ecoTrain Question Of The Week Season 7 #2: What are your favourite ways to show and receive gratitude?

My entire life I was really, really bad at expressing my feelings and for the most part I kept everything to myself. It is still very hard for me to verbalize my emotions and tell someone what I actually feel. Maybe that's why I love writing posts and journaling so much, it is so much easier to express myself through written word rather than saying all of this. Ever since I found out about love language, I went over all of my relationships (partners, friendships and family) and kind of tried to figure out what are my ways of expressing love and favorite ways of receiving love. I guess when we love someone, gratitude comes along with it, I don't think it's possible to love someone and not be grateful to have them in our lives.

As many other kids, I was also taught to say thank you and my mom would always give thanks for our health and roof over our heads. During my teenage years I wasn't really demanding so if I would ask for something and my parents say they couldn't afford it, I wouldn't ask anymore and I never really felt upset about it. I didn't care about clothes, shoes, makeup or anything like that. I did have some of my 'guilty pleasures' such as buying my favorite magazine or cheap earrings during high school. This taught me another important lesson and that was money saving, I would get money often from my older brothers and cousins during this period of my life and I would always save up to buy something specific. This way I got a phone, my first digital camera and laptop.

There's so many things I have learned from my family that I hardly ever say to them but the older I get, I think about it and appreciate it a lot more. I think that a lot of my good sides come from that and I hope I'll be able to carry that for the rest of my life. When it comes to friendships, I am a little bit more open towards my tight circle of friends and I think that my favorite ways of expressing gratitude towards them is getting something small for them especially if there is no specific occasion, giving them compliments and spend quality time. I consider myself a good listener and I try to stay away from my phone when I'm with people I care about and that's also what I appreciate the most in others. In relationships I think that my way of showing love and gratitude towards my partner is act of service which is again a non-verbal way to show how much I am thankful for them. Nowadays it feels like we all need a little bit more of quality time spent together, regardless of the type of relationship between people. Saying simple things like 'I had a great time today' or 'I really enjoyed the time we spent together' can be a nice way to express gratitude.

As an introverted, shy person who's obviously not good in communicating with people, sometimes I have to consciously put in the effort of saying more than 'thank you' in everyday situations. For example, I am trying to be extra kind to people at stores, waiters, taxi drivers especially if they have been nice too and just add more words to the interaction such as 'thank you very much' or 'have a nice day', something along those lines. It's maybe normal for a lot of people but I would usually just try to avoid any unnecessary interaction, be polite with basics, lol. Adding a smile and overall positive attitude is always a win on both sides, I would say.

When it comes to receiving gratitude, I don't really have a preference as long as it's done with honesty and comes from the heart. I am a sucker for small and spontaneous things in life so maybe those would be my favorites. I also remember every little thing someone says to me or does for me (good or bad) so that can go both ways, I can hold a grudge for a long time or I can put that person as a high priority in my life.

As much as I am bad at expressing my gratitude to people, I grew to learn how to express gratitude towards everyday things that would often get overlooked. I do this is many forms, just taking a moment to stop, really feel the gratitude and express that in my mind, journaling about all kinds of things I am grateful for and finally, writing posts here on Hive about it. I used to do an entire series of posts focused on gratitude and participate in different challenges regarding this topic. That's why I was so excited about this season of weekly ecotrain questions, it's been a while since I dedicated posts to it.