12 Ways to Feel Gratitude during a Pandemic

This past year has certainly been challenging for all of us in so many ways. There are times it is difficult to see the beauty around us when we are surrounded by challenges. This can be the same not only in a pandemic but during any crisis. The key is to focus on even small things to be happy about, as you feel gratitude for these things it will be easier to find even greater gratitude and happiness around you.

Personally right now as I am writing this I am truly grateful to be warm and cozy inside with about 18 inches of snow on the ground.

1 Beautiful Day

Being grateful for the day is an easy place to start. Is the weather nice? If it isn’t do you have the means to stay comfortable? Look for local birds or plants; think about how they impact the area you are seeing.

2 Time in Nature

I have spent a lot of time walking just to get a change of scenery, to feel better and for my overall well-being. Luckily I leave a short driving distance from walking trails. Even sitting in a park or your yard can bring a sense of wellbeing.

3 Comfortable Cloths

I certainly spend more time in comfortable cloths than I ever have working from home exclusively. Maybe it’s a fuzzy pair of socks or a favorite sweater than can make you feel better even on a rough day.

4 Pets/Animals

If you have pets, be grateful for their love and company. If you don’t have pets, be grateful to that beautiful bird or cute squirrel that crosses your path.

5 Games/Puzzles

Puzzles and games have helped family’s reduce boredom and spend time together. In a time with so many electronics getting back to these basic board games and puzzles has allowed a new generation to find old school fun.

6 Creativity

7 Treasured Item

8 Coffee

Coffee, tea this can be any beverage of your choice.

9 Health

Be thankful for even a single portion of your health. Maybe you have great eyesight or hearing, maybe you are flexible, pick out one thing that makes you feel good about yourself.

10 Family

In these uncertain times spending time and being grateful for members of our family can be a key to our wellbeing. These people don’t have to be related to you by blood, just people you feel you can truly trust and rely on.

11 Virtual Tours

Many museums are offering virtual tours. What a great way to see a museum you could never get to in the past. Something new in a world with far too many restrictions.

12 Books

Many of us have more time at home than we ever have. Books can transport us into a new place or time. Whether you read paper copies, on a device or via audiobooks they can be a great way to relax. Find a new story, ready a biography of someone you admire or a book about a historical time period that you find fascinating.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of changes around COVID–19.  This is a challenging and fluid situation.  It can be easy to get drawn in to all the negative situations and reports around us.  Many of us are isolated from friends and family.

Many people have lost jobs even temporarily, trying to work remote while entertaining kids who cant go to school, or have to go into work in spite the health risks.  My heart goes out to all the people working in health care and all the sacrifices they are making.

Take time for yourself.  Write in your journal.  Find some new things to be grateful about. Myself I am working from home with my daughter who had surgery and could finally attend school, the day they closed it.  I was on a conference call today and one thing said was really inspirational.  Its OK to feel, stressed or be upset with everything going on but do one thing every day that makes you feel good.  I love to walk on a local trail, so weather permitting I plan to do that as my daily gift to myself and my mental health.

Three figures on brown surface

Home with family? This is a great time to re-connect with your household, play a board game, watch a movie as a family or just talk.  Many schools aren’t set up for on-line learning.  Its a great time for the kids to learn some basic life skills.  Cook a meal or have them follow a recipe (depending on age) with your supervision, show them how to balance a checkbook, do laundry or hem a pair of pants.

Burger on brown wooden chopping board

No Kids? If you are with a partner spend some quality device free time together.    If you are alone? Do that on-line class you never get to, work on a project you’ve had on your list for a while or do a video happy hour with a friend.

Be grateful for the health care workers out there every day trying to help and for friends and family pitching in to watch children so those workers or others like them have to go into work right now.

Still getting your regular paycheck? Help the local businesses by buying gift cards if they have to close to use later and get takeout from local restaurants to help support them.  Do what you can to help from a safe distance.

Finding Lasting Happiness Through Gratitude

One of the most important steps towards learning to live life to the fullest is to embrace gratitude within your life. Feeling gratitude is all about feeling a deep appreciation for someone or something, and for the things that they provide to the world. These feelings of thankfulness then go on to produce lasting feelings of positivity and happy emotions. When you feel thankful for something or someone then the feeling acts as a way for your mind to acknowledge the good things in your life, connecting your spirit to a greater emotion that not only encompasses your own feelings, but the actions of the world that surround you.

Gratitude comes in two steps. The first step is to acknowledge the good things that happen to us in our lives, which is where we begin to feel grateful. This can be in recognizing all the kind things that others do for us or noticing the effort that someone has put into helping you in some way. This step encompasses the things that make us feel thankful. The second step, where we go from feeling thankful to fully embracing the concept of gratitude, is when we recognize these positive influences as happening outside of ourselves. Part of this realization is learning that we are not at the source of our feelings of gratitude, and thus must accept that the things we feel are thanks to others.

One of the biggest qualities of accepting gratitude is that you learn to be less selfish in your appreciation for life. It is important to have healthy concepts of ourselves, and to think highly of who we are, but to fully embrace gratitude one must recognize the good in other people, as opposed to just the good within yourself. While some might find it challenging to try and connect to a concept that is not inherently self-revolving, learning to find the good in things that are coming from a higher power than your own thoughts help connect you to others.

Gratitude is incredibly important to learning how to find lasting happiness within your life. Feeling gratitude can help in the short term as it allows for instant boosts in mood, helping you feel closer to your friends, family, and even strangers who are able to provide some kind act to you. Someone who has accepted gratitude will experience mood boosts such as when their barista delivers their morning coffee, as they are thankful that someone is willing to work so hard just to make their day better and more caffeinated. Someone who does not think of their morning coffee as an opportunity to feel grateful will be more focused on how long they had to wait in line rather than the fact that someone is providing them a service. In these more immediate scenarios we focus on how someone is treating us positively, and we are encouraged to try to live a life where we aim to make others feel the way that we know we are able to.

Gratitude not only helps you in your short-term happiness but can teach you how to re-evaluate the things in your life to become happier overall, even when you are not directly experiencing thoughts of thankfulness. Learning gratitude allows you to better cope with the negative aspects within your life. Because you learn to rely on gratitude, you will be better equipped to find the good things within the bad. Imagine that you suddenly lose your job tomorrow. Someone who has not fully embraced gratitude would focus on only the bad aspects, such as the sudden lack of income, the need to find a new job, and the stress that comes with making such a huge life change. On the other hand, someone who embraces a life of gratitude may still stress about such a life change, but they would be better able to find some joy from such a difficult situation. With gratitude, you may be able to change your perspective from “jobless” to having a new opportunity to re-evaluate your goals and passions and find a new position that is not only better in-line with your needs, but that appreciates you as an employee. Instead of seeing a set-back, the person who is prepared to recognize gratitude will see the situation as a new challenge.

It can be easy to thank others when they provide us with a service or with kindness but saying “thank you” barely scratches the surface of leading a life of gratitude. The next time you thank someone, take a brief moment to reflect on what that thanks means to you. The reason you are thanking them is because they have done something kind for you, whether they were obligated to, or not. This means that they have taken time out of their day to spend on pleasing you, rather than doing something for themselves. Learning to understand all the efforts that go in to making someone else happy will help you better understand the true meaning of gratitude and will have you considering how inherently kind others can be.

There are many steps that one can take to practice gratitude in their life. One of the easiest ways is to take note each time someone makes you feel thankful or appreciative. Whether you make notes on your cellphone or keep a notebook in your purse, take time to write down a short sentence of what someone did for you, and how it made you feel. Having a physical record of all the ways you have felt grateful acts as a reminder of all the good in this world and gives you something to look back on during the times that you struggle to see positivity.

Whether you are aiming to learn how to spread positivity in the lives of others, or you simply want to start living a happier life, learning the best ways for you to embrace gratitude can change your life. Consider what makes you feel the happiest and most appreciative and begin to cherish these moments and what it means about the world around you. You may find yourself repeating daily affirmations of gratitude or encouraging your friends to share what they’re thankful for on a regular basis. No matter what it is, learning how to embrace gratitude in your life and encouraging others to do the same will put you on the path to look at the world in a better light, and will have you appreciating even the smallest acts.