things i am grateful for essay

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The Things I Am Grateful for in My Life

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Published: Apr 8, 2022

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Essay on Things I Am Grateful

Students are often asked to write an essay on Things I Am Grateful in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

I am grateful for my family. They love and care for me. They are always there to support me in good and bad times. They teach me important things about life. I am thankful for the happy moments we share together.

Good health is a blessing. I am grateful for being healthy. It allows me to do all sorts of things like playing, studying, and helping others. It also saves me from pain and suffering.

I am grateful for the chance to learn. Education opens doors to a brighter future. It helps me understand the world better. It also equips me with skills for life.

I am thankful for my friends. They make my life fun and exciting. They support me when I am down. They are like a second family.

I am grateful for nature. It gives us food, clean air, and beautiful sights. It makes our world a wonderful place to live in. It also teaches us about life and its cycles.

250 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

Family love.

The first thing I am grateful for is my family. They are like a big tree that gives me shade on a sunny day. My parents, siblings, and grandparents always support me. They love me a lot and I love them too. Their love is like a warm blanket on a cold night.

Good Health

Another thing I am thankful for is my good health. It lets me run, play, and have fun. It helps me to learn new things at school. Good health is like a strong boat that keeps me safe in the sea of life.

I am also grateful for my education. It is like a key that opens the door to a bright future. My teachers help me to learn new things every day. They guide me like a lighthouse guides a ship in the dark.

I am thankful for my friends. They make my life fun and exciting. We share our joys and sorrows. They are like stars that light up my world.

The last thing I am grateful for is nature. It gives me fresh air, clean water, and beautiful scenery. It is like a big playground where I can enjoy and learn.

In conclusion, I am grateful for many things. They make my life happy and meaningful. I hope to cherish them and make the most of them.

500 Words Essay on Things I Am Grateful

Introduction.

Gratitude is a strong feeling of being thankful to someone or something for the good things they have given you. It’s like a magic key that opens up a world of positivity and happiness. Today, I want to share some of the things I am grateful for in my life.

First, I am grateful for my family. They are my support system, always there to help me when I need it. My parents, who work hard to provide for me, teach me important life lessons and guide me through tough times. My siblings, even though we sometimes fight, are my best friends. They make me laugh, share my joys and sorrows, and teach me the importance of sharing and caring.

Another thing I am grateful for is my health. Good health is a blessing that allows me to do everything I want. It lets me play, study, and enjoy life to the fullest. I am thankful for the food I eat that keeps me healthy, the clean water I drink, and the fresh air I breathe.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to go to school and learn. Education is a powerful tool that helps me understand the world around me. It gives me the skills to solve problems, make decisions, and become a better person. I am thankful for my teachers who guide me, my classmates who help me learn, and the books that open my mind to new ideas.

I am thankful for the beautiful world around me. The bright sun that gives me warmth, the cool breeze that refreshes me, the green trees that give me shade, and the colorful flowers that make me smile. I am grateful for the birds that sing, the rivers that flow, and the mountains that stand tall. Nature teaches me about the beauty of life and the importance of taking care of our planet.

Lastly, I am grateful for the challenges I face. They might be tough and sometimes make me feel sad, but they help me grow. Challenges teach me to be strong, to never give up, and to believe in myself. They make me realize that I can do anything if I try hard and stay positive.

In conclusion, there are many things I am grateful for. My family, health, education, nature, and the challenges I face. These things make me who I am and fill my life with joy and meaning. I believe that being grateful makes us happier and more positive. So, let’s always remember to be thankful for the good things in our life.

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Things that i’m Grateful for

This essay will reflect on the things to be grateful for in life, discussing the importance of gratitude for mental health, relationships, and overall well-being. More free essay examples are accessible at PapersOwl about Faith.

How it works

My coonhound Oliver is a good dog. When we went camping last month, he found himself a small, dirty rag to sleep on. He scratched at it from every direction, spinning round and round until the bed was just right, and then plopped down with a satisfied groan. This was not a groan of discontent, but rather an expression of gratitude. Oliver doesn’t care that his bed is a dirty old rage; he is simply being grateful for a master who feeds him and takes him camping.

So if a dog can be happy with so little, why are we so unappreciative? One little thing can send us flying over the edge.

Maybe it’s because we get up every morning only because we have to, grumble our way through the day, and lastly go to bed knowing that the same scenario waits for tomorrow. Adam and Eve found themselves in a similar situation in the Garden of Eden. They had so much to be grateful for, but chose to rebel instead. All their needs were covered by God, yet they chose to sample the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, opening the gates of sin, and condemning man to a life of ingratitude. Indeed, the Bible tells us that as Adam was being evicted, the first words out of his mouth were, Lord, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.'[1] Rather than giving thanks for the Garden, Adam chose to blame God for getting kicked out. It’s not that getting up in the morning is so difficult. It’s getting up knowing that we’re not going to receive what we think we are entitled to from other people.

They say that the only guarantee in life is death and taxes, yet we expect much more than that from the people we deal with. We expect them to guarantee our happiness. It seems that the bigger our sense of entitlement, the more ingratitude we exhibit. We experience life through our demands, and struggle to balance our giving with other’s taking. Then, when our perception of giving is dwarfed by their taking, we become downright ungracious and unappreciative of their efforts. We can’t control what others do, but we can control our reaction to it. If we don’t control our reactions, the feelings of entitlement often lead to more disappointment and dissatisfaction. The words from the song, Love is Blue, “Green, green my jealous heart”[2] describe one of the chief components of ingratitude. Jealousy. It’s been around for a long time. Shakespeare described jealousy and ingratitude as a green-eyed monster in the tragic play, Othello. [3] The bible says in James 3:16 “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”[4] Envious people are everywhere, going through life angry over the seemingly unearned blessings which are given to others.

They want the same advantages and resent people for what they have. It’s impossible to be grateful when you covet your neighbor’s belongings. By comparing what we don’t have to what others possess, we reduce our ability to appreciate the blessings in our own lives. Many people believe that money brings happiness. This is because we have all been indoctrinated to be good consumers and all success is judged on a scale of financed wealth. However, the Bible tells us that “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”[6] It also states in Matthew 6:19, ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. “[5] Gratitude provides perspective in life, and those who lack appreciation miss the big picture. Life is not all about me. No one wants to associate with disagreeable people and such people miss out on the connectivity that we all take for granted.

It’s distressing to think of all the good times that have been forfeited because of ingratitude. No one really thinks of themselves, or likes to think of themselves, as an ingrate, but according to a study conducted by the Royal Society Open Science, Americans were found to show gratitude “less than 14.5 percent of the time”. [5] This means that approximately 85.5 percent of the time, Americans did not express gratitude and they showed a lack of appreciation 6 times more often than were grateful. It’s a big problem because ingratitude affects how we perceive our quality of life. My dad challenged us to compare our positive statements against our negative statements. He said that a good ratio would be 10 to 1. I took him up on his challenge and found my ratio to be exactly 10 to 1…in the wrong direction! Nowadays, my goal is to bring the ratio to parity, or roughly one nice statement for every critical statement. Oh yeah, just thinking something nice doesn’t count; you actually have to do it. With all the blessings that we enjoy as Americans, you would think it might be tough to see EVERYTHING in a negative light.

I mean, it takes work to count all the problems and dilemmas surrounding every situation and then to spew out vitriolic words on our friends and family. Actually it’s not–if you practice, and I’ve had 13 years to perfect this rather unworthy skill. On the other hand, it’s easy to see things in a positive light, even when problems arise. My friend, Julie, is just like this. Even when something goes wrong, she looks for the silver lining. And if she can’t find one, she simply states that something good will eventually come out of whatever she’s going through and it’s all part of God’s master plan. According to R.L Adams, “Gratitude can improve your life by strengthening your faith. There’s a deep appreciation for things that arise when people are grateful.” In fact, it becomes instilled into their very being. Therefore, it strengthens their faith and belief in all things. “For me, it’s my belief in God and the realization truly grateful for everything in my life, including my problems.” [6] Gratitude can transform your faith by instilling the belief that you’re not alone; whatever it is that you’re going through will pass, and you’ll emerge victorious.

You’ll accomplish your goals, overcome your obstacles, and become a better person, one who’s more compassionate to the troubles of others. As a result of all of this, you will be able to search for opportunities because you realize that what you have truly is enough, and that the focus must be caring for the spiritual and physical needs of others. That’s when true spiritual enlightenment begins. Gratitude is important because it is giving ourselves permission to finally be happy. Today I am grateful for food, shelter, clothing, the list could continue forever. Unfortunately, for many, these luxuries don’t exist. But anyone’s list can be simpler than that. I’m also grateful that I can smile, that I can walk, or even that there is fresh air to breathe. Many times we forget about these things until they are lost. Just like how my dog Oliver is extremely grateful for that small dirty rag, I can be grateful for the small things in my life. Oliver is not focusing on how he doesn’t have a five-star hotel bed to sleep on, but basks in the blissful ignorance of knowing that his needs are covered.

He knows how lucky and fortunate he is to have a place to sleep at all. In the same way, count your blessings instead of your misfortunes. You will never run out of either, but I choose happiness. Gratitude can truly change and transform your life. But it doesn’t happen overnight. Nothing ever does. Even when things are going terribly, I know that I can be grateful for a God who cares. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”[7] We always have things to be grateful for, if we trust in the Lord. ] There is no need to force our adversary to do anything when God can shoulder the burden for us. Current Housing and Urban Secretary Ben Carson has said, ‘Just do our best and let God do the rest.'[9] When we truly put our troubles in God’s hand, we can afford rest. Being grateful and content is not about what you have, it’s about who you are inside. Ungratefulness doesn’t happen by accident but we are part of why it happens. The Bible states in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”

Whether you know it, you always have things to be grateful for. Did you see the sunrise this morning? It was beautiful. Whether you fell like it or not, still rejoice in the Lord. If you don’t feel like being grateful, then that’s even better because it’s sacrifice. It can something as simple as being grateful that you didn’t honk at that person who took the last space in the mall parking lot. We can be grateful because we have a God who promises to protect us all the time. When we are grateful, our light shines through for others to see the work that Jesus does in our lives.    

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Things That I'm Grateful For. (2021, Mar 24). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/things-that-im-grateful-for/

"Things That I'm Grateful For." PapersOwl.com , 24 Mar 2021, https://papersowl.com/examples/things-that-im-grateful-for/

PapersOwl.com. (2021). Things That I'm Grateful For . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/things-that-im-grateful-for/ [Accessed: 20 May. 2024]

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Be Grateful Essay

Gratitude can change your life by teaching you to appreciate what you have rather than what you don't. Experiencing gratitude is a wonderful way to improve our lives. It describes the attitude of being grateful and showing appreciation for all the good things in life. Here are a few sample essays on ‘Gratitude’ for students of all classes can refer while writing their school assignments and projects.

100 Words Essay On Gratitude

200 words essay on gratitude, 500 words essay on gratitude.

In today’s uncertain times, being grateful for one’s surroundings is imperative. In the pursuit to move ahead in life, we often forget to express gratitude. This leads to a degree of dissatisfaction in one’s life. Being grateful can mean different things to different people; for some, it may involve expressing gratitude and for others, it may include writing their feelings or verbalising their feelings. Gratefulness allows a person to have a free mind and operate from a position of abundance, it changes the frame of mind. Greater happiness is consistently and firmly linked to gratitude. It is what enables people to appreciate experiences, feel more positive emotions, improve their health, and build solid relationships.

Practising gratitude can be a life changing experience if practised actively. Operating from a mindset of being grateful and counting your blessings puts you in a position of power in any interaction you might have. When you are experiencing gratitude, you express your appreciation for something or someone in your life by being kind, pleasant, and generous in various ways. Being grateful in life is essential because it helps people to appreciate and balance the good and bad while working to improve each day over the last one.

How To Feel Grateful | The first step to being grateful is to realise how we are a product of our surroundings, we are a product of our work and the work we actively put into developing ourselves. It is difficult to be grateful for your own actions and yourself. Once you develop the habit of gratitude consciously within yourself, you shift your world view and allow yourself to be aware of the progress you are making. As with everything, this practice needs time to be cultivated to your being. One of the most effective ways of developing this habit is by journaling your thoughts and identifying times where you are grateful to yourself and to others. As time passes, this will become second nature to you which will allow you to be at peace with yourself.

The key to leading a happy, fulfilling life is to practise gratitude. Even when you feel like nothing positive has occurred, consider the less complicated aspects of life, such as having a meal, a bed to sleep in, or even waking up to a new day. When life becomes too difficult, being grateful might help you direct your attention toward something more uplifting and lighten your load.

How To Practise Gratitude

There are many approaches for us to express our gratitude. Making a list of every positive thing that occurs to us each day is among the most beneficial ones. Also, it's important to take note of who is responsible for it. This will make it easier for you to repay the favour at the proper moment. Don't forget to reciprocate the favour since they deserve it as well.

3 Things Each Day | Every day, make it a habit of writing down 3 things that you are grateful for. It could be anything small or big. You don't have to elaborate but just recall at the end of the day any 3 things that made you happy. For instance—friends, family and nature.

Appreciate Daily Comforts | We don’t realise what we have until we lose it. We often take our everyday comforts for granted and that is why it’s important to recognise and appreciate what you have— a warm bed to sleep in, a healthy body, family to come home to. It's remarkable what you notice when you give gratitude your full attention.

Create A Journal Of Gratitude | It is more probable that we will notice nice things as they happen if we make a commitment to write down pleasant things every day. So, make a ritual of writing down in your gratitude journal weekly or bi-weekly.

Advantages Of Gratitude

Gratitude frees us from toxic, unfavourable feelings and the rumination that frequently goes along with them. Our attention is "shifted" when we write a letter, enabling us to concentrate on pleasant feelings.

Writing a gratitude letter has advantages that get stronger over time. Daily or weekly practices may not immediately yield results, but after a few weeks and months, it will.

Gratitude encourages appreciation and lessens comparisons. We stop comparing ourselves to others when we are grateful. As a result, it assists in our acceptance of our own successes and blessings and promotes contentment.

Things I Am Grateful For

It was only during the time of COVID-19 pandemic that I came to realise what it felt like to be grateful. I expressed my appreciation for my family and friends for being there every step of the way. I contracted COVID-19 and it took me quite some time to recover. My family, even though, could not be in close proximity, took care of me and made sure I was feeling better at the end of the day. My friends video called me every day and spent time with me virtually. I also realised how I took everyday comforts for granted—such as shelter, good food, clothes. People were struggling to make their ends meet during the pandemic and I had the comfort of staying at home and also earning a living. It was after 2020 that I started maintaining a gratitude journal and also contributed to society through social work.

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Essays About Gratitude: Top 5 Examples and 7 Writing Prompts

Writing essays about gratitude is a way to show appreciation and recognize kindness. See our top examples and prompts you can use as a guide for your essay.

I’m not outspoken, and everyone close to me knows this. However, this one time, a family friend visited us and gave me a set of paintbrushes for my birthday. I thanked them, but that didn’t feel enough as they went out of their way to pick high-quality brushes and deliver them in person, even if we weren’t close. That kind lady wanted me to pursue my interest in painting, and I have felt grateful to her ever since. 

For those like me who can’t fully express gratitude through words, it becomes an intimidating task to even write about it. After all, essays about gratitude require finesse and sincerity that are hard to prove through pen and paper.

5 Essay Examples

1. the expression of gratitude by writer rosalyn, 2. a good life is a gratitude, meaning, and love by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 3. the magical power of gratitude and saying ‘thank you’ by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 4. essay on gratitude by anonymous on toppr.com  , 5. meaning and importance of gratitude by anonymous on mystudentsessay.com, 1. the true meaning of gratitude, 2. expressing gratitude, 3. the benefits of practicing gratitude, 4. culture and gratitude expression, 5. values and gratitude, 6. the boundaries of gratitude, 7. practicing gratitude: a day in my life.

“… Participants who expressed gratitude in a close relationship would have greater relationship satisfaction than those who did not express gratitude.”

The essay contains a compilation of information from various studies to discuss the effect of expressing gratitude verbally. Rosalyn discovers that the rate of relationship satisfaction increases after expressing gratitude and leads to lasting relationships and reduced divorce rates. 

Rosalyn notes how expressions of gratitude act as positive reinforcement, encouraging the recipient to be more inclined to agree to do favors. For instance, many sellers include gifts and discounts with purchases to express gratitude and cultivate repeat buyers.

“… A good life is a complex term with different meanings, but all the interpretations have a particular point in common – well-being is associated with gratitude, meaning, and love.”

The author defines the “good life” as spiritual contentment and shares their opinion and experiences as a clinical mental health counselor. They remark that gratefulness can signify healthy well-being since it means an individual is intent on what they have instead of what they don’t. Further, people filled with gratitude can find meaning in life in time and with practice. 

The counselor also mentions the importance of having someone who truly loves and cares for us to remind us to be grateful even in the darkest times of our lives. In conclusion, the writer reiterates that it’s complicated to define what a good life entails, but all definitions directly connect to gratitude, meaning, and love.

“I discovered a secret about life, and as a result of my discovery, one of the things I began to do was practice gratitude each day, to say “thank you!” more. As a result of this, everything in my life changed, and the more I practiced gratitude, the more miraculous were the result.”

To demonstrate the positive benefits of feeling and expressing gratitude, the author narrates their experiences in this short essay. They talk about their financial, relationship, and health problems and how they were all resolved when they started to be grateful. The writer considers this magical, but a change in their perception helped them overcome their problems.

“… Gratitude is the most essential human expression which proves that humans are sensible and have emotions. Moreover, this emotion does not just limit to humans but also animals. Often, we see them express their gratitude and return the favour.”

In this essay, the author identifies gratitude as a beautiful way of enriching our existence. It’s a vital skill that every person should learn and practice to invite goodness and get various benefits, such as stronger relationships and a happier outlook. The writer believes it’s crucial to always express gratitude to inspire others and remember that humans are emotional beings.

“Gratitude leads to feelings of happiness and satisfaction as it increases awareness that others have done something nice for you. As a result, gratitude and happiness become mutually reinforcing and build upon each other. Science shows that gratitude is a particular emotion, since it consists of a feeling of appreciation that does not require specific objects or actions which instigate it.”

This essay focuses on the importance and benefits of practicing gratitude which the author refers to as “the greatest gift to humanity.” Gratitude is vital as it helps us recognize positive and negative things to assist us in finding meaning and purpose in life. The author states that practicing mindfulness and meditation brings about gratitude that will improve various aspects of one’s life.

7 Prompts for Essays About Gratitude

Gratitude is one of the most salient topics to write about and discuss. It’s a positive emotion we feel whenever we receive something that demonstrates the giver’s sincerity. Use this prompt to discuss the meaning of gratitude with your readers in two ways. First, explain its definition according to dictionaries and experts. Then use your personal experiences to illustrate what gratitude means to you.

“Thank you!” is a simple but effective phrase to express appreciation to those who try to improve your day. For this prompt, list more ways to express gratitude through verbal communication or actions. Add tips on showing gratitude while considering important factors such as the event or context, relationship to the recipient, and suitability of the method.

Focus your essay on the advantages one can get from practicing gratitude; use this prompt to encourage your readers to acknowledge the good things happening to them. Provide relevant research and examples that show the benefits of demonstrating gratitude.

For help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing .

The environment an individual grows up in plays a big part in how they express gratitude. Explore different cultures worldwide and discuss how beliefs, religion, and culture can affect how groups display gratefulness. Show your reader’s how different cultures communicate gratitude, including the common reasons they do so. Then, share how you were taught to convey gratitude in your culture.

Exercising gratitude trains us to establish positive values such as enthusiasm and optimism. Use this prompt to identify and discuss the values ​​one can gain from learning about gratitude. Discuss the values you developed while practicing gratitude to make your essay relatable. You might also be interested in these essays about overcoming challenges .

Although gratitude is one of the most positive emotions we can experience, it should still be practiced within healthy boundaries. Such limitations should be applied when a person develops extreme beliefs involving gratitude. An example is over-optimism, where an individual becomes unrealistically optimistic to the point that they ignore the existence of their problems. In your essay, discuss how to practice gratitude in a way that positively influences your life.

In this essay, reflect on a typical day in your life and highlight the parts that make you feel thankful. This prompt will help you appreciate the trivial things in your life and teach your readers how to treasure even the minor things in their lives. For example, having the opportunity to wake up and live another day already deserves your gratitude. Discuss all the things that you are grateful for in this heartfelt essay.

Take your essay to the next level with the best essay checkers .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Four Things I Am Grateful for, Essay Example

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Introduction

People are rarely or never grateful for life itself but for the things it offers. Some pursue money and financial stability. Others are fortunate to have a loving family and numerous friends. People praise life for giving them tangible and intangible benefits. They curse life for difficulties and failures. Life for me is a continuous source of unbelievable impressions. Despite numerous difficulties and failures I cannot stop thanking life for life itself and everything I have and can have in the future. I realize that successes and failures create a reasonable life balance and teach us good moral lessons. The four things I am grateful for are my parents, friends, fate, and my green card – they never betray me and support me on my way to personal and professional achievements.

The most valuable thing I am grateful for in this life is my parents. Needless to say, these are the people who gave me life. More importantly, these are the people who gave me a chance to achieve something in life. These are the people who are the first to praise and recognize my triumphs and to support me in difficult times. My parents are proud of me and teach me to be proud of myself. I can never thank enough to my parents for making me who I am today. I feel proud for being their daughter. They make my life self-fulfilling and full. Parents never betray; that is why I am grateful for them.

People are lucky to have strong and reliable friends, and I am grateful for a chance and opportunity to have many friends. They are with me whatever my goals and ambitions are. They are the first after my parents to support me through difficulties. I am grateful for friends because friends teach me a good moral lesson: they teach me supportiveness, virtue, openness, and tolerance. They teach me how to establish and maintain relations with people. They prove that a brilliant career and loving parents cannot suffice to make a loyal friend. To have at least one loyal friend, one needs kindness, patience, openness, and inner virtue. These serve the glue which ties people together and does not let them go even under the pressure of the most difficult circumstances.

I am grateful for fate and my green card. I am grateful for fate because it guides me and does not let me fall. As long as I can remember myself, fate was always merciful to me. I received a good education, had a decent job, and traveled a lot. Fate always saved me from big troubles and painful failures. At times I realized that I could no longer control my life and circumstances and that some mysterious power controlled my actions and thoughts. However, with my fate’s guidance I could always take the best decision. I never felt like a puppet at the end of its string – rather, fate always gave and gives me a strong hint at how to manage my life in the best way. To some extent, I owe my green card to my fate. I am Bulgarian. I won the card in the lottery. My green card opens unlimited growth and development opportunities to me. It has always been a dream to live in the United States. With my green card, I feel that I can achieve unbelievable professional and personal highs. I know that my fate gives me another chance to succeed in this life – a chance, which I will never dare to waste.

People can love or hate life, but they are almost often grateful for things, which they have in their lives. The four things I am grateful for are my parents, my friends, fate, and my green card. Parents are the first to support me in good and bad times. Friends teach me a good moral lesson of what it takes to be virtuous, supportive, open, and patient with others. Fate guides me and leads me to the best decisions. Finally, my green card opens the gateway to unlimited growth opportunities. My green card is just another chance my fate gives me to succeed in life, and this is the chance I will never dare to waste.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times

A decade’s worth of research on gratitude has shown me that when life is going well, gratitude allows us to celebrate and magnify the goodness. But what about when life goes badly? In the midst of the economic maelstrom that has gripped our country, I have often been asked if people can—or even should—feel grateful under such dire circumstances.

My response is that not only will a grateful attitude help—it is essential . In fact, it is precisely under crisis conditions when we have the most to gain by a grateful perspective on life. In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize. In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope. In other words, gratitude can help us cope with hard times.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that gratitude will come easily or naturally in a crisis. It’s easy to feel grateful for the good things. No one “feels” grateful that they have lost a job or a home or good health or has taken a devastating hit on their retirement portfolio.

But it is vital to make a distinction between feeling grateful and being grateful. We don’t have total control over our emotions. We cannot easily will ourselves to feel grateful, less depressed, or happy. Feelings follow from the way we look at the world, thoughts we have about the way things are, the way things should be, and the distance between these two points.

But being grateful is a choice, a prevailing attitude that endures and is relatively immune to the gains and losses that flow in and out of our lives. When disaster strikes, gratitude provides a perspective from which we can view life in its entirety and not be overwhelmed by temporary circumstances. Yes, this perspective is hard to achieve—but my research says it is worth the effort.

Remember the bad

Trials and suffering can actually refine and deepen gratefulness if we allow them to show us not to take things for granted. Our national holiday of gratitude, Thanksgiving, was born and grew out of hard times. The first Thanksgiving took place after nearly half the pilgrims died from a rough winter and year. It became a national holiday in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War and was moved to its current date in the 1930s following the Depression.

Why? Well, when times are good, people take prosperity for granted and begin to believe that they are invulnerable. In times of uncertainty, though, people realize how powerless they are to control their own destiny. If you begin to see that everything you have, everything you have counted on, may be taken away, it becomes much harder to take it for granted.

The Gratitude Project

What if we didn't take good things for granted? Learn how gratitude can lead to a better life—and a better world—in this new GGSC book.

So crisis can make us more grateful—but research says gratitude also helps us cope with crisis. Consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall. There is scientific evidence that grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals. The contrast between suffering and redemption serves as the basis for one of my tips for practicing gratitude: remember the bad.

It works this way: Think of the worst times in your life, your sorrows, your losses, your sadness—and then remember that here you are, able to remember them, that you made it through the worst times of your life, you got through the trauma, you got through the trial, you endured the temptation, you survived the bad relationship, you’re making your way out of the dark. Remember the bad things, then look to see where you are now.

This process of remembering how difficult life used to be and how far we have come sets up an explicit contrast that is fertile ground for gratefulness. Our minds think in terms of counterfactuals—mental comparisons we make between the way things are and how things might have been different. Contrasting the present with negative times in the past can make us feel happier (or at least less unhappy) and enhance our overall sense of well-being. This opens the door to coping gratefully.

Try this little exercise. First, think about one of the unhappiest events you have experienced. How often do you find yourself thinking about this event today? Does the contrast with the present make you feel grateful and pleased? Do you realize your current life situation is not as bad as it could be? Try to realize and appreciate just how much better your life is now. The point is not to ignore or forget the past but to develop a fruitful frame of reference in the present from which to view experiences and events.

There’s another way to foster gratitude: confront your own mortality. In a recent study, researchers asked participants to imagine a scenario where they are trapped in a burning high rise, overcome by smoke, and killed. This resulted in a substantial increase in gratitude levels, as researchers discovered when they compared this group to two control conditions who were not compelled to imagine their own deaths.

In these ways, remembering the bad can help us to appreciate the good. As the German theologian and Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” We know that gratitude enhances happiness, but why? Gratitude maximizes happiness in multiple ways, and one reason is that it helps us reframe memories of unpleasant events in a way that decreases their unpleasant emotional impact. This implies that grateful coping entails looking for positive consequences of negative events. For example, grateful coping might involve seeing how a stressful event has shaped who we are today and has prompted us to reevaluate what is really important in life.

Reframing disaster

To say that gratitude is a helpful strategy to handle hurt feelings does not mean that we should try to ignore or deny suffering and pain.

The field of positive psychology has at times been criticized for failing to acknowledge the value of negative emotions. Barbara Held of Bowdoin College in Maine, for example, contends that positive psychology has been too negative about negativity and too positive about positivity. To deny that life has its share of disappointments, frustrations, losses, hurts, setbacks, and sadness would be unrealistic and untenable. Life is suffering. No amount of positive thinking exercises will change this truth.

So telling people simply to buck up, count their blessings, and remember how much they still have to be grateful for can certainly do much harm. Processing a life experience through a grateful lens does not mean denying negativity. It is not a form of superficial happiology. Instead, it means realizing the power you have to transform an obstacle into an opportunity. It means reframing a loss into a potential gain, recasting negativity into positive channels for gratitude.

A growing body of research has examined how grateful recasting works. In a study conducted at Eastern Washington University, participants were randomly assigned to one of three writing groups that would recall and report on an unpleasant open memory—a loss, a betrayal, victimization, or some other personally upsetting experience. The first group wrote for 20 minutes on issues that were irrelevant to their open memory. The second wrote about their experience pertaining to their open memory.

Researchers asked the third group to focus on the positive aspects of a difficult experience—and discover what about it might now make them feel grateful. Results showed that they demonstrated more closure and less unpleasant emotional impact than participants who just wrote about the experience without being prompted to see ways it might be redeemed with gratitude. Participants were never told not to think about the negative aspects of the experience or to deny or ignore the pain. Moreover, participants who found reasons to be grateful demonstrated fewer intrusive memories, such as wondering why it happened, whether it could have been prevented, or if they believed they caused it to happen. Thinking gratefully, this study showed, can help heal troubling memories and in a sense redeem them—a result echoed in many other studies.

Some years ago, I asked people with debilitating physical illnesses to compose a narrative concerning a time when they felt a deep sense of gratitude to someone or for something. I asked them to let themselves re-create that experience in their minds so that they could feel the emotions as if they had transported themselves back in time to the event itself. I also had them reflect on what they felt in that situation and how they expressed those feelings. In the face of progressive diseases, people often find life extremely challenging, painful, and frustrating. I wondered whether it would even be possible for them to find anything to be grateful about. For many of them, life revolved around visits to the pain clinic and pharmacy. I would not have been at all surprised if resentment overshadowed gratefulness.

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As it turned out, most respondents had trouble settling on a specific instance—they simply had so much in their lives that they were grateful for. I was struck by the profound depth of feeling that they conveyed in their essays, and by the apparent life-transforming power of gratitude in many of their lives.

It was evident from reading these narrative accounts that (1) gratitude can be an overwhelmingly intense feeling, (2) gratitude for gifts that others easily overlook most can be the most powerful and frequent form of thankfulness, and (3) gratitude can be chosen in spite of one’s situation or circumstances. I was also struck by the redemptive twist that occurred in nearly half of these narratives: out of something bad (suffering, adversity, affliction) came something good (new life or new opportunities) for which the person felt profoundly grateful.

If you are troubled by an open memory or a past unpleasant experience, you might consider trying to reframe how you think about it using the language of thankfulness. The unpleasant experiences in our lives don’t have to be of the traumatic variety in order for us to gratefully benefit from them. Whether it is a large or small event, here are some additional questions to ask yourself:

• What lessons did the experience teach me?
• Can I find ways to be thankful for what happened to me now even though I was not at the time it happened?
• What ability did the experience draw out of me that surprised me?
• How am I now more the person I want to be because of it? Have my negative feelings about the experience limited or prevented my ability to feel gratitude in the time since it occurred?
• Has the experience removed a personal obstacle that previously prevented me from feeling grateful?

Remember, your goal is not to relive the experience but rather to get a new perspective on it. Simply rehearsing an upsetting event makes us feel worse about it. That is why catharsis has rarely been effective. Emotional venting without accompanying insight does not produce change. No amount of writing about the event will help unless you are able to take a fresh, redemptive perspective on it. This is an advantage that grateful people have—and it is a skill that anyone can learn.

About the Author

Robert Emmons

University of california, davis.

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. , is the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude. He is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology . He is the author of the books Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity and Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier .

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Gratitude Essay Examples

An essay on gratitude can be an excellent opportunity to reflect on the things in life that we often take for granted. It’s a chance to acknowledge the people, experiences, and things that have made a positive impact on our lives. If you’re struggling to get started, here are some gratitude essay examples and tips to help you craft a perfect essay on gratitude.

One way to approach an essay on gratitude is to reflect on specific instances where you’ve experienced gratitude in your life. For example, you might write about a time when someone went out of their way to help you or when you received unexpected kindness from a stranger. These examples can help you illustrate the power of gratitude in our lives and show how it can change our perspective on the world.

Another approach is to write about the benefits of gratitude. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can improve mental health, boost happiness, and even enhance physical health. You can explore these benefits in your essay and provide examples of how you’ve experienced them in your own life.

If you’re a college student, consider writing a gratitude college essay. In this essay, you can reflect on how college has shaped you and the opportunities it has provided. You might write about a professor who inspired you or a project that challenged you in new ways. By expressing gratitude for your college experience, you’ll be able to showcase your growth and appreciation for the opportunities you’ve had.

Overall, an essay on gratitude can be a powerful tool for personal growth and reflection. By exploring gratitude in your life, you’ll be able to recognize the good things that are often overlooked and find ways to cultivate more gratitude in your daily life. Use the gratitude essay examples and tips above to craft a perfect essay on gratitude and let your gratitude shine through your words.

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Common Application Essay Option 4—Gratitude

Tips and Strategies for the 2021-22 Common App

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One major change to the Common Application in the 2021-22 admissions cycle is the addition of a new essay prompt. Option #4 now reads, "Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?"

This new prompt replaces the earlier question about solving a problem : "Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma--anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution." Keep in mind that colleges and universities still want to learn about students interested in solving significant problems, and you still have the "Topic of Your Choice" option if you feel your essay would fit well under the former option #4.

According to Common App , the new prompt serves a couple purposes. First, it replaces a prompt that wasn't very popular among college applicants. More importantly, it gives applicants the opportunity to write about something positive at a difficult time in world history. Rather than write about significant problems, challenges, and anxieties, the new prompt #4 invites you to share something heartfelt and uplifting.

The Importance of Gratitude and Kindness

During the college application process, it's easy and tempting to focus entirely on your personal accomplishments: good grades, challenging AP courses, leadership experiences, athletic ability, musical talent, and so on. Even community service can sometimes come across as focused on your self—hours spent to bolster your application credentials.

Gratitude, however, is a largely selfless feeling. It's about your appreciation for someone else. It's recognizing that your growth and success wouldn't be possible without others. When you express gratitude, you aren't saying "look at me!" Rather, you are appreciating those who have helped you become you.

The folks at Common App have expressed that the new prompt allows students to write about something positive. This is true, but the prompt serves a bigger purpose in the admissions selection process. Highly selective schools end up rejecting thousands of well-qualified applicants, and those decisions will often come down to questions of character rather than GPA and SAT scores.

Think of it this way: when a college is choosing between two students who are academically strong and impressive on the extracurricular front, they will choose the student who seems to be the most kind and generous. Admissions officers are building a campus community with their admissions decisions, and they want to create a community filled with students who appreciate others, build each other up, and recognize the contributions of peers, staff, and professors. They want to admit students who will be kind roommates, collaborative lab partners, and supportive team members.

Chris Peterson, an assistant director of admissions at MIT, wrote a blog post in which he identified three essential qualities for getting into one of the world's most selective schools: do well in school, pursue your passion, and be nice. He notes that this last quality "cannot be overstated." MIT is not a Common Application member, but the point applies perfectly to the value of prompt #4. A winning essay doesn't say "me, me, me!" It shows that you are not only an accomplished person, but also someone who knows how to say "thank you."

Breaking Down the Essay Prompt

Before crafting your essay on prompt #4, it's essential to understand everything that the prompt is asking you to do as well as what it is not asking. The prompt is just 28 words long:

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

The prompt has several important elements to consider.

"Reflect"

The very first word in the prompt is one of the most significant. "Reflect" means much more than "write about" or "describe." When you reflect on something, you look inward and reveal self-awareness. You employ critical thinking skills to explain why something is important. Reflection is an act of self-discovery as you examine what you have learned and why it was meaningful.

Here's a quick example:

Unreflective writing: Coach Strauss always taught the team the value of hard work. We practiced hours every day regardless of the weather. The coach's strategy paid off when we won the state championship. The effort we put in wasn't always enjoyable, but the team's success showed that the path to success requires sacrifices.

Reflective writing: I used to resent those miserable and seemingly endless soccer practices in the rain or even snow. Looking back, I now recognize the value of what Coach Strauss was teaching the team. To succeed, we need to work through small obstacles. We need to persevere even when motivation is hard to find. We need to recognize that we always have room for improvement, and we need to support each other as we work towards that goal. I can now see that her lessons were about much more than soccer, and thanks to her I am not just a better athlete, but a better student, peer, sister, and community member.

The first example describes the writer's soccer experience. Nothing in the passage looks inward to analyze the importance of Coach Strauss to the writer's personal awareness and development. The second passage succeeds on this front—it expresses gratitude for Coach Strauss and the way that her lessons helped the writer grow.

"Something" and "Someone"

A nice feature of the Common Application is that all of the essay prompts are designed to give you a lot of latitude in how you respond. The words "something" and "someone" in the new prompt #4 are deliberately vague. You can write about anyone and anything. Possible choices for the person you focus on include

• A teacher who helped you realize your potential or see the world in a new way.
• A coach who taught you valuable skills.
• A family member whose support, love, or guidance helped you become the person you are today.
• A peer who was always there for you in challenging times.
• A student you mentored or tutored who ended up teaching you something valuable in the process.
• A member of your church or community who had a meaningful and positive impact on your life.

The wording of the prompt implies that the "someone" is a living person, so you'll want to avoid writing about an author, God, a pet, or a historical figure (but feel free to use prompt #7 for these topics).

As you think about the "something" that the person did for you, make sure it is meaningful. It needs to be something that has changed you in a positive way.

"Surprising"

When the prompt states that you should write about something that has made you "happy or thankful in a surprising way," don't get too hung up on that word "surprising." This doesn't mean that you need to be shocked or overwhelmed by whatever it is that a person did for you. Don't think of the term "surprising" as something that made you speechless and caused an adrenalin rush. It does not need to be something earth-shattering or even unusual. Rather, the "surprise" can simply be something that expanded your world view, made you think about something you hadn't considered before, or caused you to appreciate something new. Some of the best essays focus on something small or subtle that changed you in a meaningful way.

"Gratitude"

The essay's focus on "gratitude" and thankfulness means that you absolutely must show appreciation for someone other than yourself. One main purpose of this essay, in fact, is to show that you recognize the contributions that others have made to your personal journey. Be generous. Be kind. Show that you value the people who have made you into the person you are.

"Affected" and "Motivated"

Here's the tricky part. Essay #4 is all about recognizing someone else and showing gratitude for the way in which that person has enriched your life. That said, every college application essay needs to be about you. The admissions folks aren't really interested in learning about someone else. They are interested in learning about the student they are considering for admission.

This means you have a careful balancing act to perform with essay option #4. You need to write about the person who contributed to your life in a meaningful and surprising way, but you also need to be introspective and present why that person was so important to you. What did you learn from the person? How did you grow? How did that person change your world view, strengthen your convictions, help you overcome an obstacle, or give you a new sense of direction?

When you answer questions like these, you are writing about yourself. The true goal of this essay is to show that you are a grateful, kind, thoughtful, introspective, and generous person. The focus isn't so much on the person you are writing about, but your ability to cherish that person.

Avoid These Mistakes

You can write about anyone who was important to you, and your gratitude can be for something large or small as long as it affected you in a meaningful way. There are, however, several mistakes you want to avoid when responding to the prompt:

Don't display ego . Prompt #4 is about acknowledging the important contributions others have made to your life, so a boastful or egotistical tone will be entirely out of place. If at its heart your essay says "Coach Strauss helped make me into the award-winning national champion I am today," you've missed the mark.

Do more than describe . Make sure you "reflect" and explore how the person "affected" and "motivated" you. A winning essay needs to be thoughtful and introspective. If you spend the entire essay describing the person who has made you grateful, the admissions folks won't get to know you better and your essay won't have done its job.

Don't be clever with the "someone." Write about a real living human being who has enriched your life in a direct way. Don't write about yourself, God, Abe Lincoln, or Harry Potter. You also don't want to write about a sports idol or musician—while they may have influenced you, they didn't actually do something specifically "for you."

Attend to the Writing

Never forget that your Common Application serves not just to help the admissions folks get to know you, but also to show that you are a capable writer. No matter what your major is, a significant part of your college GPA is going to stem from writing. Successful college students can write clear, engaging, error-free prose. You'll want to pay careful attention to your essay's style , tone, and mechanics. At a highly selective university with more qualified applicants than can be admitted, the difference between an acceptance and rejection can come down to some glaring grammatical errors in the essay.

If you aren't confident in your writing ability, seek help. Have multiple people read your essay. Get feedback from parents and peers, Even more valuable will probably be feedback from your high school counselor and English teacher, for they have more experience with personal essays.

A Final Note for Common Application Option #4

This essay prompt can be approached is so many different ways, but at its heart, the essay needs to accomplish one thing: it needs to show that you are the type of person the college wants to join their campus community. Make sure you come across as someone who is kind, generous, and thoughtful. Show that you care about good writing by crafting an engaging essay that is free of any significant errors. Finally, don't be afraid to let your personality shine. Don't hold back (within reason) if you are a quirky or humorous person. The essay needs to sound like you.

• The 2021-22 Common Application Essay Prompts
• Tips for Writing an Essay on an Event That Led to Personal Growth
• 2020-21 Common Application Essay Option 4—Solving a Problem
• Common Application Essay Option 6: Losing Track of Time
• Common Application Essay Option 3 Tips: Challenging a Belief
• Common Application Essay on a Meaningful Place
• Common Application Essay Option 2 Tips: Learning from Failure
• "Grandpa's Rubik's Cube"—Sample Common Application Essay, Option #4
• Common Application Essay, Option 1: Share Your Story
• Topic of Your Choice: Common Application Essay Tips
• Tips for an Admissions Essay on an Influential Person
• How to Ace Your University of Wisconsin Personal Statements
• Ideal College Application Essay Length
• 5 Tips for a College Admissions Essay on an Important Issue
• A Sample Essay for Common Application Option #7: Topic of Your Choice
• Tips for the Pre-2013 Personal Essay Options on the Common Application

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21 Things to be Thankful For Today (With Examples!)

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Updated on January 29, 2023

Being thankful is not dependent on how many things you have to be thankful for. It’s based on what you choose to be thankful for. So, what are you thankful for today?

When the world seems full of challenges and hurdles, you might need some inspiration on what you can be thankful for. Seeing that gratitude is linked to happiness, you have all the more reason to practice thankfulness every once in a while.

In this article, I’ve listed 21 unique and inspiring things to be thankful for. I’ve asked different people and tried creating the most varying list to inspire you to be grateful.

Being grateful is related to an increase in your happiness

Being thankful is linked to improved quality of sleep, 1. thankful for having a loving dog, 2. thankful for having a caring parent, 3. thankful for the good deeds that exist in this world, 4. thankful for enjoying time spent with my family, 5. thankful for a great show on netflix, 6. thankful for the beautiful sunlight, 7. thankful for the many good memories in my life, 8. thankful for having a roof above my head, 9. thankful for experiencing the struggles in life, 10. thankful for being able to go on walks, 11. thankful for spending time in nature, 12. thankful for getting to spend time with my girlfriend, 13. thankful for waking up each morning with the birds outside of my window, 14. thankful for appreciating music, 15. thankful for getting to be vulnerable, 16. thankful for seeing my strawberry plant grow, 17. thankful for the not-so-great stuff in life, 18. thankful for my life partner, 19. thankful for all the farmers and drivers who nourish us with fresh food, 20. thankful for technology, 21. thankful for the feeling of putting on a fresh pair of socks, wrapping up, why should you be thankful today.

As I mentioned in the intro, there are plenty of reasons to be thankful today.

Even when luck doesn’t seem to be on your side, it’s always good to try to consider some of the things that are still kind to you.

But why exactly should you be thankful? How exactly does a little gratitude improve your life? There have been multiple fascinating studies that prove multiple links between thankfulness and positive factors in life, but I want to highlight two of them here.

One of the most detailed studies on thankfulness was conducted in 2003 by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough . They monitored the happiness of a group of people after having asked the following question:

“There are many things in our lives, both large and small, that we might be grateful about. Think back over the past week and write down on the lines below up to five things in your life that you are grateful or thankful for.”

The study showed that people were approximately 10% happier when encouraged to think of things they’re grateful for.

10 percent may sound inconsequential, but if you practice gratitude every day, these small improvements will compound and may improve your mental health in a significant way.

💡 By the way : Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control. 👇

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

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In addition, another study reviewed the influence of gratitude on the quality of sleep.

This study tested whether individual differences in gratitude are related to sleep quality. Gratitude predicted greater subjective sleep quality and sleep duration, and less sleep latency and daytime dysfunction. These results were found after studying 400 people of all ages.

Long story short, thinking about things to be thankful for and grateful for before going to bed is linked to a better quality of sleep. This is also why it’s good to maintain a gratitude journal right before going to sleep!

What are you thankful for today?

Here are 21 examples of what you can be thankful for today. These examples are from real people, as I went online and asked around:

What is something that you are grateful for? For example, you can be grateful for someone smiling at you, for a beautiful sunset, or for some nice music that you recently listened to. Whatever comes to your mind is OK!

Who’s thankful: Suset Laboy

I am deeply grateful for my coffee-loving dog. Every morning, as soon as he smells the coffee my sister is making, he runs to the kitchen because he loves the smell. When she is done, he chases her to the couch and sit on her and tries to convince her to give him some coffee. It is both hilarious and heartwarming, and I have started looking forward to this little morning ritual that brings some much needed levity into our days.

Who’s thankful: Nancy Osoro

I always start my day with a little gratitude as soon as my feet hit the floor. But lately, I have been very grateful for my mom who is constantly reminding me to drink my fresh ginger tea to keep me healthy during these crazy and stressful times. Despite a 7-hour time difference, she makes it a point of calling every day. It makes me realize how lucky I am.

Who’s thankful: Leia Kalani

We live in a crazy world and it’s far too easy to only see the negative around us. I am so grateful every time I see someone do a good deed for someone else, even a small gesture can have a huge impact. Whether it’s helping a blind person cross the street, carrying groceries for the elderly, or even holding the door open for someone, these good deeds rekindle my belief in the good of humanity. It’s easy to get bogged down by society but opening your eyes and seeing the good can make you thankful that there are still good people in the world.

This list wouldn’t be complete without a specific mention of family.

The truth is, I love spending time with my family, mainly my parents, brother, and sister. I’m thankful for the time my brother, sister and I ran a marathon together. Or the many dinners at my parents’ with the entire family. Or when my father takes my brother and me to Austria for a couple of days of hiking in the mountains.

I am extremely thankful for having a loving family, and it’s something that I should always try to remember when I’m feeling down or unhappy.

Who’s thankful: Nancy Irwin

I’m grateful for the amazing cast, set designers, and costumes of The Crown. I am so grateful that I can curl up in a soft blanket on my sofa and binge this amazing educational, historical, fascinating show during my free time now.

Who’s thankful: Joy Rains

I’m grateful for sunlight! Yesterday afternoon, a sunbeam entered my home through the dining room window. Bright yellow circles of light landed on the legs of my dining room chairs. Each chair looked to be adorned with glistening jewels. I smiled, grateful to be a witness to nature’s magic.

This is something that I’m personally very grateful for in my life.

I keep an entire memory journal dedicated to remembering the many good memories of my life.

I find that remembering good memories helps me maintain a happy mind. Thinking back about that time that I laughed my ass off about something silly brings a smile to my face. This is something I try to do daily, whenever I find a moment to stand still and think about my life.

Who’s thankful: Tessa Hull

I’m grateful for knowing that I’m not “stuck” in the house but “safe” in the house while others out there cannot be so lucky, either not having a roof over their head or not feeling safe in their own home. Knowing how to reframe my thoughts when I’m feeling rubbish helps. I’m also super grateful for a steady supply of Italian cheese. Because not everything you’re grateful for needs to be so serious.

Who’s thankful: Noelle Creamer

Something that I am grateful for are struggles. To me, they are a gift. Rather than living a life of luxury and ease, my struggles over the years have taught me value, wisdom, and compassion. They have led me to spiritual growth. The greater the challenge I face, the more I learn, the more I progress, and the stronger I become. For that, I am grateful.

Who’s thankful: Emily Adams

I am grateful to have my health and the fact that I can still spend time in nature. On my walk today I was able to see four baby foxes and just soak it all in and I am grateful for that.

Who’s thankful: Nekeshia Hammond

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend time in nature. Whether it is taking the time to watch a sunset, spending time on a beach, or enjoying time in the mountains (if I’m visiting another place), nature offers such peace of mind. As we can all get so busy with the day-to-day, it’s nice to unwind, take some deep breaths, and focus on the beauty that nature has to offer.

This is one that I personally wanted to include in this list. I’m incredibly grateful for the fact that my girlfriend and I somehow found each other in this world with over 7 billion people.

My relationship is one of my biggest happiness factors . I love my girlfriend and she makes my life happier on a daily basis. It almost sounds cheesy to write it down, but I just don’t want to take this relationship for granted. I feel lucky to have her in my life and wouldn’t want to imagine what it’d be like if it was any different.

It’s one of the things I’m most thankful for in life.

Who’s thankful: Lynell Ross

Each morning, I am treated with a visit from these precious little birds, first flying back and forth, then hovering in front of the glass as if they are saying good morning before they sit to drink their nectar. I love seeing their tiny little hummingbird shape and color so close up, reminding me to be aware of nature, which is so comforting and peaceful.

This is another one that I personally wanted to add to the list.

If you still have your hearing, then you should be grateful for the beauty of sound. The fact that multiple sound waves combined form music that can carry emotion, tension, and excitement is something that we often take for granted.

Music has the power to move. I personally experience this every once in a while, when a song sucks me in and takes me on a journey. This journey always ends up putting a smile on my face, and sometimes even brings me to tears. Tears of happiness, that is.

The fact that we’re able to hear and appreciate sounds and music is definitely something to be thankful for.

Who’s thankful: Michelle Kuei

I am grateful for all the connections I am able to make when I let my guard down and become vulnerable. Being able to use my vulnerability as a superpower to share my story with others provides healing in the heart of others. It gives them strength and comfort knowing they are not alone. This brings me joy, fulfillment, and purpose in my heart. I am grateful for the connections I have made through being vulnerable and sharing my story.

Who’s thankful: Chris Kaiser

One small thing I’m super grateful for is seeing the flowers on the very first strawberry plant I ever planted. We planted it about 3 weeks ago on our balcony, and since then I’m diligently counting every single flower it produces (13 in total so far). Every tiny new flower puts a broad smile to my face.

Who’s thankful: Allen Klein

This may sound strange, but I’m grateful for the not-so-great stuff in my life. They are my greatest teachers. For example, I learned about living fully from those who have passed on. I’ve learned to appreciate my body more from the times things don’t function as they should. And now, I’m learning about being grateful for the parks in my neighborhood now that I have to shelter in place during this pandemic.

Who’s thankful: Saurabh Jindal

The biggest gift to me has been my wife, Rashmi Agarwal. She has been an unflinching pillar of support as I have gone through many difficult times while trying to build my start-up. She is one of the smartest persons I have met and has an uncanny ability to look at any situation from multiple angles. As an entrepreneur, I sometimes work on my own and with small teams – and with her help I am able to achieve much more than what I would otherwise.

Who’s thankful: Naz Beheshti

I’m grateful for tasty celery again for my daily celery and lemon juice. I was about to take a break from my morning ritual since I was getting really bitter tasting celery at the store. But I persisted and waited in line for it, and now it’s tasty again. I’m grateful for all the farmers and drivers who nourish us with fresh and tasty products!

Who’s thankful: Terrell Strayhorn

I’m really grateful for technology. Cell phones that keep me connected to my family, kids, colleagues, and students during the pandemic. Laptops and iPads that enable video connections via Zoom, provide “mental breaks” to play games or watch videos, and even apps for journaling and writing. Homepods and headphones that let me listen to music as a backdrop to serious activities like writing or analyzing data, but also music as a distraction to the crisis impacting us all. Today, I’m grateful for technology.

As a final item on this list, I wanted to finish with something silly and funny. But that doesn´t mean it’s less true.

Whenever I buy a new 5-pack of socks, I’m always surprised by how nice it feels to put them on for the first time. The feeling of smoothness that comes with putting on a pair of new socks is something I am truly grateful for.

Don’t you agree?

💡 By the way : If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here. 👇

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

There you have it. If you still can’t think of things to be thankful for, then I give up! I hope you now have a good understanding of why you should always be able to remember something to be thankful for. And don’t forget, you can be thankful for silly things that seem insignificant (like putting on a pair of fresh socks!).

Did I miss something that you would have liked to see on this list? Do you want to have your favorite thing to be thankful for listed in this article? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below!

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

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Personal Essay: Things I Am Thankful For in My Life

To begin with , I have multiple things that I am thankful for in my life. I am really grateful to have friends,family,and school because some people in this world are unfortunate to be able to experience these things. People don’t realise that they have these people and things that they should be grateful to. These people and things help me with everyday life to learn new life lessons and to get more knowledge. These people are the best and I will be grateful to them in my life. With further ado, I am going to talk more about the things I am grateful for. 

In the first place , I am really thankful to have friends that are loyal and supportive throughout my life. One reason I am thankful to have them is that they make me happy whenever I have a dejected face. This helps me get my mind off the situation and instead talk and play with my friends. Another reason is they split things with me like pencils,snacks,and many more things. This is really important to me because whenever I can’t bring food they find a way for me to not have an empty stomach. The last reason is they help me with my work when I have a hard time with it. This is helpful because I don’t have to waste time on finding the answer to the problem and they are able to explain it to me. These friends are Xavier,Gursharan,Alex,Jayden,and Maninder. I am really thankful to these friends so I will keep on being thankful.

Not only-but also , I am really grateful to my family for many different reasons. One reason I am thankful to them is because my mom always makes my favorite food and she doesn’t let me starve no matter what. This is the reason I am alive so I should be grateful to her. Another reason is whenever I have worn out shoes or clothes my dad is there to get me new ones. My dad gets me anything I want and that means he is a good and caring dad. The last reason I am thankful to these people is whenever my mom isn’t able to make anything, my grandma or grandpa buy me food so I don’t have to be hungry. This is really nice of my family to keep me with everything that I need. I am really grateful to have this kind of family.

Thus , the last thing I am thankful for is my school for multiple reasons. One reason I am thankful is the teachers are able to educate me without having any problems. This helps me understand the work and problems better so I get them right. Another reasonI am thankful is that security keeps us safe from shooters or any threat. When we are safe we know that we won’t get hurt and we are able to learn properly. The last reason I am thankful is because the janitors keep the school clean in many ways. For example,they broom and mop the floors,rooms,and bathrooms. Everyday I am going to school knowing that I am safe from any threats and that I can learn in peace.

In conclusion, I would like to say that these people bless me everyday with happiness and no stress.These people are the best at helping me with everyday life and helping me learn new things. They try to teach me life lessons in a nice and understandable way. They are the nicest people I have ever seen. As long as they do great things I will be thankful to them for different reasons.

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150 Things To Be Grateful For (What Are You Thankful For?)

November is a month of gratitude, and Thanksgiving is the time each year when we think most consciously about what we are thankful for. What’s on your gratitude list? Did you make one?

Although it’s good to have a time of year to focus on gratitude, a gratitude practice and gratitude journaling shouldn’t just be limited to November. 

Why Gratitude Is Important

Gratitude matters because it’s such a crucial aspect of looking at life positively . You can improve your mental health and increase your overall well-being if you practice gratitude daily.

How Do You Practice Gratitude?

If you want to consider expanding your thankfulness beyond November, a gratitude journal is a perfect way to achieve this goal. 

How do you practice gratitude? It’s simple. Just take a few minutes every day to write down 3–5 things that you truly appreciate about your life. This is called gratitude journaling. You can focus on things that have happened within the last 24 hours, or you can keep it general. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do it. Really give it some thought and take your time to engage in that positivity and thankfulness. You can use any blank journal or you can use Dean Graziosi’s Better Life journal , which includes his personal outcome journaling method too. 

List of Things to Be Thankful For

There are almost too many things to be grateful for. That’s why we broke this list of things to be thankful for into sections, so you can look over the information more easily. We also want you to be able to use this list as a reference point. If you’re having a hard day or struggling in a particular area, find that section in this blog post and identify with something on our list. We’re here to support you!

As you read through this post, know that not every one of these “things to be thankful for” will apply to you, and that’s okay. We’re certain you’ll find something to be grateful for on this extensive list.

PEOPLE (AND PETS)

If you’re looking for something—or someone —to be grateful for, look no further than the people surrounding you.

1. Family 

Your family is not only the people you’re related to by blood but also those you choose to love. A loving family can be a huge blessing.

2. Friends 

Your friends are the family you choose, and the good ones will be there no matter what you’re going through. 

3. Significant Other

Having someone you love who loves you back is one of the greatest gifts this world has to offer. If you have a significant other, add them to your gratitude list.

4. Your Community

Being part of a community means you’re part of something bigger than yourself. 

5. Mentors and People Who Inspire You

Be thankful for those who have gone before and choose to teach what they’ve learned.

Is there a more beautiful sound than a baby’s laugh? Or a sweeter thing than a child’s smile? Express gratitude for all the little ones.

7. Grandparents

Here’s to all the cookie-baking, pot roast-making, fishing and flannel-wearing grandmas and grandpas out there. They’re special people. If they’re gone, be thankful that you knew them. And if they’re still around, be especially thankful for them.

8. Positive People

Have you ever noticed that just being around happy people can make you feel happy? Their positivity can just light up a room. Consider adding a few happy people to your gratitude list.

9. Your Cat

They may act like they don’t care, but really they do. If you don’t believe us, just grab a treat and see how quickly they come running! 😉

10. Your Dog

Man’s best friend, where would we be without you?

11. Kittens and Puppies

They’re tiny, cute and really soft .

RELATIONSHIPS

Beyond the privilege of knowing and having special people (and pets) in our lives, our interactions with these people can include some of the best moments of our lives. 

12. Chats with Loved Ones

Chatting with those closest to you is so meaningful. You get to hear how they’re doing and share your life with them. Think about talks with family members, new acquaintances and old friends when looking for small things to be thankful for.

13. Gathering With Friends and Family

The opportunity to spend actual, physical time with your loved ones is something that should never be taken for granted—as we’ve come to know all too well in 2020. 

14. Family Vacations

A trip away from home is always wonderful. And when you get to make memories with your family members, it can be even better. Whether you’re flying or taking a road trip, spending time away with loved ones is something to be thankful for.

15. Warm Hugs

This one tops Olaf’s gratitude list, so go ahead and throw it on yours. 😉

16. Holidays Spent With Loved Ones

With family traditions and plenty of good food, the holidays are a favorite time of year for many people. Cherish that time.

17. Family Traditions

Whether you always shop on Black Friday, eat the same Christmas dinner or spend time together decorating, your family’s traditions are special and should be added to your gratitude journal. Be grateful for your family and the time you’ve had together to build those traditions.

18. Date Night

Date night is one of the most amazing things you and your significant other can do to develop your relationship. On date night, you spend time focusing on each other, and what could be better than that? 

Receiving physical affection from your loved ones is definitely something to be thankful for. And if it’s your significant other, it can be even sweeter.

20. Teachers

Individuals who promote learning in young people are people to be thankful for. Do you have a teacher in your life who really impacted you? If so, consider putting them in your gratitude journal.

21. Random Acts of Kindness

Has someone taken the time to perform a small act of kindness towards you? Have you recently done a small thing to give someone else a pick me up? Add it to your gratitude list!

22. The Sound of Kids Playing

Dean loves nothing more than the sound of his kids playing basketball in the backyard. Hearing kids laugh is the best, isn’t it? 

23. Getting to Know Someone New

Practice gratitude when you meet new friends. It really is such a privilege.

24. Being in Love

Is there a better feeling in the world than being in love?

25. A Listening Ear

Having someone who listens may feel like a simple thing, but it can seriously affect our mental health. If you have someone who’s constantly there for you to talk to, add them to your gratitude journal.

26. Honesty

Honesty is an extremely important value in your life and relationships. If you experience it, feel thankful.

27. Loyalty

Loyal friends are worth their weight in gold. Whether they’re old friends or new acquaintances, make sure you appreciate them.

28. Positive Feedback

Receiving positive feedback builds confidence and self-esteem. And living more confidently improves your mindset and well-being. So, be grateful for every time you receive positive feedback.

29. Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a gift, and it can be rare. Cherish it, appreciate it and record it on your list of things you’re grateful for.

Peace is an amazing thing that we shouldn’t take lightly. Whether in relationships or communities, when you experience peace, remember to remain thankful.

Experiences are an important part of life, whether you partake in them alone or with others. Here’s some we’re particularly appreciative of.

31. Laughing Until You Cry

Lol, Lmao, Rofl—there’s a reason we have so many acronyms for laughing because laughing is one of the best things in life. 😂😂😭😭 

32. Dancing

There’s something about dancing that lifts your spirits and makes you feel thankful naturally.

33. Playing Golf

Dean loves playing golf. He loves it not just for the sport but for the opportunity to have long talks with his close friends. He’s thankful for that time! Do you enjoy it too?

34. Alone Time

Sometimes, the best way we can spend our time is by taking a rest and recharging on our own. For your own wellness, you might choose to nap, read or do a favorite activity alone to build up your energy—especially if you’re an introvert like Dean.

35. Waking Up Every Morning

Every day is a gift and a privilege. Carpe diem!

36. Working from Home

In 2020, many people were able to work from home for the first time. Thanks 2020 for showing us what it feels like to work in our sweatpants. If you were able to work from home and keep safe, it’s something to express thankfulness for.

37. Power Naps

We’re grateful for 20-minute naps that move the needle, energizing us for the rest of the day.

38. Appreciating Art

There’s something awe-inspiring about looking at art. We’re thankful for that whoa feeling.

39. Getting Good News

Here’s to that swoop in your stomach and that warm feeling that radiates through your body when you get great news. It’s all you can do to keep yourself from screaming “ YES !” in public!

40. Cuddles With Your Furry Friend After a Bad Day

Enough said.

There are some things in life that you can’t live without… and others we simply wouldn’t want to. Some other things we put on this list just because they make our lives more fun. What’s your favorite THING?

41. The Roof Over Your Head 

Everyone needs a place to call home, but not everyone has one, so it’s important to be grateful if you do.

42. Technology 

Social media, new products, and apps! Inventors and innovators develop new technology every day to make our lives more efficient and enjoyable. Isn’t that crazy cool? 

43. Indoor Heat 

Looking at you Northerners up there in the snow. Bet you love this stuff.

44. Air Conditioning 

We’re headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona in the United States. That’s smack dab in the middle of the desert. So all we have to say is air conditioning is a beautiful thing.

45. Sunny Days

What brightens your life more than a sunny day? It’s the simple things that really matter.

46. Rainy Days

If sunny days aren’t your thing, maybe you prefer rainy days. You get to hear the pitter patter of raindrops, and you know that the plants are about to be much happier.

47. Newness of Spring

When the trees start to bud after winter, it signals a new beginning. It’s a new hope. 

48. Fall Leaves

There are few things more satisfying than the crunch and swish of fall leaves under your feet.

49. Fresh Snow

Pure, fresh snow is beautiful every time.

50. Access to Clean Drinking Water

Having good, clean drinking water is a privilege. Be thankful.

51. Bubble Baths

Can you think of anything more relaxing?

52. Modern Medicine

It’s miraculous how far medicine has come. It’s saved countless lives. We are lucky to live in this time in history.

53. Employment

Whether you work at a job or you are self-employed, it’s a good thing to be able to provide income for yourself and your family.

54. Comfort Food

There’s just something about warm, gooey comfort food. Hotdish, anyone?

55. Curling Up in a Blanket with a Good Book

Get comfortable on a cozy couch and wrap a soft blanket around you (either because it’s cold outside or because of that sweet, sweet air conditioning). Then grab a book and read about what interests you.

56. A Cup of Coffee in the Morning

Because there’s no better way to start the day than with a cup of coffee. It’s fuel—literally!

57. Dessert

One word: Yum.

58. Money in the Bank

This feels like a big one. Be sure to express a lot of thankfulness for this one if it applies to you.

59. Hobbies

Doing what is fun for you is something to be grateful for.

60. Streaming Services

Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and more—the ability to watch what you want when you want is truly something to be grateful for.

61. Amazon Prime

Books and anything you could possibly imagine available in just a few days? What is this— The Jetsons ?

62. Clean Sheets

A freshly made bed with crisp, clean sheets feels like a fresh start.

63. Farmers Markets

Excellent locally grown vegetables, hand-made crafts and community—what’s not to like?

64. Good Hair Days

Just plain important for a happy life.

65. A Good Night’s Sleep

Zzzzzzz. 

66. Grocery Stores

This kind of convenience is insane. Have you ever thought about that?!

67. Hot Showers

68. old photographs.

Looking at old photographs from when you were a kid, when your parents were kids or when your grandparents were kids is a great trip down memory lane.

69. Podcasts

Portable and easily accessible, podcasts are one of our favorite ways to learn new things.

Who doesn’t love getting swept away in an amazing story? Especially if it’s the kind of novel that will have you up til 2 AM trying to finish. If you’re a #booklover, add your favorite books to your gratitude list. 

71. Great Movies

What’s your favorite movie? You know, the one you love so much that you’ve watched it a million times. Add that to your gratitude journal.

72. The Snooze Button

It may be annoying, but at least you didn’t get fired.

73. TV Shows

We all need an escape now and then.

Who doesn’t like to look nice?

The feeling after a close shave cannot be beat. 

76. Shaving Cream

Imagine just using soap and water! 

77. Beard Oil

For those of you who love to rock a beard, beard oil is heaven-sent. And if you have a beard but you’re not using oil, go get some! You’ll be thankful you did. 😉

78. Birds Chirping

Good morning—it’s a beautiful day.

79. Scented Candles

Because they just smell really good. And there are so many scents.

80. Wildflowers

Nature is amazing. If you love to watch the flowers grow or the bees buzz around them, add wildflowers to your gratitude journal.

81. Running Shoes

Runners love their shoes! Here’s why Dean’s a big fan of Nikes .

Lotion creates a protective barrier for our skin, keeping it feeling good. And it doesn’t hurt that it smells great.

83. TV Remotes

Not having to get up each time you want to change the channel is, quite frankly, amazing.

84. Fluffy Pillows

So comfortable and sleep is so important.

85. Journals

This one is big for us because we’re so into mindset. And if it’s not too meta , you could even be grateful for your gratitude journal! 

Are we there yet? Nope, we’re 7.4 miles away. 😉

87. Wine or Beer

Sitting with your significant other and having a nice glass of wine or beer is a great way to end the day.

88. Expensive Liquor

For the times when wine and beer just won’t cut it. 

89. Your Favorite Armchair

It’s your spot, and everyone needs one.

90. Mental Health Days

Taking a day off just to decompress can be really good for you.

91. Swimming in the Ocean

Nothing makes you realize how big and incredible the world is quite like swimming in the ocean.

92. The Smell of the Holidays

Fresh pine needles, sweet cookies, grandma’s cooking—the epitome of hope and holidays.

93. Scenic Drives

Take the long way home and explore a scenic path. It’s an excellent way to appreciate your surroundings.

94. Weekends

Can I get an Amen ?

95. Home-Cooked Meals

Hot out of the oven or freshly chopped—home starts in the kitchen for a lot of people. If that’s you, add it to your gratitude list.

Omelet anyone?

97. Sunsets

Just plain beautiful.

98. Massages 

Okay, this is the one thing that is more relaxing than bubble baths. 

99. Movie Theater Popcorn

Extra salt and butter? Sounds perfect.

100. New Clothes

Dean may wear the same dark gray and light grey t-shirts every day, but he has a lot of them. New clothes are fun and make you feel like a new you.

101. Ice-Cold Beer after Working Outside

After a long day of working outside, there are very few things as refreshing as an ice-cold beer. 

102. Cell Phones

What would our lives be like without our cell phones? They have social media, emails, contacts—they house our entire lives! If you can’t think of something to be thankful for, remember this little guy. 

103. Comfortable Shoes for Exploring

Do you like to hike? If so, you could add  your most comfortable pair of shoes to your gratitude journal!

104. This World We Live in

There are so many sights to see, and so many places to venture to! 

105. Your Favorite Music

Whatever genre, whatever artist, whatever band you love—be thankful for them!

106. Free Wifi at Coffee Shops

Hallelujah.

107. A Great Pen

We know most of us spend a lot of time typing, but for those who like to journal and still write things out (looking at you, Dean), a great pen is a wonderful thing.

108. Computers

This incredible technology allows us to learn and build businesses. It provides us answers to difficult calculations in mere seconds! Computers are truly phenomenal.

109. Sticky Notes

Without them, would we remember anything at all?

She [It?] is annoying but helpful.

It saved us in 2020.

112. GoogleDocs

113. fresh air through an open window.

Feeling a light breeze on a hot day can be so refreshing. If fresh air brightens your day, add it to your gratitude list.

114. Transportation

The freedom we have with the transportation available is unreal. Cars, buses, airplanes—any transportation that you’re thankful for, jot it down in your gratitude journal.

115. The Internet

Of course, the almighty Internet. It connects us and gives us limitless opportunities.

116. Glasses (Or Contacts)

Glasses and contacts are simple things that we often forget about. But, for those of us who need them, they can top the list of things to be grateful for. 

117. The Smell of Freshly Mown Grass

Ahhh , smells like summer. 

INTANGIBLE THINGS

Now let’s get into the big picture stuff. These are things we’re thankful for that may be hard to categorize but all the more meaningful because of it.

If faith matters to you, it can be a core part of who you are. Faith can define a huge part of your identity, giving your life meaning and purpose. If that’s the case, add faith to your gratitude list.

119. Potential 

You have so much that you haven’t done yet—and your capacity for more grows every day.

120. Talents

Your talents may feel natural, but the more you develop them, the more they will flourish.

121. Feeling Inspired

Inspiration is a powerful instigator, and great things can come of it. If you’ve been feeling inspired lately, jot it down in your gratitude journal.

122. Personal Growth

If you’re on a path towards personal growth, you’ll begin to notice the changes in yourself. You may see yourself become more mature and more confident. Take note of these changes and add them to the list of things you’re thankful for.

123. Second Chances

Sometimes, things don’t always work out the first time. Either we made a mistake or things happened outside our control. But a second chance is definitely something to be grateful for.

124. Literacy

Look at you! Sitting here, reading this article. Amazing!

125. Capacity to Learn

Do you have the ability to discover tons of things about the world and about yourself? If so, that’s something to celebrate. 

126. Good Health

Good health is important for your success. This is both your physical and mental health. If you’re taking steps to stay healthy, add it to your gratitude list!

127. Working Senses 

Can you feel, smell, see, hear, or taste? If so, you’ve found something else to be thankful for! What a gift. ☺️

128. Mindfulness

Being mindful takes practice, and if you’ve been putting in the work, you’re sure to reap the benefits. Have you been noticing the benefits of mindfulness in your everyday life? If so, go ahead and add it to your thankfulness list.

129. Diversity 

Think of all the opportunities you have for connecting to our global community. Whether you’re talking to a colleague in Germany or listening to pop music from Korea, if diversity is something you’re grateful for, write it in your gratitude journal.

130. Justice

Seeing and experiencing justice is something to feel grateful for. 

131. Freedom

If you enjoy the freedom you have to be yourself, add it to your gratitude list. 

132. The Future

Your future looks bright. Yes to that positivity!

133. Success

Look back with gratitude at all your success—this year and beyond.

134. Energy

You had the energy and life to wake up this morning and smile. Give thanks for that!

135. Sense of Accomplishment

Feeling proud of a job well-done is something to be grateful for.

136. Nostalgic Memories

It’s a blessing to have good memories to look back on. If you’re appreciating the nostalgia, add it to your gratitude list!

137. Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is a privilege that not everyone has. If you have it, give thanks for it.

138. Receiving Wisdom

Receiving wisdom from a mentor is invaluable. And you should really take that knowledge to heart and give thanks for it.

139. Free Time

Having leisure time to do what you like? Now that’s a luxury to be appreciated.

140. Learning From Mistakes

Mistakes are not fun in the moment, but we mature as a result. And that’s a good thing.

142. Education

Access to education is incredibly empowering. Recognize that!

143. Safety

Basic safety is something too many take for granted, and it is so necessary for life. If you have it, you are incredibly lucky.

144. Stable Government

If you live in a country that has a stable government, then you have yet another reason to give thanks.

145. Having a Purpose in Life

Finding your life’s purpose gives your life meaning and direction. Plus, it gives you context for your place in the wider world—all reasons for thankfulness.

146. The Feeling of Total Relaxation

When you can sit down and really unwind, it’s one of the best feelings. Be thankful!

147. Experiencing Peace of Mind

Peace of mind is what we all want to feel. No worries, just acceptance. That’s something to be grateful for.

148. Organization 

You’re not always going to be 100% organized, but when you are, give thanks for it.

One of the most valuable reasons to be thankful is for the opportunities you have yet to experience—and that’s hope if I’ve ever heard it.

And, last but not least…

150. yourself .

Be thankful that you are who you are. There’s only one you. It’s so important to practice positive self-talk in your gratitude practice. Being kind to yourself increases your positivity, self-worth, and well-being. So, go on! Add yourself to the top of the list of things you’re grateful for! 

Wow! That about does it. 150 things to be grateful for! We hope you enjoyed this comprehensive gratitude list, and we hope that it gives you ideas for your own gratitude journaling. 

A final hint: Just be grateful for the simple things. And remember that when you practice gratitude, positivity and thankfulness (even when you don’t want to), amazing things can happen.

I’d love to know what you’re most grateful for this year! Text me the #1 thing you’re thankful for at 480-400-9019.

It comes straight to my personal cell, just like if you were texting a friend, related posts, join launchpad now, how matthew mcconaughey taught me the art of livin’, 6 steps to achieving your ideal future, how to visualize your goals and stay motivated, 5 more ways to make your goals become reality, 5 ways to make your goals become reality, millionaire habits vs. dollar habits .

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What are you grateful for 105 things to be thankful for in life.

Here's a list of 40 things to be grateful for today.

There are so many things around us and in our lives that we overlook, so many blessings that we forget to acknowledge. Gratitude is everywhere. We are all so blessed in little and big ways. All we are required to do is focus.

To find things to be grateful for in every moment, I recommend trying out a technique that I call ' Atomic Gratitude '.

In this technique, we pick up one small aspect of our lives, and it can be anything, for example; your bedroom, your partner, nature, your pet, your job, yourself, your friend, your kitchen, anything.

And, now you focus on this part of your life and see the little atomic parts of it that you can be thankful for.

Let's take the example of a bedroom that I also mention in my Attitude of Gratitude course and find the things that we can be grateful for in it.

Now, there might not be anything extraordinary in your bedroom that you see and sleep in every night. But, imagine if it wasn’t there, and think of each individual atom that makes it home for you.

Let's make a gratitude list with the things we can be thankful for in a bedroom:

• Think of the walls that give you a space just for you.
• Think of the windows that let soothing wind and sunlight in.
• The curtains create soft light in the room, ensure privacy, and gently sway with the air.
• The floor that you stand upon and how reliable it is.
• The closet lets you keep your clothes and make more space in your room.
• The lightbulb illuminates in the dark.
• The buttons make it so easy to control the environment of the room.
• The bed is always available for you to rest on.
• The comfortable mattress supports your sleep and physical health.
• The cool and relaxing feeling of clean bedsheets.
• The support of pillows.
• The bedside table that keeps all the things you want near.
• The door that connects you to the rest of your house and also allows you to choose when you want to be with yourself only.
• The sense of assurance that the lock on that door gives you.
• The photographs on the walls relive golden memories.

There is such an incredible possibility in your bedroom alone. We just listed 15 things we can be grateful for in your bedroom alone and there's a lot more in it.

Imagine, if we searched for all the tiniest things and moments to feel grateful for, we'd never run out of ideas.

Before asking for more, let's appreciate all that we have, and let's focus on the tiny bits that make up and support the life we live.

What are you grateful for?

Alright then, let's dive into more ideas for things that you can be grateful for in your life here:

Things to Be Grateful For

Here are some of the things you can be thankful for:

"I am thankful for..."

• Your morning coffee/tea
• A healthy breakfast
• That movie that always makes you laugh
• When your hands are full and someone opens the door for you
• Your good health
• Your close friends
• Cute animal videos
• Warm sunshine on winter days/cool wind on hot summer days
• The senses that make you experience the world
• Funny people, always a blessing!
• A secret joke between you and your friend
• The moment when your food comes at a restaurant
• When your favorite song comes on the radio right at the perfect time
• Tears to express your deepest emotions
• A friend’s face after you surprised them
• Oxygen for life
• Transportation
• Comfortable clothes
• Your ability to help
• Kind strangers
• A warm, cozy blanket on chilly nights
• A great meal with your loved ones
• Excitement for adventures
• A relaxing bath
• Winning at a game
• Sacrificing for love
• Your favorite school teacher
• Handwritten letters
• A relaxed weekend
• Fresh morning air
• Deep conversations
• Feeling understood
• Stories that fascinate you
• Free learning resources
• Experience of life

😇 Tip : To really level up your gratitude practice, I recommend that you maintain a gratitude journal . It'll really shift your perspective by making small steps every day.

Gratitude list of unique things to be thankful for

• Google search engine
• Food delivery partners
• Sour candies
• Healthy nails
• Hair blowing in the wind
• Handmade jewelry
• Sweet new people
• Comfortable jeans
• Flexible body
• Typing speed
• Spellchecker
• Smooth keyboard
• Shiny tables
• Funny videos
• Soothing voices
• Discovering new songs you like
• Cracking the mystery before anyone else
• Automatic save functionality in software
• Good recommendations
• The excitement of an upcoming wedding
• Shared nostalgia
• The moment you wake up in the morning and know you have more time to sleep
• Compliments
• Hot/cool showers
• New recipes
• A great dinner
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Clean sheets
• Being around someone you like
• Resolution of conflict
• Moments of happiness
• Having money
• Giving gifts
• Being understood by a friend
• Awareness of being in the present moment
• Realization of how far you've come
• A good workout
• Feeling healthy
• Good health of the people you love

So, what do you say? We have so many things to feel grateful for. Go ahead and write in your gratitude journal! 💖

Here's to gratitude for the little things!

Continue Reading: 40 Ways to Show Your Partner You Love and Appreciate Them

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.

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STUDENT BLOG

6 Reasons Why I'm Grateful for My School

Mai Bucheeri

14 December, 2021

From extracurricular to academics, my school has assisted me in exploring a multitude of skills and activities. As a result, I am thankful for school since it has helped me discover my passions, pushed me to seek new experiences, and altered my personality. I am grateful for:

1 - MY GROWTH IN CONFIDENCE

As a child, I struggled with confidence and social awkwardness. On the other hand, participating in activities in school provided me with the opportunity to meet other students who shared my hobbies and interests. I gradually transitioned from an introverted position to a more social one through increasing interaction, making new acquaintances and gaining confidence. I can’t thank my school enough for having such a positive impact on my personality.

Furthermore, the activities I have participated in at school have provided me with leadership opportunities, competitions, and partnerships. For example, serving as vice president of the Student Council taught me to be a leader and take command.

2 - MY TEACHERS

The education process, which we started by learning to read and write, continues throughout life. We complete these processes with our teachers. As a result, I would like to thank everyone, especially my teachers, whose efforts I can not ignore. The people who have built me into the person I am. As a school teacher and as an educator who had the power to influence my mind to a great extent. Thank you to all teachers that created an environment of enthusiasm for learning, appreciation for growing and room for making mistakes along the way.

3 - MY FRIENDS

I am grateful to my friends for being there for me in my happy and challenging times. The ones that stood by my side and supported me in every decision I made. I am grateful for being able to cry with them over an exam we didn’t do well on. I am thankful to them for making my school experience memorable and creating memories that will last a lifetime.

4 - MY EXPOSURE TO DIVERSITY

My school had an incredibly diverse community which taught me about acceptance. I discovered that not everyone speaks the same language, dresses the same way, or eats the same foods at break time. I graduated from high school as a global citizen, interacting with people from many backgrounds and perspectives.

5 - MY LIFE LESSONS

My school did more than just teach me the academic curriculum. It gave me lessons in life that I would not have learned at home. But, it aided in my development as a responsible global citizen. For example, you can become or achieve anything if you work extremely hard and put all of your efforts into it.

6 - MY IBDP CURRICULUM

I never anticipated feeling grateful for my IBDP curriculum because it is a lot of work and sometimes more than a student can handle. But, I am aware that the quantity of work I had to complete during the last two years of school cannot be compared to the amount of work I would be assigned during college. Even though it required me to pull all-nighters, I am grateful for the knowledge and abilities I received from my subjects.

It is painful to know that my school life is coming to an end and that a new chapter of my life will begin. However, I believe that school truly prepared me for my future chapters. As a result, I am prepared to embark on my new journey.

Are you passionate about creative writing? Are you interested in being a Springring Student guest blogger? Reach out to us at  [email protected] . We'd love to have you on board!

Do you know someone who loves to write? Refer a friend who has a way with words! Their voice deserves to be heard.

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A student at Naseem International School. Independent and determined. I am curious and love to explore and discover new things. My curiosity, helped me gain new knowledge, and is the main factor in building my personality. As an extrovert, I love communicating & meeting new people.

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Guest Essay

I Don’t Write Like Alice Munro, but I Want to Live Like Her

By Sheila Heti

Ms. Heti is the author of the novels “Pure Colour,” “How Should a Person Be?” and, most recently, “Alphabetical Diaries.”

It is common to say “I was heartbroken to hear” that so-and-so died, but I really do feel heartbroken having learned about Alice Munro, who died on Monday.

As a writer, she modeled, in her life and art, that one must work with emotional sincerity and precision and concentration and depth — not on every kind of writing but on only one kind, the kind closest to one’s heart.

She has long been a North Star for many writers and was someone I have always felt guided by. We are very different writers, but I have kept her in mind, daily and for decades, as an example to follow (but failed to follow to the extent that she demonstrated it): that a fiction writer isn’t someone for hire.

A fiction writer isn’t someone who can write anything — movies, articles, obits! She isn’t a person in service to the magazines, to the newspapers, to the publishers or even to her audience. She doesn’t have to speak on the political issues of the day or on matters of importance to the culture right now but ought first and most to attend seriously to her task, which is her only task, writing the particular thing she was most suited to write.

Ms. Munro only ever wrote short stories — not novels, though she must have been pressured to. She died in a small town not too far from where she was born, choosing to remain close to the sort of people she grew up with, whom she remained ever curious about. Depth is wherever one stands, she showed us, convincingly.

Fiction writers are people, supposedly, who have things to say; they must, because they are so good with words. So people are always asking them: Can you say something about this or about this? But the art of hearing the voice of a fictional person or sensing a fictional world or working for years on some unfathomable creation is, in fact, the opposite of saying something with the opinionated and knowledgeable part of one’s mind. It is rather the humble craft of putting your opinions and ego aside and letting something be said through you.

Ms. Munro held to this division and never let the vanity that can come with being good with words persuade her to put her words just everywhere, in every possible way. Here was the best example in the world — in Canada, my own land — of someone who seemed to abide by classical artistic values in her choices as a person and in her choices on the page. I felt quietly reassured knowing that a hundred kilometers down the road was Alice Munro.

She was also an example of how a writer should be in public: modest, unpretentious, funny, generous and kind. I learned the lesson of generosity from her early. When I was 20 and was just starting to publish short stories, I sent her a fan letter. I don’t remember what my letter said. After a few months, I received a handwritten thank-you note from her in the mail. The fact that she replied at all and did so with such care taught me a lot about grace and consideration and has remained as a warmth within me since that day.

She will always remain for me, and for many others, a model of that grave yet joyous dedication to art — a dedication that inevitably informs the most important choices the artist makes about how to support that life. Probably Ms. Munro would laugh at this; no one knows the compromises another makes, especially when that person is as private as she was and transforms her trials into fiction. Yet whatever the truth of her daily existence, she still shines as a symbol of artistic purity and care.

I am grateful for all she gave to the world and for all the sacrifices she must have made to give it. I’m sorry to be here defying her example, but she was just too loved, and these words just came. Thank you, Alice Munro.

Sheila Heti is the author of the novels “Pure Colour,” “How Should a Person Be?” and, most recently, “Alphabetical Diaries.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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I tested all available versions of ChatGPT to see which model writes the best work emails

• OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o, its latest generative AI model, on Monday.
• GPT-4o is available as a text-based chatbot on ChatGPT.
• Business Insider tested GPT-4o's email-writing capabilities and compared it to older models.

OpenAI 's newest model, GPT-4o, is predicted to shake up multiple industries, but its email writing skills might need some work.

During a flashy display Monday, the company unveiled the latest version of the generative AI model predicted to shake up multiple industries: GPT-4o .

GPT-4o is already available as a chatbot on ChatGPT , which many workers use for boring, text-based tasks. Free ChatGPT users are stuck with GPT-3.5 but get limited access to a handful of responses from GPT-4o, per OpenAI's pricing page .

The ChatGPT Plus membership costs $20 a month and includes more answers from the faster GPT-4o model, access to GPT-4, and features like an image generator.

As someone who has previously tried and grown frustrated with ChatGPT's inability to write non-robotic-sounding emails, I wanted to see if GPT-4o would actually help me out for once.

Using ChatGPT's "temporary chat" feature to prevent the chatbot from spitting out similar responses based on previous answers, I tested three available versions of the chatbot — GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and GPT-4o — using three different email prompts to see if GPT-4o is superior to the earlier versions. Here's what I found.

Interview requests

This is one of the most common emails I send at my job, so I was an expert on how they should be structured. I've tried having GPT write these emails, but it never works out — the emails ChatGPT constructs are always extremely long and ridiculously official-sounding. I'm sending an email, not a quill-and-inkpot letter to the King of England .

I had hoped GPT-4o would change its ways, but it's hard to teach an old chatbot new answers.

Here's the prompt I gave:

Can you write an email to an expert I am interested in interviewing about the history of generative AI models? I want the email to be brief and friendly. Let the expert know I work at Business Insider.

GPT-4o returned the shortest draft, which I was grateful for. However, I did find it odd that the chatbot wrote that I would be "honored" to interview a subject. Do not worry, future interview subjects — I will not come off this strong in an email.

The older models provided lengthier answers. I did find it interesting that these models made up topics my fake source and I could discuss, and that they were topical. For example, the older GPT-4 model said the faux interview would "focus on the key milestones and future implications of generative AI technology."

GPT-4o's answer wasn't quite as detailed — it took the "brief" part of my request seriously.

Winner: GPT-4o

Scheduling a meeting

Sending meeting emails isn't particularly difficult, but it's always easier to have someone — or something — else write them for you.

My second prompt:

I want to schedule a virtual meeting with my boss to discuss an ongoing project. Can you write an email asking to put something on the calendar this month? I want the email to be brief and conversational.

I was surprised that all three models constructed their emails concisely and similarly. My simple and straightforward prompt may have helped.

I found it interesting that the previous generation, GPT-4. asked me to elaborate on the meeting topic at one point to draft a better email. Still, all three models gave responses that would work well for someone trying to communicate with their higher-ups.

Winner: Three-way tie

Cold emailing about a career opportunity

A cold email : It's probably one of the scariest messages that someone can send. For my final prompt, I asked ChatGPT to take on the anxiety-inducing task for a persona I made up — a financial advisor looking for a gig at JPMorgan .

I am a budding financial advisor looking for a new job. I would like to introduce myself by cold-emailing someone at JPMorgan. Can you write this email for me and include details that would make me stand out?

For this one, I did not add a line about brevity, resulting in all of the models churning out responses that were far too long. Interestingly, GPT-4o wrote the longest email, at nearly 300 words. The other two were around 250.

All the emails were structured very similarly. For example, all three lost sight of the topic and thanked the email recipient for "considering my application."

Both the GPT-4o model and the 3.5 model added the phrase "What sets me apart…" which indicated to me that it was pulling from my prompt. It was something I would expect to read in a middle school essay — not from an adult job seeker.

Winner: GPT-4

And the winner is...

ChatGPT will be ChatGPT.

The bot has a distinct voice and style that makes it obvious that a non-human is composing whatever text output you ask for.

I don't think the newer model has shed that sound on paper — though maybe having the text read aloud by a human-sounding, and perhaps flirty, voice assistant , as OpenAI recently demoed, would change things.

The text-generating capabilities of each model were fairly similar to me. Sometimes, the older models gave me answers that I found more conversational and less robotic. So, if you only want ChatGPT to write emails for you, the monthly $20 is probably not worth it.

However, if you want to avoid sending emails and generate images of cute cats in Amazon packages to pass the time at your desk, it may be time to pull out your wallet.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

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Watch CBS News

Full transcript of "Face the Nation," May 19, 2024

May 19, 2024 / 3:03 PM EDT / CBS News

On this "Face the Nation" broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan: 

• Sen. J.D. Vance , Republican of Ohio 
• Sen. Gary Peters , Democrat of Michigan
• Oksana Markarova , Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S.
• Chris Krebs , the former director of CISA and a CBS News cybersecurity expert and analyst
• Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Click  here to browse full transcripts of "Face the Nation."   

MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington.

And this week on Face the Nation: From the courtroom to the campaign trail, election 2024 is in full swing. Crisscrossing key states, former President Trump and President Biden spent the weekend rallying crucial voting groups just about one month before they have agreed to face off in the first presidential debate of 2024.

But will it be enough to turn out voters?

We will talk to Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, a possible running mate for Mr. Trump and one of the Republicans who showed up to support the former president in New York, where he faces charges of falsifying business records to pay off an adult film star to benefit his 2016 campaign.

And we will hear from Michigan Senator Gary Peters, who's in charge of defending Democrats' slim majority.

Plus: new threats to our elections. What do we need to know about foreign interference and the dangers of A.I.? We will get the latest from cybersecurity expert and analyst Chris Krebs.

Then: Russia's advance on Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv marks one of Moscow's biggest territorial gains to date. Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova will join us with the latest.

Finally, Robert Gates once led the CIA and the Defense Department, serving under eight presidents. We will get his thoughts on the state of U.S. national security, the 2024 election and more.

It's all just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.

With Election Day less than six months away, President Biden is navigating a host of challenges at home and abroad. His national security adviser is in Israel today for talks with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the war in Gaza enters its eighth month.

Netanyahu himself is facing an ultimatum from a member of his war cabinet, Benny Gantz, who is the president of the United States who is threatening to quit government unless a postwar plan for Gaza is delivered by June 8. Earlier this week, the defense minister also publicly questioned Netanyahu's strategy.

And that conflict overseas is making waves at home. Voters' dissatisfaction with President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza is overshadowing his commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta this morning, where some students and faculty have protested his appearance.

The speech is just one of the stops this weekend aimed at shoring up support from black voters. Recent polling suggests he's falling behind his opponent in key states. A new CBS poll shows the president trailing Trump by five points in Arizona, despite Biden winning that state in 2020. And, in Florida, Trump is comfortably up by nine after winning that state in the last two cycles.

We begin this morning with Nikole Killion, who's in Atlanta.

PROTESTER: Free, free Palestine!

NIKOLE KILLION (voice-over): Protesters greeted President Biden outside of Morehouse ahead of his commencement address to graduates at the all-male historically black college.

KOLLIN BROWN (Morehouse Graduate): You do want to remain conscious of what's going on in the world, but, at the same time, it's a time and place for everything.

NIKOLE KILLION: Hundreds of Morehouse students and faculty petitioned college leaders to rescind Biden's invitation, arguing the president's support of Israel's war in Gaza goes against the school's legacy of social justice.

ROBERT MYRICK (Morehouse Alum): I definitely think it's an important speech. I think this is an opportunity for Biden to come out, talk – talk about what he's done for the black community, as well as address young people and voters of color's disdain for the actions of Israel in Gaza. I still think it's an opportunity for him to win us over.

JOE BIDEN (President of the United States): The fact is that, this election, a lot is at stake.

NIKOLE KILLION: Saturday, Mr. Biden stopped by a popular black-owned restaurant in Atlanta, continuing his push with black voters, as recent polls show him trailing former President Trump in several key battlegrounds, including the Peach State.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: You hear about how, you know, we're behind in the polls. Well, so far, the polls haven't been right once.

DONALD TRUMP (Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate): I think you're a rebellious bunch, but let's be rebellious and vote this time, OK?

NIKOLE KILLION: In Texas, the former president picked up an endorsement from the National Rifle Association. He encouraged gun owners to turn out, even teasing a third term, which is barred by the Constitution.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We won a landslide that is, here's the expression, too big, too rigged.

NIKOLE KILLION: Back here at Morehouse, some of the students and faculty are holding a silent protest, wearing Palestinian scarves or the color of the flag.

President Biden will keep making his case to black voters, heading from here to Detroit to speak at an NAACP dinner later today – Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That's Nikole Killion in Atlanta.

And we're joined now in studio by Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance.

Good to have you here.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio): Morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning to you.

So, you were at Mar-a-Lago recently. You were in New York at the Manhattan courtroom. You were in Ohio alongside Donald Trump at a fund-raiser. I know you keep getting asked whether or not you're going to be vice president or not. And you said you haven't spoken to him about it.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Sure.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But we're also looking at a pretty tight race in the Senate. So, I wonder, do you think you're more helpful to him in the Senate or in the White House?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, I will let him make that decision, ultimately. I think he knows how to best run his presidential campaign.

And what I have said is, I'm happy to be an advocate for the agenda in the United States Senate. I think that's the best way for me to help the people of Ohio. I'm certainly interested in helping him in other ways, if that's what – what matters, because, look, Margaret, we have to reelect Donald Trump as president.

The contrast is so extraordinary between higher inflation at home and war overseas – that's the Biden record – and the Trump record of peace at home and prosperity. That is an incredible thing to run on. And, importantly, it's an incredible thing to deliver for our country. So I think we need to help Donald Trump get across the finish line.

That's why I have spent a fair amount of time with him the past couple of weeks helping him raise some resources, showing up in support in New York. But it's all about getting him elected president. I actually don't care that much who the vice president is, because Trump's ultimately going to govern.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you call yourself one of the most pro-labor Republicans in Congress.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You were out there with automakers who were striking a few months back. And you've been very broadly supportive of tariffs.

Why are you opposed to President Biden, then, putting tariffs on batteries and electric vehicles and other technology from China? It seems inconsistent.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, I think there are two things here.

First of all, many of the tariffs that Joe Biden has endorsed in the last couple of weeks are tariffs that he ran against in 2020. But now that he sees that Donald Trump is…

MARGARET BRENNAN: He kept them.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: … leading him in polls, he's adopting the Donald Trump agenda. That's not actually being a good policy president. That's shifting on politics because you know you're about to lose.

This is also important. There's another…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he's targeted these pretty directly.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: There's a second thing, Margaret, that's really important here, is, Biden's entire agenda, such that it exists, has been about protecting green energy jobs, at the expense of the industrial heartland.

If you are in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania, you are not being empowered or enriched by Joe Biden's green energy agenda. So, him applying tariffs on the green agenda stuff, does it help steelmakers? Does it help natural gas workers? Does it help the heart of the American economy? The answer is no, which is another reason why Donald Trump would make a much better president.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you know, it's, what – Chinese electric vehicles are like, less than 2 percent of the market. But the point here is…

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, but it's a lot of the supply…

MARGARET BRENNAN: … all tariffs, though on – on – but, to your point, all tariffs, which you're – you seem to be in favor of, they're inflationary.

So how is the Trump-Vance idea here going to help make things more affordable for people, if you're putting taxes on goods they're purchasing from overseas?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, I – I don't necessarily buy the premise there, Margaret.

If you apply tariffs, really, what it is, is you're saying that we're going to penalize you for using slave labor in China and importing that stuff in the United States. What you end up doing is, you end up making more stuff in America, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio and in Michigan..

MARGARET BRENNAN: That did not happen in the Trump administration, though.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: And I think that – well, it – it actually did happen in the Trump administration, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Manufacturing jobs came back?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: You did have – you did have significant onshoring. You had significant increases in people investing in factory construction.

But it takes time, Margaret. And that's one of the things, one of the reasons why I think that we need a second term of President Trump, is, this stuff is not going to happen overnight. The American heartland wasn't destroyed in – in – in four years.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: It's not going to be rebuilt in four years. But you really need to double down on this policy of bringing good jobs back to the heartland and, more importantly, making stuff in America. We have to be self-reliant as a country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. We haven't heard a lot of specifics. I mean, there's been ranges of a 10 percent to 60 percent tariffs. Do you know what the plan is?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, look, I'm not going to speak for Donald Trump, but I certainly agree that we need to apply some broad-based tariffs, especially on goods coming in from China, and not just solar panels and E.V. stuff.

We need to protect American industries from all of the competition, because here – here's the thing, Margaret. The reason China beats us, it's not because they have better workers. It's because they're willing to use slaves to make things there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. Or it's state funding.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: We want American – we want American workers to make this stuff at good wages.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about some of the things you've said about American universities. I know you've been very critical of them.

You gave an interview in February. You said: "The closest conservatives have ever gotten to successfully dealing with the left-wing domination of universities is Viktor Orban's approach in Hungary. I think his way has to be the model for us, not to eliminate universities, but to give the choice between survival or taking a much less biased approach to teaching."

He seized control of state universities and put them in foundations that were then run by his allies. Is that what you're advocating be done in the United States?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, Margaret, what you're seeing in the United States actually is that universities are controlled by left-wing foundations. They're not controlled by the American taxpayer.

And yet the American taxpayer is sending hundreds of billions of dollars to these universities every single year.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I don't want taxpayers controlling education necessarily.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: I – I…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that what you're advocating for, federal government control?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Margaret, what I'm advocating for is for taxpayers to have a say in how their money is spent. Universities are part of a social contract in this country. They educate our children. They produce important intellectual property. They get a lot of money because of it.

But if they're not educating our children well, and they're layering the next generation down in mountains of student debt, then they're not meeting their end of the bargain. I think it's totally reasonable to say there needs to be a political solution to that problem.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, America's universities still attract talent from around the world, as you went to one of America's very top schools. But – but…

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Look, there's still good things about American universities, but it's going in the wrong direction, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But so – but Viktor Orban, in particular, as you know, I mean, he – he rewrote the constitution. He neutered the courts. He has tried to control the media.

These are not necessarily conservative principles. So why would you want to mimic him?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, look, I'm not endorsing every single thing that Viktor Orban has ever done. I don't know everything he's ever done.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: What I do think is, on the university – on the university principle, the idea that taxpayers should have some influence in how their money is spent on these universities, it's a totally reasonable thing.

And I do think that he's made some smart decisions there that we could – we could learn from in the United States.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he was just welcomed at Mar-a-Lago.

And – and, as you know, Leader McConnell just spoke out on the floor of the Senate this past week after Xi Jinping visited Hungary. He's trying to broker trade deals. They're brokering trade deals, not just with Russia, but with Iran. Orban – because of this – McConnell said it should be a red flag for anyone seriously concerned about competition with China.

So why take any policy cues from a man and a country and a strategy cozying up to America's adversaries?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, look, Margaret, Hungary is a nation of 10 million people. America is a nation of 330 million people and the most important economy in the world.

I don't think that we should take every cue. But I actually have to reject the premise here, because why is Viktor Orban getting closer to China? In part, because American leadership is not making smart decisions. We are pushing other nations into the arms of Chinese – the Chinese, because we don't make enough stuff, because we pursue a ridiculous foreign policy very often.

We have to be more self-reliant. I don't like China. I don't like that China has stolen a lot of American jobs. The reason they've done it is because American leadership has made bad decisions.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you…

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: That's our fault, and that's something we can fix as Americans.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You – you've talked a lot about the – the need for the United States to pivot to Asia…

MARGARET BRENNAN: … and let the Europeans focus on Europe. But Xi Jinping is focusing on Europe.

Why would you cede influence?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well…

MARGARET BRENNAN: You're – because you've really been opposed to helping Ukraine in its fight. You've said a lot of things that are suggestive…

MARGARET BRENNAN: … that you just want to pull – pull back.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: … let me – let me – let me address that point, Margaret.

First of all, I think the reason that we have to be smart in Ukraine is, we don't have a strategy. What is Joe Biden trying to do? What is another $60 billion accomplishing that $120 billion hasn't? We have to have a smart strategy to spend American taxpayer dollars.

But – but, on this – but on the Europe…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Eighty percent of it funds the U.S. defense industrial base from the – the supplemental that just passed.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: But, Margaret, but on – on this question, Europe and China and the intertwinement between those two, look, the reason Europe has become weaker is because they've deindustrialized.

And why have they deindustrialized? Because they've pursued a green energy agenda, following the lead of the Biden administration, and that necessarily empowers China and Russia. We need to acknowledge that it's our decisions that are making these countries stronger. We need to fix that, not whine at countries that have 10 million people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Or – or people just like cheap stuff, no matter where they live, right? So – and they look for cheaper providers. But…

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, they'd love to have cheap energy in Europe, and they don't have it because of the policies of the green energy lobby.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about abortion…

MARGARET BRENNAN: … because we see it in our polling as so motivating.

But President Trump has adopted this position that it should be states that control abortion access.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You said back in 2022 that a proposal to limit abortion access after 15 weeks of pregnancy was something you would support and some minimal national standard.

What is the minimum national standard that you want the federal government to have on abortion?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Well, look, Margaret, I think that, first of all, we have to acknowledge that political reality is, I think, really motivating a lot of these considerations.

What Donald Trump has said, which is very consistent with what I said during my own campaign, is that the gross majority of abortion policy is going to be made at the state level.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: And I actually think, if you compare his view of saying, look, this is a tough issue, we need to let people debate and decide this very tough issue in this new environment, where it's been kicked back to democratic legislators…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. But you want a minimum federal standard.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: But – but – but, Margaret, compare this to the Biden administration approach is, we want Christians to perform abortions and we want American taxpayers to fund late-term abortions. I think…

MARGARET BRENNAN: That's not true.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: … the Trump approach – that is absolutely what Democrats have endorsed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Prohibited under that Hyde Amendment.

But – so you don't have a – a minimum national standard?

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Margaret, what I have said consistently is, the gross majority of policy here is going to be set by the states. I am pro-life. I want to save as many babies as possible.

And, sure, I think it's totally reasonable to say that late-term abortions should not happen with reasonable exceptions.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: But I think Trump's approach here is trying to settle a very tough issue…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: … and actually empower the American people to decide it for themselves.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Vance, thank you for joining us today.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Thanks Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Michigan Democratic Senator Gary Peters.

Good morning to you, Senator.

SENATOR GARY PETERS (D-Michigan): Well, good morning to you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you just heard us run through a whole bunch of these statistics with our polling data. And you are in charge of helping to defend the slim Democratic majority in the Senate.

Are you still confident that you can pick up a seat in Florida? And are you bullish that you will actually be able to pull off a win in Arizona?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: I am.

I'm still very, very confident. We have all the pieces in place to be successful. And, basically, it's very similar to how we were successful in the last cycle, when folks thought that that was not possible in a midterm with a – a party in power in the White House.

We did. We made history last cycle. We're going to do it again. And it's primarily because of candidate quality.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well…

SENATOR GARY PETERS: We have outstanding Democratic candidates, outstanding Democratic incumbents who have served their state against deeply flawed Republican candidates.

So I'm confident we're going to be able to win.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.

So, just to put up on screen, because I don't think we did that, the candidate in Arizona I was talking about, Ruben Gallego, is leading Kari Lake by 13 points. That's – that's pretty stark.

SENATOR GARY PETERS: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, should -you - are you confident?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: It is.

And here's a – here – I – the lead is great. But I – you know, I take every poll with a grain of salt. We're still going to have a tough race. We're going to still be focused on Arizona to make sure that Ruben wins.

But if you look at the contrast, his service to the – the state of Arizona through his work in Congress…

SENATOR GARY PETERS: … versus Kari Lake, who's been an election denier, she's been traveling around the country, not in Arizona, people of Arizona want someone who's going to be there fighting for them. And that's what they have in Congressman – there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK. But that is what's happening down-ballot, but President Biden in the state of Arizona is down five points versus Donald Trump. So what is – what are they missing at the top of the ticket here?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: Well, I – I'm still confident that Joe Biden will win in Arizona as well. The – the election will continue to play out. These are going to be close races.

As I said, with his lead, you know, I – I always take these polls with a grain of salt, in the fact that these are competitive battleground states. By definition, they're going to be very close. We're going to win because - - not just because of the candidates, but also because of our ability to run better campaigns, reaching out to our voters, getting them engaged, getting them to the polls.

That's how you win these close races. It's what we did last cycle.

SENATOR GARY PETERS: It's what we're going to do again this year in election time.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in Florida and Arizona, we polled in both of those states. By almost 3-1, voters say President Trump would be better for their finances than President Biden.

In Arizona, Trump has a 10-point advantage on the specific question of, who cares about people like you a lot? And the economy, again and again, number one issue. What can President Biden do to fix that?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: Well, President Biden has been focused on the economy.

And, actually, if you poll folks about their individual view about themselves, polls are pretty consistent. They feel good about what's happening in their family. And it's about focusing on that aspect. Ask people about yourself and are you better off.

But, certainly, President Biden, as well as Democrats in the Senate, have been looking to reduce costs. For example, prescription drugs, bringing down the price of prescription drugs for families, it is a focus of the president that will continue.

And, you know, you have to look back on the previous administration. You know, folks forget that, when the former president was there, we were in a pandemic.

SENATOR GARY PETERS: And he just mishandled the – that pandemic in a spectacular fashion.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that is why – that is why it is…

SENATOR GARY PETERS: … that caused so many hardships for people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. And that is why it is so stark when people say they think he's going to be better for their finances. It's pretty stunning, frankly.

On the issue of the border, we know, just on the facts, the number of migrants crossing the Southern border has actually been declining for the past few months. And the Biden administration has talked about, you know, new efforts under way here.

But it's not showing up in any sort of better reviews for the president's border policy. That is so essential for support in the state of Arizona. He's trailing by five points. What does he have to do on the border that's going to help stop the bleeding?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: Well, as you said, the numbers are getting better. They'll continue to get better.

And – and President Biden, his administration has been focused on that. We also, as Democrats…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Does he need to talk about it more?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: He – absolutely. And that's what a campaign is about, and the campaign to make sure people have that information. As you also know, Democrats worked with Republicans to have the most comprehensive border security bill that would've been passed in decades.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And it didn't.

SENATOR GARY PETERS: That would've made it even better.

And yet Donald Trump said, don't vote for it because it's going to be a political win for Biden.

SENATOR GARY PETERS: He'd rather see problems on the border. the American people don't want that. They want solutions. They want folks who roll up their sleeves, get things done.

We were on the edge of doing that. And Donald Trump tanked that effort.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he…

SENATOR GARY PETERS: And Republicans just listened to him. They're – they're basically hypocrites on this issue.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But he consistently talks about immigration.

President Biden very, very, very rarely discusses the things that you were talking about. And, on immigration, we just see that these policies here, 13 percent of Biden – say Biden's policies benefit U.S. citizens over immigrants. Trump policies overwhelmingly are viewed as more positive.

I mean, there's just a perception issue here. How do you battle that?

SENATOR GARY PETERS: Well, it – that – it is a perception issue. It's not a fact issue. The facts are clearly wrong when it comes to that.

President Biden has been addressing this issue. The numbers show it. And that's what a campaign is about. That's what we do, is to make sure that there's a very clear contrast painted. When voters go into the voting booth in November…

SENATOR GARY PETERS: … they will know the facts. They will see that there's a clear contrast. And they're going to vote for the person who's actually delivered, which is President Biden, as well as Senate Democrats across the country as well.

That contrast will play out as the – the campaigns get into full gear.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right.

And we know President Biden is headed to your home state of Michigan shortly. Thank you very much, Senator Peters.

Face the Nation will be back in one minute. Stay with us.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We're joined now by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, who is just back from a trip to Kyiv.

Good morning.

OKSANA MARKAROVA (Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States): Good morning. Always good to be back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It's great to have you in person.

Secretary Blinken was just in Kyiv. You were there. What did you learn from these face-to-face meetings with President Zelenskyy?

AMBASSADOR OKSANA MARKAROVA: Well, it was, as always, very candid, very good, very productive discussion. The secretary has been there for two days, so not just meeting with the president, which, of course, has been very deep on every aspect of our strategic friendship, but also with prime minister, with Vice Prime Minister Fedorov, so many visits.

Most importantly, I think it was good to align what are we going to do, how we are going to – to put to the best use these funds that Congress has provided. And this $2 billion announcement of FMF support, which could, by the way, go to joint production and Ukrainian-made production is, I think, a great step forward.

So, very good visit. Always good to – to – to see secretary there in person.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are the weapons arriving fast enough?

AMBASSADOR OKSANA MARKAROVA: Well, there is no such thing as fast enough when we are up against such a bad enemy, and we have to catch up for a long pause in – in weapons ordering or starting the supply.

So, no, we need it to be faster.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, we have more to talk about.

But I'm going to have to take a commercial break in order to do that and come back with a more in-depth chat with Ambassador Markarova. So, stay with us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: My colleague Norah O'Donnell interviewed the pope at the Vatican last month.

And you can watch it tonight on 60 Minutes, plus a one-hour prime-time special this Monday at 10:00 p.m.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back with a lot more Face the Nation.

Stay with us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION. We continue our conversation now with Ukrainian ambassador to the United States.

Ambassador, President Zelenskyy has made clear on multiple occasions now that Ukraine needs more patriot missile systems. He says your country only has about 25 percent of the air defense systems it needs.

Is the United States going to provide that help?

OKSANA MARKAROVA (Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S.): Well, first of all, let me second President Zelenskyy on the need. I mean clearly I was there just for two days but every day we hear in the news just today, you know, the horrible hit in Kharkiv (INAUDIBLE) again, 27 wounded, five dead already. We don't know, maybe more.

Clearly Russia is doubling down on their war crimes. They found new friends to produce more of these glide (ph) in bombs, horrible. Just trying to destroy as many peaceful citizen in Ukraine as possible. So, the fast way to stop it is to provide us with more than air - more air defense.

It's also the efficient way, you know, because not only it will save lives, but it will save the energy generation. And everything then (ph) we will have to spend a lot of money and effort to restore and rebuild.

So, desperately need it now. We are in - in very active conversations. Literally Pentagon. And I would like to thank them as we are preparing for the new Ramstein group meeting next week, working day and night to find it. But, frankly, this is the time when everyone have to give us a little bit of theirs. So, we're very grateful to those who are providing us with their systems. We are grateful to the U.S. for looking for them, locating them, funding some of them, but we need more and it's time to literally take some brave decisions and provide us with more of this so we can see them right away where we need them two - at least two we need in Kharkiv and that area.

OKSANA MARKAROVA: But other places need to be protected as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And Germany was looking to provide some help, as I understand it, on that front.

OKSANA MARKAROVA: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know - you just mentioned an upcoming summit in Ramstein. C.Q. Brown, the chair of the Joint Chiefs, told reporters Ukraine has asked the United States for help to strike inside Russia. The U.S. has been afraid to have U.S. weapons used in that kind of a strike. What is it that Ukraine's seeking to do?

OKSANA MARKAROVA: Well, first of all, you remember we had this discussion for two years now. We have the right to defend ourselves. This - we are defending ourselves whether we are striking Russian troops on our territory or Russian troops outside of our territory. And we have been trying to do that. But, of course, there were some restrictions.

Now, I will not go publicly into discussions where we are on discussions with either U.S. or any of other partners. But I just want to say that it's clear that Russia is an aggressor here. It's clear when they are preparing something. So, the U.N. rules, the international law and every other rules that exist in this country, which Russia violated by the way, give us a clear right to defend ourselves and by striking an aggressor whether on our territory or for - or where they are launching or threaten (ph) the attack from.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you need more training for your troops? I know there's now a new draft, a lower age, you need more men fighting.

OKSANA MARKAROVA: And the training is ongoing. And, frankly, this is where we are cooperating with the U.S. and with other partners. We would like to see more training been done in Ukraine so that not only we're training our troops, but we are also becoming institutionally more strong, building their - our army of the future which will be protecting, not just Ukraine but all of us from Russia. So, yes, in training it's going to be one of the key discussions with the allies.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And in Ukraine. Interesting.

Ambassador, thank you for providing us that update.

We'll be right back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're joined now by CBS News cybersecurity expert and analyst Chris Krebs, who is the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Good to have you back.

CHRIS KREBS: Good to be back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, in our polling that we just carried out in Arizona in particular, it was a center of election denialism back in 2020 and we're seeing this again. I mean half - nearly half of Trump's supporters say the 2024 presidential results in Arizona should be investigated and challenged if Biden wins. Seven in ten from those who identify themselves as MAGA.

Is this going to be a repeat of 2020? I mean what - what's going to happen?

CHRIS KREBS: Well, you know, all these claims are despite any credible evidence being presented in the courts or, you know, to everyone else and the experts out there. We're continuing to see claims of problems with 2020, even 2022, the midterms. So, I think the incentive structures, the way they're aligned right now, it - it creates plenty of room and a permissive environment for those to allege that there are problems. Again, despite any credible evidence and continued investments in election security, election resilience, modernizing election systems. You know, back in 2020 we talked about having 95 percent or so of ballots, you know, cast on paper. Now that number's probably closer to 98. So, we have made improvements over the last several years.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It's interesting you make that point about paper because on the campaign trail Donald Trump claims 2020 was rigged, claims 2024 might be as well.

Listen to what he just said.

DONALD TRUMP (R), (Former U.S. President And 2024 Presidential Candidate): Our goal on election will be one day voting with paper ballots, proof of citizenship and voter I.D. It's very simple. If you want to save America and your Second Amendment, register, get an absentee or mail-in ballot, vote early or vote on Election Day, I don't care.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, two things there. Now he is for mail-in ballots. He was against them in 2020. But you just said there already is a paper trail. He's saying there is none.

CHRIS KREBS: The vast majority of votes cast in the United States right now are with a paper trail. There is a small percentage that are recorded down on election - election systems, but that's for accessibility purposes, for those that may have visual impairment or otherwise. And it's important to ensure open and accessible voting processes.

The one-day voting - this push, this drive, it's actually counterproductive. It actually is counter to participation in the democratic system and resilience in security. That longer run up, the weeks, months in advance of the election, allows us to detect if there are any issues, get on top and fix them.

If you had an election on one single day, life happens first. Somebody might get sick, you could get in a car accident, you might not be able to get to the polls. But if something happens early on, it could have this cascading, catastrophic impact on getting people to the polls and voting on election day.

So, I'm much more in favor of a - of the system we have now with early voting, with mail-in and absentee ballots.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the director of national intelligence, your successor, as I said, Jen Easterly, also testified that they are so prepared, election infrastructure has never been more secure. But then we also hear from U.S. intelligence that China, for example, is experimenting with things like generative AI to influence voters.

How do people understand that influence effort versus actually tinkering with ballots?

CHRIS KREBS: I think that's the right distinction. There's interference, which is the technical manipulation of systems, and as Jen Easterly, my successor at CISA said earlier this week in a Senate hearing, the investments we're making, the continued improvements across systems, it - I would even suggest that, you know, when - when we said in 2020 that it was a safe and secure election, it's even more safe and secure now because those continued investments, because of continued improvements across those systems.

But to your point on influence, the scope, the scale, the technology available to our adversaries, including AI and deep fakes, it is a much more precarious threat environment. The Chinese are active. The Russians are very active. They've been using deep fakes in Europe. We've seen AI pop up in Moldova, Slovakia, else - Bangladesh. So, it is - it is going to be a tool.

My sense, however, though, is threats that are AI powered or AI enabled will be much like what happened in New Hampshire with the robo call. It will be immediately detected, it will be investigated quickly, and it will be prosecuted. And that's what's happening right now.

I think the biggest concern though is that this is cumulative. It's accretive. So, rather than one single catastrophic AI enabled event -

CHRIS KREBS: It's going to be a steady drum beat where we, where the voters, the public, are just going to lose confidence and trust in the overarching information ecosystem.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're seeing that in our polling already, a lack of confidence.

CHRIS KREBS: Some might say that's part of the strategy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That's scary.

CHRIS KREBS: Absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: CNN was reporting both the Chinese and Iranian governments had tried to use fake AI content back in 2020 but chose not to deploy it. Is that accurate?

CHRIS KREBS: I - I can't speak to the specific intelligence there. It should not be a surprise though. It - we've been talking about deep fakes and AI as a risk vector for years, for half a decade at least. So, to say that - whether it's the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, whomever, have been tinkering or researching this technology as recently as four years ago, I think that's entirely credible. We are seeing it now though. We are seeing, as I mentioned, already in Europe. We're seeing it here as well. And I would expect that between now and the election we will continue to see AI created content pop up.

CHRIS KREBS: And this is where it's important for the tech platforms to ensure they're on the lookout for it.

CHRIS KREBS: That the AI companies are ensuring that their platforms cannot be manipulated. The challenge, of course, though is there are opensource models that can be used.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we need to keep talking to you about this, unfortunately, in the months to come because it sounds like it will be a persistent issue.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We'll be right back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to former defense secretary and CIA director, Robert Gates, who we spoke with on Friday from the College of William & Mary, where he serves as chancellor. We began by asking him why national security should matter to voters this election year.

ROBERT GATES (Former Defense Secretary and Former CIA Director): Our leaders need to bring these issues home to the American people in a very direct way. The world isn't going to ignore us just because we think we can ignore the world. So, the first thing is to make clear that if we don't deal with these problems early, they become very dangerous problems and very costly problems for the United States down the road.

The other is to explain to the American people, for example, how we need - how we are economically interconnected with the rest of the world.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, if President Trump were to win again, what could he do differently in a second term that would give him a stronger legacy? I know you've been critical of some of his behavior when he was in office.

ROBERT GATES: I think you'd probably see significantly different domestic policies in - in a number of areas. I think one thing he's been clear about for a long time is the need for tariffs to protect American industry and so on. I think he would also have a different approach in many - in many areas with respect to foreign policy and in terms of trying to end the war in Ukraine. It's never made quite clear how he's going to do that or what terms he would have to agree to or how he would handle the issues in the South China Sea differently.

So, you know, I think that there's an element of unpredictability in - in the - in his case of - of not knowing what he really has in mind to deal with any of these specific issues, especially on national security.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you be open to voting for Mr. Trump?

ROBERT GATES: Oh, I'm not even going to begin to go there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because you did write an essay in "Foreign Affairs" a few months ago where you were - you were pretty specific in criticism. You said his disdain for allies, fondness for authoritarian leaders, erratic behavior undermined U.S. credibility. You were also critical of President Biden in his withdrawal from Afghanistan, which you said further damaged the world's confidence in America.

Do you think Mr. Biden has been able to repair that damage?

ROBERT GATES: I think that he gained a lot of credibility with the speed with which he assembled the coalition of partner countries, allies and friends, before, during and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, putting together that three dozen countries willing to help Ukraine with money, with military assistance and so on. Being able to warn the allies before the Russians actually invaded so that when they did we had enormous credibility with others that we knew what we were talking about and we knew the nature of Putin's threat.

I think a lot of people would agree that there has been some unnecessary delays in getting necessary equipment to - certain kinds of equipment to the Ukrainians. And I'm not talking about the six-month late supplemental that - that was just passed by the Congress. I'm talking about going back a year and a half or two years, whether it was tanks or missiles or aircraft that after long debate and deliberation the decision was finally made to provide them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Vladimir Putin was in China this past week visiting his ally, Xi Jinping. And he said Friday, Russian troops are advancing daily in Ukraine. What do you think it will take to stop this momentum?

ROBERT GATES: Well, this is one of the places where, frankly, the six-month delay in getting the supplemental passed is - has been a problem because - and poses a real crisis, I think. The circumstances in Ukraine right now are - are quite dire. The Russians are moving, not only around Kharkiv, but elsewhere along the front. Putin has taken the last six months to a year to rearm, reequip, to recruit. I've read numbers that he's putting as many as 30,000 new troops a month into Ukraine. They have more troops in Ukraine now, the Russians do, than they did at the beginning of the war.

MARGARET BRENNAN: During that time Russia has also built up more support for its effort with Iran, with North Korea, supplying it weapons, with China now, U.S. intelligence says, helping to reconstitute Russia's military industrial base, even jointly producing drones.

What consequence should there be for a country like China for helping this war to continue?

ROBERT GATES: There are a variety of other sanctions that are available to the administration and to the Europeans that - that could bring additional pressure on the Chinese at a time when their economy is not doing very well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would they make a difference?

ROBERT GATES: They could. They could. The Chinese have very large stakes in other problems, in other relationships around the world, in addition to Russia. And, you know, until a year or so ago they were being pretty careful about what they were providing to the Russians. They still have not, as best we know, have not provided actual weapons to the Russians. That's been a red line for the United States.

And - and, Putin, frankly, and if you look at the cabinet changes that Putin has just made, they're all focused on militarizing the Russian economy to sustain a huge military for a long time going forward.

This is not a one-time problem with just Ukraine. Putin has decided to take Russia in a different – in a different direction that poses a real threat to all of its neighbors. And the Chinese, by helping them, are enabling that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the Chinese president was just touring through Europe, and he was in France. I wonder what you think about the French president's statement that nothing should be ruled out when it comes to sending western troops to Ukraine. I know some other European countries have also leaned into that idea. Should it be taken off the table by both Biden and Trump?

ROBERT GATES: I think the notion of deploying NATO troops into Ukraine causes a lot of domestic concern, not just in this - in the United States, but in Europe as well. I don't think you take things off the table, but I - but I also don't think you put them on the table in an explicit way.

You know, part of my problem is that our government talks too much and some other governments talk too much as well. Sometimes it's better just to do things and not tell people you're doing them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well -

ROBERT GATES: But maybe that's the old CIA guy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that suggesting more training then of Ukrainian troops?

ROBERT GATES: I think - I think we are clearly - and there's going to have to be more training of - of the Ukrainians, particularly with their new conscription law and - and a number of new young people coming into the Ukrainian military.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Should that take -

ROBERT GATES: That training can take place in western Europe or it conceivably could take place in Ukraine as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: One of the guests on our program, J.D. Vance, a senator from Ohio, has likened U.S. support for Ukraine to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, making that argument that there's like a creeping U.S. role potentially.

He also went to the Munich Security Conference but skipped meetings with President Zelenskyy and - and the head of NATO, saying he wouldn't learn anything new. What do you say to a leading Republican like him?

ROBERT GATES: Rather than get into specific personalities, I just think that people need to open their eyes and - and be willing to listen to other points of view and be willing to learn, particularly from people who have been around, like Senator McConnell and others, who - who can help him understand - help him and others understand that - that this is a different kind of aggression by far than what happened in Iraq in 2003. And - and there is no assurance that - that Putin will stop with Ukraine. And - and to not understand that potential threat, and also the degree to which it encourages other aggressors around the world, I think - I think some - some additional information, briefings and education may be required.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about the Middle East, where there already are multiple shooting wars on multiple fronts involving U.S. ally Israel.

Do you agree with President Biden's decision to withhold some specific armaments from the Netanyahu government while surging others?

ROBERT GATES: One of the things that has struck me has been the degree to which the Netanyahu government has essentially ignored the views and - and requests of his closest ally, beginning with more humanitarian assistance and - and taking care of the - of the civilians in Gaza. I think that there are - there are ways that we can pressure Israel.

The truth of the matter is, 2,000 pound bombs that are not precision guided inevitably lead to a lot of collateral damage. They basically collapse buildings. I'm all for providing all other kinds of weapons to Israel, including precision guided bombs, and - and other equipment that they may need. But I think when - when our allies ignore us, and particularly on issues that are of huge importance to us and to the region, then I think it's reasonable to take actions that try to get their attention.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There were extraordinary statements from Israel's defense minister this past week where he publicly criticized his own prime minister, saying he can't get an answer to some key questions like what happens at the end of this war. He called on Netanyahu to make a decision, declare Israel will not establish civilian control or military control over the Gaza Strip and start talking to international actors about who is going to govern. What do you think about such a public split like this in the midst of the war?

ROBERT GATES: Well, it's pretty extraordinary, but - but I think not unexpected. You know, the United States government has been asking Prime Minister Netanyahu for months, what's your plan? What happens after the shooting stops? Where are you going with this? What's the solution politically? What's the solution economically and in humanitarian terms? And there - and neither we, nor the Israelis, including his own defense minister, get any answers to those questions.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you said you've never been a fan of Bibi Netanyahu. You said you met him back in 1989. Are your concerns in regard to U.S. national security that he could draw the U.S. into a wider conflict?

ROBERT GATES: My biggest concern, and we need to back up and have a little perspective here. There are, in fact, four wars going on in the Middle East right now. Not only the war in Gaza, but the war on Israel's northern border with Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and what - the disruption of the global supply chains through their attacks in the Red Sea, and then the militias in - in Syria and in Iraq. There is one power behind all four of these conflicts, and that's Iran. And what we're not talking about, we've become so preoccupied with Gaza, what we've failed to talk sufficiently about is, how do we deal with an Iran that is basically the - the one providing the arms, the planning, and the intelligence in all four of these conflicts, and that Iran is the source of the problem.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thanks for watching. For FACE THE NATION, I'm Margaret Brennan.

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Transcript: Sen. J.D. Vance on "Face the Nation," May 19, 2024

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