“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

Marcel Proust

Everyone has experienced a day that was going all wrong. Perhaps the alarm didn’t go off, or the kids were extremely difficult to get organized in the morning, maybe the car had a flat tyre on the road and that caused you to be late for work, or a person hurrying by knock into your arm and your coffee spilled on a favourite dress. 

In spite of everything, the bad things happened that day, there were still some happy moments. Like a friendly smile from a co-worker, your kids telling you how much they love you or even a stranger stopping to help you with that flat tyre. Finding ways to highlight those positive moments in life and saying thanks and showing our appreciation can turn a bad day into a great day just by an attitude shift.

But nowadays, saying “thank you” and giving a friendly smile seems to be a lost art. However, there are still a few people around you having this attitude of gratitude. They are open to saying thanks, showing appreciation with a smile and kind words, and helping you to see the positivity in the world around you.

However, when we walk around expecting negativity, that is just what we see. If we anticipate interacting with rude people, we change our behaviour to match our beliefs and our expectations. If we expect to be treated politely and with compassion, and we are willing to extend those same virtues in ourselves, we will experience appreciation, gratitude and compassion in our lives.

One easy way to cultivate that personal attitude of appreciation is to look for those simple yet wonderful things that people in your  family, friends and co-workers do for you. Make it a point to talk to them and let them know how much you appreciated their act of kindness .Once you start showing gratitude just witness the smile and the joy in their eyes when you tell them this will make you happier too.

The art of appreciation and gratitude could just be a small sentence. But it can have a big impact on someone’s day, week or even life sometimes

Promilla