Often we are so busy showing gratitude to other people in our lives that we forget to take time to be grateful toward ourselves. It is essential to be kind to ourselves and appreciate all that we have accomplished and all the great things that the future holds for us. Building a healthy relationship with yourself and showing yourself compassion has many health and psychological benefits. According to Stanford Medicine, it has been shown that practicing self-compassion makes us more resilient in the long run. By being kinder to ourselves when we fail and reminding ourselves of all the great things we are capable of, we are able to deal with challenges in a more productive way. Not only that, but when we engage in self-criticism, this elevates the stress hormones in our bodies, causing us to be less productive. On the other hand, practicing self-compassion activates our soothing biological system, leading to greater feelings of well-being. There are many ways to practice self-gratitude, some easy ways you can incorporate self-gratitude into your everyday life are listed below:

• Write yourself a letter: Imagine a friend or family member is writing a letter to you about why they are grateful for you. List all the qualities that you and other people like about yourself. Read this letter when you need a pick-me-up. Similarly, you can treat this as an exercise to write a letter to your future or past self. If you choose to write a letter to your past self, write the things you are grateful that you did back then that influenced you to be where you are now. Contrarily, if you write a letter to your future self, then write about what you are grateful for now to read back upon and remember later on. 
• Meditate: Through meditation and relaxation, we can help decrease the negative self-talk and increase feelings of compassion and gratitude toward ourselves.
• Write down your self-talk: Write down the negative thoughts you have about yourself, then give yourself some headspace, and after doing so read them and ask yourself would you say this to a friend. If not, you are being too harsh on yourself and should acknowledge the things you like about yourself instead.
• Get yourself a special treat: You deserve to treat yourself. Buy yourself your favorite snack or dessert to show appreciation towards yourself.
• Buy yourself flowers: We often buy flowers for people in our lives that we are grateful for. We should do the same for ourselves from time to time as well!