24 Things To be Thankful for

Not sure what to be thankful for? Here are some ideas of 24 things to be thankful for. Do you want to express thankfulness for the people, things, and experiences in your life? That’s great!

Gratitude can not only help us form closer, more satisfying bonds with others, but it feels good too.

Here are some ideas if you want to express thankfulness for the people. So, in this article, we’ll give you a list of things to be thankful for in different areas of your life.

What Is Thankfulness?

Gratitude—or thankfulness—is often considered to be a positive emotion (Chipperfield, Perry, & Weiner, 2003). Expressing and experiencing thankfulness is strongly linked with happiness and well-being (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004). In short, being thankful feels good and is good for us.

But it’s not always easy to think of things to be thankful for. So here’s a list of ideas to get you started.

Things To Be Thankful For Today

Having air to breathe

The feeling of the sun

The smell of flowers, fresh-cut grass, or trees

The people we have in our lives

That our parents gave us this life

To be alive

For a beautiful sunrise

For the beach

For each new day

For opportunities

For the opportunity to learn from mistakes

That today is probably not the worst day

For a hot cup of tea or coffee

For the hard times, because they will help us appreciate the good times

For failure, because it makes us stronger

To be able to think our own thoughts

For the body—it carries us through this life

To be able to learn new things

To have a place to sleep at night

For time to experience life

For simply existing

That I will get to live today and hopefully tomorrow, too

For health, even though it may not be perfect

For family

More Tools To Help You With Thankfulness

There are many gratitude practices that actually work. In one study, participants were asked to write down three good things each day (and note down their causes). They did this for just one week. The results showed that this strategy made them happier after that week and even 6 months later (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005).

This suggests that noting the good things—and perhaps being thankful for them—has long-term, positive impacts on our happiness.

You can also try out gratitude notes or start a gratitude journal. Read this article with ideas on how to practice gratitude daily.

Bottom Line

So, you don’t really need to wait for big holiday to feel thankful. Try to find gratitude in every moments. With practice, it will become a habit and a celebration of what is not.

Taking a few minutes each day to practice thankfulness can be a cool and fun way to boost happiness.

I hope this post helps you think about many things in your life that you can be thankful for. What’s the one thing you are thankful about today? Share with us in the comments below 🙂

References

Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., & Weiner, B. (2003). Discrete emotions in later life. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58(1), P23-P34.

Bono, G., Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2004). Gratitude in practice and the practice of gratitude. Positive psychology in practice, 464-481.

Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410.