What gives you happiness in life? The laughter of a child, the unconditional love of a pet, a warm hug from your mom or a wonderful kiss from your lover? The beauty of the nature around you, especially when all the flowers are blooming or a random act of kindness you witness, the first sip of cold water when you are thirsty?

These are all small and simple things but don’t they end up making your day? Yes they do. Especially if you are able to see them as triggers for small explosions of happiness, and even more importantly, if you are grateful for them.

If you think about it, when you are grateful for something, anything, small or big, it is impossible to feel negative. Therefore; whenever you feel stuck in an unwanted feeling, like sadness, anger, anxiety, fear, stop and turn to anything that you are grateful for. That would immediately spark a positive vibe, and when you hang on to it and build upon it by finding other things you are grateful for, you start stripping from the feelings that hurt you.

I am confident to claim that gratitude is the best path towards happiness. If you can feel intensely grateful for one minute, then you can practice to expand it to one hour, and notice how good you feel. You practice it until it becomes an unconscious habit.

I have mentioned this before in one of my other blog posts about gratitude, but I will repeat once again: try writing ten things that you are grateful for each day. At first, you will find it hard to come up with ten different things each and every day. But with time, you will see how abundant the things that you could feel grateful for are around you and within you.

Gratitude erases negativity. It is like a superpower. When you feel gratitude, you instantly affect your future for the better. Let that feeling to become a part of you. And, just understand this; happiness is out there, you just need to reach out and get it.