Gratitude or Appreciation: Which Should You Practice?

Gratitude or Appreciation: Which Should You Practice? The short answer is BOTH! Each practice deepens our Conscious Life Experience and personal growth. Each practice ramps our Quality of Life exponentially by benefitting our outlook, Joy and Well-Being, as well as raising our vibratory frequencies. They are necessary ingredients for our mental health.

Why is this? Because the frequencies of Gratitude and Appreciation are so very high–you cannot be depressed, anxious, worried, fearful or in a bad mood while in the Gratitude and Appreciation modes. They reside on completely different vibrations. Your perspective and mindset are completely in a different world from negative energies which are of lower vibrations.

Years ago, Oprah had a guest on talking about her Gratitude practice and that was the first time I learned about keeping a Gratitude journal. I remember how exuberant she was about the practice and how she exclaimed that it changed her Life. I too, can attest to how the practice of Gratitude has changed and uplifted my Life in ways unimaginable by the girl that was me caught in the throes of depression for a good deal of my early decades.

Practicing Gratitude changed my Life, but becoming more Appreciative of things and people took it to the nth degree…

Gratitude and Appreciation, What’s the Difference?

You may say, ‘aren’t they the same things?” Umm…not exactly. Gratitude is defined as ‘the state of being grateful; thankfulness.’ ‘Acknowledging what you have, expressing thanks and taking action.’ Appreciation is defined as ‘the act of recognizing or understanding that something is important or valuable.’

So to sum it up, the differences are that Gratitude is the feeling of thankfulness and that Appreciation is the feeling of recognizing value. And the thing is, because they are of a high vibration, you can also feel both! You can be Grateful for a person and Appreciate the things they do that you find wonderful.

Let’s say you’re really Grateful for your mom, you love her deeply and feel graced that she is your mom. At the same time, you can Appreciate her qualities for example like her sense of humor, to her cooking, to her insight, etc. You can also feel Grateful for those things. With Appreciation, you may find yourself admiring her fashion style or her scent that gives you comfort. It could be a perfume she always wears that brings back memories of when you were small.

Gratitude and Appreciation are Uplifting

Try this: whenever you are feeling negative emotion from worry to fear to depression and anxiety, step away from those thoughts and feelings and find something to Appreciate. Take in the feeling tone of that. Then find something else to Appreciate. Keep going. I do know how hard that is, as I have been deeply depressed through parts of my Life.

This is the act of pivoting where you shift your focus and thoughts to things that are uplifting. When you do this repeatedly throughout the day, week, month and year you will find yourself more in that space and quickly remember when you forget. It becomes a habit and with that, your outlook will change, your Vibe will change, your Life will change.

You’ll be more pleasant to be around, more observant of things that are high Frequency. Heck, you’ll be much more enjoyable for and to yourself!

So look for more things to Appreciate throughout the course of the day, not necessarily looking for big-ticket things, but things like noticing and Appreciating the color of the sky as you run your errands (which is a great opportunity to take a Deep Conscious Breath) and can leave you feeling Grateful for the Gift of Life.

While You’re Still Here…

If you dug this article, please shout me out on my IG Tik Tok or Bluesky by posting a screenshot of this post, what you found to be helpful in it and then tagging me on it! Word of mouth is still the best thing in promotion!