How to be grateful for what you have when things are bad

Cultivating a habit of being grateful is important if you want to improve the quality of your life.

Being grateful can help you to be a happier person. It also increases productivity and yes, it increases your chances of being successful in your endeavors.

Related: What is the secret to success?

When you have the habit of being grateful you become a more positive person. You see life from the lens of what you have rather than what you don’t have.

When you are grateful even when things are bad in your life, gratitude can help you overcome.

How can you be grateful when things are bad?

Truth is, it is easy to be grateful when everything is going well. But what if things are not going well for you? How can you be grateful?

To build a habit of gratitude when things are bad, you have to shift your focus. Shift your thinking from the problems you are facing to the positive aspects of your life.

Move your focus from your challenges to what you have that can help you.

Some questions to ask yourself to help you shift your focus and find things to be grateful for are:

• What skills or tools do I have that can get me through this season?
• Which relationships can I depend on to support me through this season?
• What lessons am I learning from this experience?
• When was the last time I was in a similar situation?
• Who or what helped me to get through it?

Questions stimulate your mind to find things to be grateful for

When you ask yourself these questions, you force your brain to find positivity in a difficult situation. You find reasons to be grateful.

As you find answers to your questions, you will find things to be grateful for. Good things that may have been clouded by your challenges start coming to light. In many cases, you find hope where there was none.

You can be grateful for a skill, a relationship, a person, lessons learned and even challenges that you are able to overcome.

Say Thank You

If you need some inspiration to be grateful, this video from iamfearlesssoul.com is one that you should listen to.

Gratitude helps you to have faith in yourself

The habit of being grateful will help you to keep hope alive. When yu are constantly trying to find something to be thankful for, you will start to notice of the small improvements that happen in your life.

You are able to appreciate more the incremental progress you make every day even when things are bad. Thankfulness causes one to have a mindset shift. Instead of obsessing over the negative aspects of your situation, you start seeing the positive.

Small achievements become magnified. You realize that you are capable of making a difference even in a small way. This, in turn, keeps you inspired to overcome the challenges you face. Solutions come easier to a positive mind.

Gratitude can help you to overcome your challenges and totally change your life. I should know, gratitude changed my life.

Things to be grateful for every day:

The things that we should be grateful are not necessarily complicated or magnificent. They are the simple things in life that we take for granted.

The daily experiences that you have day by day are worth being thankful for. You just need to look at them differently.

Here are 11 super simple things you can be grateful for today and every single day

1. Food to eat
   • Don’t wait until you go hungry for you to appreciate that you have food on your plate. If you find it hard to be grateful for food, think about the children starving to death in Turkana.
2. A roof over your head
   • Think about the homeless person that has no place to sleep. Imagine not being out in the cold during winter or in the scorching sun during summer because you have no roof. Be grateful.
3. Air to breath
   • Imagine the people in hospital paying to be on an oxygen machine, but you can breath just fine.
4. Family
   • Think about that family member who comes through for you every single time. What would you do without them?
5. A memory
   • Think back to a time you were really happy. What happened? Be grateful for that.
6. A job/ financial wellbeing
   • Do you have enough money to get you through today? A job that helps you pay all your bills? That is something to be thankful for.
7. A skill
   • Do you have a skill that you are really proud of?
8. Access to the internet
   • Do you have WiFi in your house? Can you afford internet bundles? What opportunities has the internet exposed you to? How has it made your life easier? Thank God for the internet.
9. Education
   • Not everyone has been blessed with the opportunity to access quality education. Think about where you would be if you were not educated. Give thanks for access to education.
10. Hope
    • Do you believe that tomorrow is going to be a better day? That in itself is a gift. There are many people walking around feeling hopeless about life. Be grateful that you have hope and keep you hope alive.
11. Challenges that have made you a better person
    • What is that challenge that you overcame and it made you a better person?

So, what are you grateful for today?

Take a moment and list down what you are grateful for today. Feel free to share one thing you are grateful for in the comments below.

Check out these journal prompts for inspiration.