How to Practice Gratitude When You are Not Feeling Particularly Grateful

Consistently practicing and feeling gratitude is a way to stay in a high energetic vibration, where the magic happens. Gratitude can benefit you in many ways, including your health, sleep, and ability to face adversity. If you had to pick one thing to practice consistently, practice feeling gratitude it’s that important.

I had initially planned to write a blog about all the benefits of a strong gratitude practice because I had one. And I can tell you firsthand how my life changed as I began to practice gratitude more regularly.

Then, the unthinkable happened. My beloved sister was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, and after a short but fierce battle, she passed away. Not only did I avoid practicing or feeling gratitude throughout this journey, but I was also angry. And I was sad. And I was scared. Did I mention that I was angry? I got so frustrated when people kept telling me that I “should” be grateful the things I had, rather than dwell on what I had lost.

I allowed myself to wallow in my anger, fear, and uncertainty with no judgment or pressure to do anything different. But here’s the thing: hanging out in fear, anxiety, and self-pity is not fun.

It was then I realized that, like many other things in life, feeling grateful was a choice. And while I didn’t feel particularly grateful, I realized that I could choose to get back to a place where I could feel gratitude every day.

Here’s what I did to get my gratitude practice back:

1) “Fake it Till You Make It”

At night I journaled what I was grateful for, making nearly all of it up; I just wrote some things down to get back into the swing of writing in my gratitude journal. At first, it was 100 percent BS (for example, I’m grateful a meteor didn’t strike the earth today). Then gradually, over a couple of nights, it became 50/50. And after about ten days, I was back into my full nightly gratitude journaling practice.

2) No Pressure

I didn’t pressure myself. I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling—good or bad. And guess what? That’s a great thing to be grateful for!

3) Five Minute Game

I set aside five minutes to think about things that happened to me that day that didn’t suck. And I found gratitude for those things, whether it was a funny text from a friend; a silly meme I saw on the Gram; the sunshine and blue sky; a sip of cold water, etc.

Bottom Line

Even when you’re facing a crisis that seems to be dulling every aspect of your life, it’s not impossible to alter your vibration and tap into gratitude. You have the potential to live each day at your highest energetic vibration.