Expressing gratitude and appreciation

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Expressing gratitude and appreciation is something we don’t usually pay attention to yet it is very important for our happiness.

My upbringing thought me a lot of ways to express gratitude and appreciation.

I remember my mum putting food on the table for me and asking me “what do you say?”. She expects me to say thank you.

I am a first-generation immigrant in the UK and one of the things I have learnt as a foreigner is how many times I have heard people say thank you.

I work in a job that requires me to send and receive a lot of emails. When I am replying to an email, one of the most common words in my email response is ‘Thank you’. I would even say thank you for something that a colleague has done for me.

There are various instances when we need to express gratitude and appreciation.

In the household, we express gratitude and appreciation to one another. In the workplace, we do express gratitude to one another. It could be among friends or in an intimate romantic relationship.

I am a Christian and I cannot tell you more about the fact that God expects us to show gratitude and appreciation to Him. People who believe in God understand the importance of showing appreciation to the universe.

Saying thank you is not the only way to express gratitude and appreciation. There are other ways to express gratitude and appreciation.

We will look at various ways to express gratitude and appreciation in this article.

How to express gratitude and appreciation

Human beings are generally not wired to express gratitude and appreciation. When somebody who has helped you or done a lot of good things does a bad thing to you, it is human nature to hold on to the bad thing and ignore all the good things.

As well, there are a lot of negative things around us which are not helpful to our subconscious mind.

From bad upbringing to life experiences, it’s easy not to appreciate people that have been helpful to us.

When you think deep you will remember people that have helped you through inspiring you to do great things. It doesn’t have to be something magnificent they have done. It might just be that they’ve helped make your life a little bit better. You need to express gratitude and appreciation to these people.

Sometimes it’s kid’s teachers or a bus driver who drop your kids in school. For you, it might be your boss at work or work colleague. Whoever it is, show them appreciation and gratitude.

These are my 7 ways to express gratitude and appreciation.

1. The power of words

I really believe words are powerful and they can communicate our heart. One of the most powerful tools we have to show appreciation is our speech.

A simple ‘thank you’ can do wonders. Use your verbal expression and say thank you to people who help you.

As an immigrant in the UK, one of the most common words I hear in the UK is thank you.

Some of the other phrase to show appreciation and gratitude are

2. Send a message

You can take some time to send an email to show appreciation. We now live in a world where technology is easily accessible. The person you want to show appreciation to will most likely have a mobile phone or computer where they can access either email or SMS message.

Use communication mediums like Whatsapp or similar apps to send a message of appreciation.

You can also send a card accompanied by a written note. This is very common during the festive period when people show appreciation to one another.

3. Give a gift

One of the most common ways to show gratitude and appreciation is to give a gift. There are a lot of gift ideas for showing appreciation.

When you give someone a gift, it goes a long way for them to know the help they offered to you means a lot to you. The gift you give doesn’t have to be expensive.

A flower can be a wonderful way to show appreciation.

4. Have a meal together or meet for coffee

Meeting face to face is a very good way to show appreciation to someone. You can invite someone who has helped you to your house and prepare a lovely meal to be eaten together.

As Africans, we do this a lot. There is an amazing community spirit in Africa. We do invite people to our house to come and have a meal with us.

In the western world, people do this also. One of the most common ways to meet up in the west is to meet at a coffee shop, have a drink and chat.

It is a great way to show appreciation to someone who has helped you.

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