It’s Easy To Find Funny Things To Be Grateful For This Year

I was reminded recently how being grateful for the blessings in your life will change your outlook.  It’s even better when you find funny things to be grateful for in your life. Why? Well there are lots of reasons but to the simplest one is that life doesn’t always have to be so hard & serious. Show gratitude for the funny things in life & more of that will appear for you.

Do you notice the good things or the bad more often?

When a person forgets to pay attention to the good things, they tend to notice the bad or negative things.  Only paying attention to the negative in your life will send you down a rabbit hole that leads to more negativity.  When you’re in this cycle, you tend to complain about the negatives in your life instead of being grateful for even the small blessings that appear. You’re definitely not finding funny things to be grateful for at these times either.

When I pointed out to someone recently that they were only saying negative things about an experience, the response that I got was “I’m a complainer”.   Wow! Really? It’s not a label that I want to give to myself!

I find that outlook to be a choice.  You can focus on the negative or the positive in your life, but it is YOUR choice. You can also focus on the serious or the funny things in life. Again, it’s YOUR choice!

It doesn’t have to be a self-fulfilling loop!

Obviously, life will have its ups and downs.  

As much as we’d like it to be, everything will not always be rosy and happy.  The difference is how you look at events.  Remember, it’s a choice that is all yours.

Can you find something to be grateful for even when things aren’t going your way?  Now, how about something that’s funny?

I find even during the most stressful times that life can be weird & funny. I figure that I have a choice to laugh or cry in these times. Whenever I can, I find the funny things to be grateful for & laugh because of it. You can let that laughter support you in whatever situation that you’re in. It’s way better than complaining about things & only seeing the negative side of things. Plus, you’re body feels better when you’ve been laughing instead of dwelling on negativity.

When you do this, you’re changing your patterns & you’re changing the loop that you’re in right now. Instead of the negativity loop that will only breed more negativity, you’re in a loop of gratitude that will lead you to more gratitude.

Make finding funny things to be grateful for a new habit!

When you can find that one thing to be grateful for, your brain is trained to have gratitude for other blessings in your life.  You’ll start to look for moments of gratitude, funny or not, and your focus will change.  Instead of being in that downward spiral of negativity, you’ll appreciate the things that you do have.

A few years ago, I began a practice of gratitude.  Every night I wrote down one thing that I was grateful for from that day.  I wrote my gratitude on a piece of paper and put it in a jar.  At the end of the year, I looked back at all of my blessings from that year.  I remembered the good things that happened or that I was given.  I took the time to be grateful all over again for each one of them.

Things have shifted for me…

I’m grateful for so many things!

In my evening ritual,  I’ve noticed that usually it’s more of a challenge to narrow to one thing to write down, then it is to come up with something.  So, I now write down 3 things every night that I’m grateful were in my day. I could easily do way more.

I find I’m grateful for the small things more often.

I also find that I feel better when I practice gratitude on a daily basis.  I usually have a smile for whatever I write down and I always have a fond memory.  This practice helps me to end my day on a good note instead of focusing on something that didn’t go well.  I can’t control much of what happens during the day.  Something I can control is my own attitude.  

I choose to be grateful and let that gratitude color my day.  What choice do you make each day?

I start my day with gratitude as well.

Yep, usually before breakfast I already feel gratitude for the things/people/events/animals around me and yes, I often include the funny things in my life. It really doesn’t matter how big or small they are. It’s more about having awareness for them. So, whether I accidentally gave myself extra chocolate (that probably wasn’t an accident by the way) or my dog does something silly, I feel gratitude and I write it in my journal.

Use that gratitude muscle!

Practicing gratitude is like practicing yoga or any other skill.  You have to practice it or your skill will get rusty.

So, just like any other skill that you want to maintain, practice on a daily basis to keep this gratitude muscle toned and healthy. If you’re like me and you find yourself grateful for more than one thing at the end of the day, then be grateful for that as well.  

Just practice and notice where this attitude leads you & don’t forget the funny parts of your life too. Be grateful for them as well.

It’s time to live happier & healthier!