5 Real-Life Gratitude Stories to Inspire You

Practicing gratitude is a life-changing habit that takes commitment. We have to keep pushing ourselves every day to take time to feel grateful.

In the initial days, it is important to have sources of inspiration around us that give us a picture of how these small steps will bring big changes to our mindset.

One of the best ways to feel inspired and motivated is to look at other people who changed their life for the better by embracing the magic of gratitude. To read such stories every day, make sure to use the Daily Zen section of the Gratitude app.

Here are 5 real-life stories of how practicing gratitude can change your life:

Stories of gratitude

1.  Shealing's Story - Gratitude Will Open the Heart

"So I was meditating at the time, and in my meditation practice, I asked for guidance. I asked, "What can I do to help me? While I go through this with my husband, with my children? How do I stay strong? How do I get the strength? How do I do this?" And, the Universe said - Gratitude.

And at first, I was like, "What? Gratitude? No. Are you mocking me, Universe? My whole world is falling apart. And you're telling me to do gratitude." And I initially said, "No, thanks." But the thing is, I love how the universe is persistent. And it kept showing me gratitude.

It was showing up in my books, it was showing up in my conversations, it was showing up when I read my social media posts, it was just gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. So finally, I thought, okay, I will give gratitude a try. So I went looking for something, and that's when I found the Gratitude app. And then I started doing the gratitude."

Read Shealing’s full story here.

2.  Marcus' Story - My Children

"I've had a complete transformation of my mind. So the first thing I'm grateful for is God. I do think that the next thing is the attitude of gratitude.

Because that's the thing that flipped my mind from complete negativity. I'm talking about it. And so I've just got a massive smile on my face. And I feel like I could carry on for the next two hours.

I'm grateful every single day. And I realize, my life was always like this. I always had this amount of stuff to be grateful for. But I missed it, I had this other set of glasses on and I couldn't see any of it."

Read Marcus' full story here.

3.  Stefan's Story - The turning point

“I literally ran out of money, I lost everything. And I was preparing to not survive.

This was May of 2020. And I decided to make one last phone call to somebody who I thought I could trust with this idea I have for a startup.  I said, "Eric, would you please take this and run with it because I'm not going to survive."

I had to leave a voicemail message; he wasn't there. I said, "Would you please take my idea and grow it into the company that I've been dreaming of? Because I know you can do it. And I trust you. Thank you for doing this for me."

I was prepared at that point, you know, that was it. Five minutes later, he called me back.”

Read Stefan’s full story here.

4.  Susy's Story - This wandering mind

"It wasn't easy starting over at 51. At the time I didn't realize I had schizophrenia. So I went on to battle in that without a diagnosis for about six years and I was homeless.

I lived homeless for a year and a half. I mean, literally under a tree at one point. And with the tarp over me, that journey was terrifying because I was clueless. I didn't know how to live, and you're dirty and you're just, it was terrifying.

But I kept in contact with my counselor and I was diagnosed. I was taken to Boulder to a mental hospital and they diagnosed me with schizophrenia and I've been on Invega. It's a shot that I get once a month.

And that made me turn my life around as far as the schizophrenia, you know? And I was then able to see that no, these voices aren't real, that what you're seeing is not real. And I was able to put the whole tragedy into perspective and deal with it."

Read Susy’s full story here.

5.  Margaret's Story - Exercise routine for the mind

“I was sexually abused as a child. I had quite a traumatic childhood. I actually have only about three memories of being a child, and I have limited memories of being a teenager. I also now have limited memories of any past events.

So I'm very, very restricted in what I can remember, even birthdays or Christmases. So I can't remember last year's Christmas, you know, it's just a state of mind that I live in.

I had my son when I was 29. He was diagnosed at age four with ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, dyslexia, and co-morbid anxiety and depression at the age of seven. He had to start psychiatric medication, which made it really difficult for me to cope with his behavior at home.”

Read Margaret’s full story here.

There you are! These were 5 of the many inspiring gratitude stories that our users have shared with us. You can read them all on the blog here.

Remember, good things take time. Anyone who sets out to bring changes in their life has to make consistent efforts to make them last.

You can do it too! Keep reading these stories on our Gratitude app to inspire yourself. Before you know it, practicing gratitude will start coming naturally to you.

Have a splendid day!

Aarushi Tewari

The writer and affirmations speaker at Gratitude, Aarushi believes that one of the most effective ways of feeling inner peace is by being grateful and having a loving self-relationship.