The Power of Gratitude in My Life

Wuynas nuchis! (Good evening in Quechua btw)

So it's around 12:30 pm right now as I'm writing this so I'm settling down, doing my typical night time routine and there's one thing I've started doing this year that I'll like to share with you guys. Last year I noticed that many of the entrepreneurs that I look up to, for example Mimi and Alex Ikonn, all do something in common...they write down what they're grateful for everyday. According to studies done by psychologists like Robert Emmons, the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude, being thankful and expressing gratitude improves:

• mental
• physical 
• and relational well-being

This means that the act of cultivating gratitude has resulted in wonderful changes in people, like heightened energy levels, confidence, heightened spirituality, greater likelihood to exercise and even a decrease in blood pressure! So...

My happy self.

I wanted to see if these changes would apply to me. When I got back from Peru in early January, I cut up 365 strips of paper and placed some of them in a cup on my desk and next to it I placed an empty mug. Every night, before I go to bed I write down an experience that I'm grateful for that happened that day. I fold up the paper and drop it into the mug. My goal is that by the end of the year, I can read up all these strips of paper and be reminded on just how grateful I should be for the life I'm living right now. 

I clearly don't have enough Peruvian objects in my room.

Another thing that has worked for me is an app called Gratitude Garden which I downloaded via the Play Store ( I'm an Android type of gal). You write down three good things that happened the past day and I usually do this in the morning to reminisce on just how happy those things made me feel. This allows me to start my day on the right foot. 

I've found that expressing gratitude has been very effective in my overall mood and in pushing myself to make changes in my life to help make me the very best version of myself. 

I strongly encourage you to be more grateful and incorporate routines like these into your life. Life is too short to focus on the bad things that happen in your life and to be anything but happy! Instead focus on what you have now, at this moment in your life, and how to make the best out of the opportunities you have now instead of what you don't have. 

~ Mente feliz, vida feliz.~

Buenas noches.

Karen
- The Chic Engiruvian