Practicing gratitude in your daily routine is a brightening act of kindness.
I value gratitude especially, since I like to show my appreciation towards others and to recognize their efforts. I believe that gratitude is a powerful practice that can provoke positive emotions between yourself and others
I practice gratitude by spending quality time with my family and loved ones.
During our quality time, I do my best to check on how they are doing mentally and ask if there is anything that has been on their mind.
My practice of gratitude is to make sure my family and loved ones know that I care about them. I find some may forget to check on others and I make it my priority to be there for them.
I came to the realization of how important gratitude is when it comes to my family. I work very hard to be the best role model for my siblings and continue my studies to make my family proud.
I often feel that I take on a lot of responsibilities that build up this huge amount of stress and pressure to be perfect. But in reality, I began to develop an unhealthy relationship with my own perception of myself.
I began to feel burnt out and overall not very confident with the efforts I had made to be there for my family. A contributing factor to this was that I did not receive any positive comments from my family about my work and effort.
I could not feel entirely fulfilled with my role as a sister and daughter because I felt that I was not acknowledged back at home.
I was never told ‘Thank you’ or ‘I am proud of you’, which may not seem meaningful to some, but it changed the way I would perceive myself.
I would constantly feel I was not putting enough effort into being the best version of myself because I felt invisible to my family, friends, and significant others. I just did not feel appreciated in any of my relationships to the point where I felt unimportant.
I then communicated my emotions with those people and my feelings were validated. It was agreed that the effort of sharing gratitude is an important part of maintaining happy and healthy relationships.
After being open about my feelings towards this situation, I immediately felt relieved of the pressures I put upon myself.
In my personal relationships, gratitude is practiced because it has been a key component to maintaining healthy communication between both parties.
I highly recommend incorporating gratitude in your everyday routine to recognize the righteousness of others while uplifting them.
Who are you most grateful for and why? Let us know @HERCampusSJSU