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I Struggled with Gratitude for Years — Until I Started Asking These 3 Simple Questions
For years, I struggled with a gratitude practice.
Every time I tried to sit down and write about what I was grateful for, I would hit a wall. “What am I grateful for?” was always a tough question to answer. I knew the benefits of gratitude — it reduces stress, boosts mental health, and increases happiness — but I just couldn’t get it to feel natural.
The more I forced myself to practice gratitude, the more frustrated I became. It felt like I was digging for something that wasn’t there.
But then I realized something: maybe the problem wasn’t my inability to feel grateful, but rather the way I was approaching it. So, I decided to simplify the process and hacked my gratitude practice by asking these three dead-simple questions.
1. What made me smile today?
It can be easy to focus on big, life-changing moments when we think about gratitude. But the truth is, the small things often bring the most joy. When I started asking myself, “What made me smile today?” it opened up a flood of little things I was grateful for that I might have overlooked: the warmth of a morning coffee, a funny joke shared with a friend, or even just a moment of peace in an otherwise busy day.
