3 Easy Ways To Build A Gratitude Practice Into Your Day Without Forcing It

One of the most impactful things I’ve ever done for my well-being was deciding to ritualize gratitude and make it a non negotiable part of my day. Taking stock of what you appreciate about your life has been proven to increase happiness levels, even when we don’t see huge progress towards our goals, because it gives us permission to feel happy about where we are right not, not waiting for someday.

This is a crucial thought process to integrate when trying to appreciate, or at least feel neutral about your body. It’s healthy and important to have goals you’re working towards in any context, but if you’re waiting to feel content and proud of yourself until you hit a certain size or can do a 3 minute plank or get that promotion, you’re going to waste a lot of time feeling dissatisfied in your body, and in your life.

The downside is that it can be annoying to think about adding ANOTHER wellness ritual to your day. We barely have time for all the pilates, meditating, breathwork, foam rolling, gua sha-ing, journaling, tea making, marathon training etc that the media pushes on us. Don’t get me wrong, those are all incredible tools (I’m particularly partial to the pilates-ing!) to change how you feel in your body and in your life, but it can be OVERWHELMING. So, I had a think, and created a list of ways to build gratitude into your day that doesn’t feel like a chore. Read on!

3 Easy, Fun Ways To Start and Maintain Your Gratitude Practice

• Have a conversation with a loved one.

  • With a partner/friend/roommate/family member, every night before bed, tell your partner the 3 best parts of our day— even on the shitty days (ESPECIALLY on the shitt days!). Making it a tradition not only gamifies the gratitude experience, making us more likely to stick with it, but shared rituals strengthen your bond and improve the health of your relationship.

• Keep a journal.

  • The Five Minute Journal is a great place if you like structure, but it doesn’t need to cost anything! Sometimes when we make a practice so formal if feels harder to do. Your gratitude journal can be a fancy notebook, but it can also be a notes app on your phone or a Notion doc. When you wake in the morning, set yourself up for a good mental health day by starting with a few minutes of reflection about everything that’s good in your world and notice how much less inclined you are to fall into the negativity cycle on days you’re able to stick with this practice!

• Habit stack.

  • The book Atomic Habits taught me this process. It’s much easier to integrate a new practice when you couple it with something that’s already second nature. When it comes to healing our relationships with exercise, I’ve found that stacking gratitude with exercise helps tamper down body dissatisfaction and begets confidence. Before each workout, mentally list something you love about your body. If you’ve been struggling with a particular aspect of your body image, concentrate on finding something (or things) you are grateful for about that. You could also do your gratitude list every morning while you brush your teeth! It doesn’t matter what habit you stack it with, as long as it’s a habit you never miss, so you start associating them together!

Conclusion

A gratitude practice has an enormous impact, but doing the daily work of checking in and appreciating your life doesn’t have to be a forced activity. Maybe you even start once a week, and build from there so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. The last thing you want to do is start to dread your self care when we know how good it makes us feel. It’s the same for our movement practice- if we think of it as a chore or as a punishment, we’re less likely to do it. If we make it accessible and attainable, (like the HPS quickies!) we see the most profound change.

You can find the 15 min quickie workouts and 400 + pilates, cardio, stretch and more classes ranging from 5-45 minutes on Helen Phelan Studio, and if you’re not already a member, there’s a free 10 day trial to get started!

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