The first time I heard someone mention their gratitude practice, I thought… isn’t that strange. Why would you call it a practice. I mean, it’s just saying thank you for the stuff around you, isn’t it? I was confused and thought the whole idea sounded, well, frivolous and unnecessary, if I am being honest.

But I kept hearing about it, kept reading about it, and eventually I was ready to give it a try. To see what the hooplah was all about. So I got my pen and a notebook and sat down and…I didn’t know what to do. 

I imagine it was a similar feeling as if someone handed me a football and said, “okay, throw a perfect spiral”. I felt a little annoyed that I wasn’t instantly a natural, I felt kind of dumb that I didn’t get it.. And then it occurred to me: oh. This is why it’s a practice. 

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Because expressing gratitude in a way that actually changes things takes time, energy, and commitment. It’s a routine you have to adopt. And it, strangely enough, can feel harder to get started than you think.

But once you do it a few times it quickly becomes second nature. It’s not very hard. It requires no hand-eye coordination. And it can have immediate results (which is my favorite kind of practice, right?!)

I got the 5-minute journal* because I felt like having a bit of an outline would be beneficial. They also have an app if you are more of a digital type, but there is something very satisfying about writing it out to me. It took a while to get good at the habit, especially the night part — but I just keep it by my bed with a pen so there really are no excuses.

I don’t abide by the morning ritual hype (I think it ends up becoming just a check-list for people and loses its actual magic when treated so methodologically) but I do have a goal feeling I strive to achieve in one way or another before I start working. Gratitude has become something of a routine because it helps me get to that goal feeling (mine is a feeling of calm preparedness). I’ve noticed in times that I forget to do my gratitude practice that I end up feeling more frazzled, or that things start to get to me quicker and stress me out. 

Overall, if I had to tie real results to my gratitude practice it would be this: I’m less likely to get immediately stressed over something. I can keep a level-head, find the positives, and solve the problem. I’m more likely to get my to-do list done because it helps me to see it as a ‘get-to-do’ list instead. I’m more likely to see opportunities (and therefore make more money) because I’m looking at the world and my circumstances through a lens of happiness, abundance, and more.

If someone had been keeping track, and plotted the best times in my business history (financially, stress-levels-wise, etc.) they would coincide with the time that I focus on gratitude. I truthfully feel like incorporating a gratitude practice into your life in some capacity will improve everything, and definitely grow your business. 

But how, you ask?

Less Stressful Days

I used to not handle stress well. My natural ways included bottling everything up and then having a meltdown over some incredibly small trigger (once this happened because the gym was too full and I couldn’t figure out where to do a workout that I was kind of embarrassed to do — burpees — privately enough). Other alternatives to that include lashing out against people, crying in public, and laying on the couch unable to do anything for a day or two. Basically I turned to mush.

I’m not here to tell you that writing 3 things I’m grateful for makes that stress disappear. The stress still appears, but over time a gratitude practice has improved my ability to handle stress. And if you are running a business, no doubt, there will be stress.

What I’ve noticed is that I’ve started to recognize when I feel anxious or overwhelmed sooner, and I’ve given myself permission to stop. Writing down what I’m grateful for forces me to sometimes zoom in and find a micro thing I’m grateful for (the way Monte meows after I sneeze, as if he’s saying ‘bless you!’) and sometimes zoom out and see the big picture thing I’m grateful for (the sunshine coming through the window this morning). That same skill is really useful for me when it comes to handling stress. I’ve learned how to zoom in and see what is truly bothering me, but also zoom out and see that it won’t have any long-term-big-picture impacts, and I can let it go.

I did a little research, and there are scientific studies that show having a gratitude practice shows up physically in people - and one big way is with lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone, and we don’t want too much of that going around in our bodies (it can make you legitimately sick!). I can’t tell you whether or not my cortisol levels are any different, but I can tell you that days when I am consistently practicing gratitude are some of my calmest, easiest, least-stressful days. I mean there are still things happening that in the past would’ve thrown me in a tailspin, but I am able to process them easier.

As entrepreneurs stress is probably going to come up, right? Having a gratitude practice can help ease some of that overwhelm and let you think and produce good things easier and with less PANIC crying-at-the-gym-over-burpees moments.

See More Opportunities

With my gratitude practice I’ve also been able to notice more opportunities for growth in my business. And I don’t think it’s just a  happy coincidence, either. Here’s the deal: 

Have you heard of the idea (or had it happen to you) that you express an interest in something and suddenly it’s everywhere? A common example is when you buy a new car, and suddenly it seems like you see that car everywhere - at the grocery store, in line ahead of you at Starbucks, coming out of your neighborhood… what gives?!

It’s actually a real thing, called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also known as a frequency or recency illusion). The concept is actually really simple — all those instances of the car were there before, but because you put it into your mind and went out and spent time researching the car and buying one, your brain starts to give that more attention.

Using your Reticular Activating System, you’ve basically put a filter on alllllll the data your brain sifts through and said, “this car matters. I want to see more of it” on a subconscious level. So while the cars have always been there, your brain didn’t think they were important enough to show you necessarily. But then, you said, “hey no, those cars are really important to me actually” and your brain was like “oh, okay. HERE YOU GO.” And then you see one and you get excited, and you cement that idea a little bit more into your brain. And you see another one and you’re like “omg see, it’s everywhere!?” And your brain is like “YES this is what she wants!” It’s a cycle, one that you unintentionally created.

Okay, so what does that have to do with gratitude? Well. You spend time focusing on things you are grateful for, you take time to appreciate the good things in your life… and you start to notice them more and more. It’s not magic, truthfully. It’s your brain just doing what it does best — looking for patterns and connections and doing what you tell it to do (either consciously or unconsciously).

So here’s an example for business. Maybe you spend time focusing on how grateful you are that opportunities for new clients keep rolling in. And because you’ve built this subconscious focus on finding clients, or getting clients, or seeing opportunities for clients… maybe it’s easier for you to see how you could answer that DM on Instagram in a way that leads to your services. Or maybe you see a post of someone in the explore feed or in a Facebook group needing to hire a position you’re a great fit for. Those things would’ve been there regardless, but because you’ve opened yourself up to seeing them — you do!

Other ways I’ve noticed gratitude impacting my business is that I’ve become a total silver-linings-person (and honestly, I love it). I see opportunities in everything now. Lose a client? That’s fine, now there’s room for a better fit client. Oh that email didn’t send properly? That’s okay, now I can tweak the copy, or reach out directly to someone and make a more genuine connection. I am in full belief that the universe is always working out for my best interests, and with my gratitude practice it becomes so much easier to see every single situation (“good” or “bad”) as a way to grow and develop and get a step closer to my goals. 

Better Quality Work

The last thing I want to mention is that overall my quality of work has improved when I focus on gratitude. It’s because I suddenly see tasks as things I GET to do, things I’m EXCITED to do, versus just a to-do list. 

It allows me to see that big picture, and remember why I am doing what I do. Why what I do serves the life I want to live. It’s really easy to get bogged down in the to-do list and the overwhelm, and the blah blah blah. But moving your focus from ‘this is too much’ to ‘this is helping my create my dream life and business’ is a gamechanger, and gratitude has helped me to do that.

That being said, if you feel like right now perhaps you aren’t creating your dream life and business — click here to learn more about working together. 

 But overall a gratitude practice is sort of like a reality check. You know the scene: your friend complaining about something that to you seems trivial and silly, and you’re like okay maybe that kind of sucks but then you got all of this thing and you did all of that other thing and it’s not that bad… a gratitude practice helps me to do that to myself. 

 *This post has been adapted from its original posting that I created under my design business, TheCrownFox. It does contain affiliate links of products that I use and love!