them that you don’t forget their input in your life.
17. Laugh together.
18. Be there when they need you.
19. Less judging, more understanding.
20. Create a family album of your best moments together.
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Showing gratitude to your loved one
21. Hug and kiss. Say: “I love you!”. These are the daily tasks you can never postpone.
22. Let them sleep in when possible. That’s a treat we all need.
23. Do something instead of them. Wash their car, do a home chore, run an errand instead of them.
24. Find their love language and act according to it.
25. Give them some “alone” time and let them enjoy it in peace.
26. Cook a meal the love or order food at home.
27. Write them a love letter. Take it to the next level and have your love letter handwritten with a calligraphy font. See how it works here.
28. Surprise him with a sweet and unexpected gesture. Here are some ideas on how to show love for your wife, or click here for ways to show love for your husband.
29. Be present when you talk to them. Listen to what they need to share with you.
30. Support them in their goals and decisions. There’s nothing more motivating than having a loved one who’s supportive no matter what.
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How to show gratitude to your friends
31. Call them even when you have nothing to complain about.
32. Get them a Bestie Box to make them feel appreciated.
33. Remember their best moments and their wins in life, so you could remind them when they feel down.
34. Support them in their difficult times.
35. Always answer the phone. That’s what friends are for.
36. Listen more than you talk.
37. Organize dinner to catch up over a bottle of wine.
38. Do something fun together.
39. Say: “I love you!”, “I appreciate you!” and “Thank you!”
40. Have your unique tradition. Think of something you won’t do with anyone else, a place always to go together, a dish (or a drink) always to enjoy together, and so on.
Ways to show gratitude at work
41. Say: “Thank you!” and show appreciation for your colleagues’ work.
42. Don’t give your projects or work tasks to someone else to do them.
43. Help if you’re asked for help.
44. Gift them with something that will make them go LOL.
45. Cheer them up on a stressful day.
46. Leave them alone when they’re swamped.
47. Praise them often. We all love it when our work’s been noticed.
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48. Remember good times. One day, when you decide to leave the team, you will have reasons to smile and be grateful for those moments.
49. Get them a cup of hot coffee or a warm meal if they can’t go out for lunch.
50. Be respectful and polite even when it’s hard. It could be a challenge to get along with some colleagues. Yet, do your best.
Ways to show love to strangers
51. Help when you see a stranger needs a hand. For example, the mother trying to get on the bus with a huge stroller needs your help. A homeless person might enjoy a warm drink or a sandwich.
52. Give tips to people in restaurants and coffee shops. They work really hard to make you happy.
53. Say: “Thank you!” and “I’m sorry!” when needed. Just because you’ll never meet that person, it doesn’t mean you must ignore them.
54. Be patient with customer service people, even if it’s not your day.
55. Forgive mistakes. We all do them, and we all regret them.
56. Smile. It could make someone’s day.
57. Look into their eyes. Yes, people who serve you are still human beings who need eye contact every now and then.
58. Defend others. Never ignore an issue, you witness. We are all obliged to look out for each other and make this world a better place.
59. Let their superior know they’ve done a great job. It might be the comment that could save their position or help them get the promotion.
60. Make their job easier. Don’t leave a mess behind you just because there’s someone who’s “getting paid” to clean it.
Expressing gratitude to those around us is simply a habit that we could develop with the right positive mindset.
Best ways to express gratitude for yourself
61. Rest more, sleep more, find time to recover your precious energy. Work never ends. But health is fragile.
62. Pamper yourself with self-care subscription boxes that will keep you focused on loving yourself.
63. Be less critical to yourself. Negative emotions are normal, and there are ways to manage them better.
64. Forgive yourself for it. Yes, that thing that just sneaked into your mind – forgive yourself for it.
65. Appreciate the person you are and treat yourself better – build daily routines that keep you healthy.
66. Get yourself a well-deserved gift.
67. Learn your lessons and work on your personal growth. One day you will be very grateful for every extra push you did.
68. Every day, find reasons to be happy.
69. Laugh every day.
70. Spend more time with people you love and make you feel loved.
Appreciating life
71. Have a gratitude journal that helps you express your gratitude in it daily.
72. Pray more. Meditate more.
73. Appreciate what you have. Never forget that the things you have right now and probably neglect are someone else’s dream.
74. Appreciate who you are. You are a good person. You are valuable. You are loved. You are worth it.
75. Be optimistic. Pessimists fail and regret it. Optimists see opportunities in every hardship and learn a lesson every time they fail.
76. Be positive and kind with yourself, the people around you, and with life.
77. See the beauty in life and nurture it.
10 Meaningful Gratitude Quotes That Touch Hearts
“The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.” – Robert Holden
“It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” – Germany Kent
“Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.” – Edwin Arlington Robinson
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” – Ralph, Waldo Emerson
“Gratitude is the appreciation of things that are not deserved, earned or demanded – those wonderful things that we take for granted.” – Renée Paule
“If you want to find happiness, find gratitude.” – Steve Maraboli
“What can you do right now to turn your life around?? Gratitude” – The Secret
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward
“It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” – Wallace D. Wattles
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others” – Cicero
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” – G. K. Chesterton
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward
“It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude. It’s gratitude that brings us happiness.” – Anonymous
“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” – Cynthia Ozick
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
“If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brantt
“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy” – Ralph H. Blum
“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.” – Vietnamese Proverb
What other ways to show gratitude do you know? Share in the comments.
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77 Simple Ways To Show Gratitude For Others and Ourselves
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
Gary
Thursday 6th of February 2025
Hello Does expressing gratitude need to be genuine? The reason I ask as more often than not, I don’t feel gratitude. I hesitated to text or respond to text from my wife, because then she knows I am available. If I am available, she may call and want to talk. I have very little frame of reference for gratitude, love or empathy. This may seem like a very lonely life and would be correct. I fear vulnerability, talking leads to emotional issues and vulnerability. So I fear talking and responding with or showing gratitude.
Thank you Gary
RachelJo
Thursday 6th of February 2025
I've been in a position where gratitude was the last thing I felt and learned that no, it shouldn't be always genuine. It's like food - when you eat, even if not hungry, you teach your body to crave food and experience hunger. The same way with gratitude - it can be faked at first, but if you try your best, just for a thing or two every day, you would soon experience it. Also, I don't see gratitude as vulnerability. In my humble opinion, the one who receives gratitude feels more vulnerable than the one giving it because gratitude is usually a follow-up of something they did and we received. I have so many post on gratitude in this blog, maybe they can help you see different points of view, just go to the Journaling section on the menu to find them.