Discover 12 Unconventional Ways to Show Your Gratitude
Table of Contents
- Craft a gratitude journal with a twist
- Create a gratitude board.
- Make gratitude art.
- Perform random acts of kindness.
- Imagine giving money away.
- Donate money in someone else’s name.
- Open your senses.
- Close your senses.
- List what’s absent.
- Enjoy a technology holiday.
- Appreciate your body.
- Game together.
Introduction
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
~William Arthur Ward, American author (1921-1944)
You may want to consider these 12 unconventional ways to show your gratitude if you feel stumped this time of year. Gratitude is a powerful emotion and can have a profound impact on our lives and the lives of those around us. Saying “thank you” is an obvious way to express gratitude and remember you are grateful to others for what they provide in your life, whether it is a service, recognition, love, or friendship.
Conventional ways to say thank you include a verbal acknowledgment or written thank you notes to family, friends, and co-workers. You can also thank people you don’t know, like a check-out clerk or a food server. It’s easy, and it makes people feel good. Not surprisingly, in the days of built-in telephone cameras, I have a family member who likes to send thank-you videos for even small gifts.
Below, you will find 12 unconventional and creative ways to show gratitude and appreciation:
1. Craft a gratitude journal with a twist
Keeping a gratitude journal is a well-known practice. If you are tired of writing the same thanks again and again, such as listing your children, your partner, your job, your hobbies, etc., be a bit more explicit in your thanks. Notice something unique about an event that might be fun to remember: “My kids took turns playing with a whoopee cushion for 15 minutes straight today.” My kids really did this on a Saturday morning in their pajamas when they were about 4- and 5-years-old. It was hilarious. Or, as you make progress in a hobby, write down a specific new thing you learned how to do: “I successfully soldered my first stained glass panel in place.”
2. Create a gratitude board
Create a gratitude board, a vision board in reverse. Make it present-centered rather than future-oriented. Notice what you are grateful for having in your life already using images, words, or other material. What have you done in your life that’s made you thankful? Where have you been? Are there people, pets, or other items you are grateful for having in your life right now? Focus on the present (and maybe a little bit of the past), releasing aspirations for the future.
3. Show your gratitude by making personalized art
Gratitude art could include visual reminders, such as making a photo log using pictures of things that make you happy and allow you to feel grateful right now from magazines, photos, or images from the web. You might create some illustrated thank you notes and leave them around to be found unexpectedly by others.
You could create a gratitude tree that can be shared with others by drawing a tree with branches with a stack of blank leaves (or any other shape that suits you) to be attached by anyone passing by who wants to add to the tree and express an item of gratitude. You can create a piece of art such as a painting, a poem, or a song, then give the art directly to the person you want to thank. You could even give them a gratitude stone. Such a personalized gift can leave a profound impression of your appreciation.
4. Perform random acts of kindness
You can show an attitude of gratitude by appreciating others in different ways. The idea of paying it forward has become popular in recent years. An example is paying for the coffee or a small purchase for the person in line behind you. You could also join a beach sweep, a rails-to-trails build, or a litter cleanup in your local park to show gratitude for the resources surrounding you. You may have other ideas based on your location.
5. Imagine giving money away
Imagine you are given $1,000 each year specifically to give to someone you would like to thank. Who is providing this largess is irrelevant, just imagine you have been given the money to give away. Perhaps you want to give it to someone who regularly performs a service for you. You can say to the person, “If I had been given $1,000 to give to anyone I wanted, you would be the recipient this year.” It’s guaranteed to make them happy, and you get to express gratitude even if you can’t actually give away the money. (This idea comes from Jane McGonigal’s book, Imaginable.)
6. Donate money in someone else’s name
You might donate money to a cause or charity that is meaningful to someone you want to appreciate. Charities and other organizations often have the option of allowing you to send a note saying a donation was made in the name of a specific person. If that option does not exist, you can create a certificate yourself, acknowledging your contribution in their name and giving it to the person you are thanking.
7. Open your senses
Take a moment to notice what your five physical senses (taste, smell, sight, sound, touch) are taking in. What are you sensing that could be a source of gratitude? The smell of fresh earth? The taste of coffee? The sound of music? The touch of your hand on a computer keyboard? The sight of a sleeping dog? This will slow you down and allow you to appreciate the moment more. It’s also a great way to calm down when you are traveling or living in an unfamiliar space, letting you live into a sense (pun intended) of familiarity for things you can identify as familiar.
8. Close your senses
Go inside your head and notice the richness of your interior life. Remember places you have been that inspired gratitude in the past. Maybe a trip to the mountains or the beach. What do you remember about it? The changing colors of the fall leaves? A special shell you found? I once found a nearly intact conch shell on a Florida beach with the pink interior colors still glowing. It now lives on my front porch. Even without seeing it, I can imagine this beautiful shell and instantly remember that lovely trip to the beach.
9. List what’s absent
With missing people, listing what’s absent cuts two ways. You can remember the people in your life you love but are not nearby, but you are still grateful to have them in your life. Now remember the toxic people you have eliminated from your life and be grateful that your life is better without them. You can also be grateful for the things that did not happen (in my case, I did not marry an emotionally abusive man—whew), or you narrowly escaped a collision by swerving to avoid a bicyclist (another whew).
10. Enjoy a technology holiday
If you are seriously stressed out by dealing with email, social media, and internet doom scrolling, or, like me, printer hardware issues, take a day away from it. You might find gratitude in the reduced stress. Or you might notice that without the internet for research, you got stymied in your writing and find gratitude when you start using available technology again. For instance, you might feel grateful for how easily accessible digital archives can make some kinds of research easier and more fun.
11. Appreciate your body
No matter what it looks like, no matter how it functions, it is your body, and you are alive in it. Think about all it does for you: breathing air, pumping blood, digesting food, sweating for cooling, sexual response, urination, and some emotions. Honor your body, even if you are having trouble with some piece of how your body works. Be grateful for what is working right in your body.
12. Game together
Gratitude in the community through gaming can be enormously effective in boosting your mood. Here are some game ideas:
- Much like “I Spy,” start by looking around the room and picking something you can see and tell others about why you are grateful for what you have named. Then, let each person pick an item and explain why and what about it makes them grateful.
- Create a game of gratitude words, where everyone must name something for which they are grateful, beginning with a random letter like “u” for “umbrellas” or “universe”; when you are out of ideas for that letter, pick a new letter, and start a new round.
- Pick a word for something you are grateful for having in your life, like “flower” or “book.” Use the last letter of the last word to start a new round. If you find yourself dealing in plurals, like “flowers” or “books,” just drop the “s” and go on using the previous letter, finding a new gratitude word beginning with “r” or “k”.
- Sit in a circle with your family or friends at dinner or on a Saturday afternoon in the park, and name the good things that happened to you over the week.
- Construct a gratitude treasure hunt, leaving clues and hints of your creation leading to the discovery of a special gift of thanks or love letter of appreciation.
Conclusion
Gratitude is a beautiful and essential emotion in human life. Traditional expressions of gratitude are always appreciated but feel free to try out one or more of these 12 unconventional ways to show your gratitude, whether creating a gratitude board, gratitude games, or art for others. Acknowledging gratitude for what we have enriches our lives and makes us easier to live with. My family would agree I am easier to live with when I change my attitude from complaint to thanks. As a bonus, you may find giving thanks as a regular practice makes performing your job a lot easier, too.
If you still need help finding ways to show your gratitude, contact Hillary for a complimentary 20-minute session.
Tags: academia, academic, attitude, becoming yourself, gratitude, happiness, happiness at work, positivity
