The holidays are the official the season of gratitude and thankfulness.

However, it’s ALWAYS a great idea to make gratitude a focus in your life – being grateful for your own blessings, saying thank you to others, being mindful. After all, gratitude and confidence have a direct relationship: the more grateful you are, the easier it is to live a happy, fulfilled life, and unlock your true potential. Conversely, when you are happy and fulfilled, it’s easy to be grateful for the incredible life you’re living.

In addition, gratitude is also a key to cultivating an abundance mindset. When you make a point to focus on all the good in your life, it’s easier to see a lot of it, and subconsciously attract even more good into your life.

“See the good, focus on the good, expect the good.”

It will only benefit you to make confidence a habit in your every day life. And if you are looking for some new ways to express gratitude to loved ones or even strangers this year, here are some new and creative ways to show gratitude.

Write “thank you notes” – just because

We all know that delightful feeling of opening your mailbox and finding that there is REAL snail mail in there. Amongst bills, catalogues, and impersonal mail, snail mail has always acted as a bright spot: whether it’s an invitation, a holiday card, a thank you note, or anything else, receiving personal mail instantly makes us feel special.

In today’s digital age, people don’t send as much mail as they used to, but that certainly doesn’t mean the fun of giving and getting mail has ended. Rather, it’s more exciting than ever to receive an actual card instead of a text or email. Part of this is because notes and letters show more care and value than just a text. According to Brit & Co, it takes just a few seconds to send a text message, but it takes more time and care to write a note to send to someone, and they’ll feel that when they receive it.

So, send thank you notes! Thank you notes are most commonly sent after you receive a gift, but you can capitalize on the sentiment and send out thank you notes to friends and loved ones “just because.” Everyone likes to be reminded that they are appreciated, and a physical reminder in their mailbox is even better!

Give it a try: each week, send a “thank you note” or a “just because note” to a friend or loved one. It will make you feel good to give them out, and make them feel great to receive them. Plus, this is a great way to reconnect with friends who “you’ve been meaning to catch up with” (we all know that feeling, right?)

Send anonymous encouragement notes

I received a gift on Thanksgiving (which is another great way in and of itself to show gratitude!) – it was a Thanksgiving care package of sorts, with a couple of small items all related to being thankful. One of the included items was a box of Gratitude Notes – a pre-assembled set of written reminders to be happy, and thankful (messages like, “Thanks for making the world a better place”).

The intention for these little notes, which I love, is to share them and leave them around for special people to find, like a great waitress, a coworker, or anyone else you happen to interact with over the course of the day. The note will serve as a sweet and unexpected surprise that brightens the recipient’s day. You can find an example of these notes called “Its The Little Things” here.

Be like Oprah – Start your day with gratitude

I mean, we could all stand to be a little more like Oprah, but what I mean specifically here is to try actually starting your day by saying “thank you.”

The first thing Oprah says every morning is “thank you.” Each morning when she wakes up, she verbalizes gratitude out-loud, before she does anything else (including checking her phone!) The move acknowledges that she’s grateful to be alive, present and in a body.

And being grateful pays off, sometimes literally (remember that “abundance mindset” we mentioned earlier?) Oprah Winfrey once told CNN, she’s not grateful because she’s “a gazillionaire.” Instead, practicing gratitude is how she “got to be a gazillionaire.”

Be like Oprah and start your day with gratitude. When you wake up, mentally list out the things that you are grateful for. Or, keep a journal and pen beside your bed and write these things down each morning. Starting your day with gratitude will frame you for a positive, abundant day ahead.

Say “thank you” instead of “sorry”

Women specifically tend to overuse the word “sorry.” It’s something you may not realize until you see it in action (like in this impactful video from Pantene), but once you do, it’s easier to take steps to correct it.

I’ve heard many strategies for reducing the number of times we say “sorry” each day, and some of my favorites have to do with replacing “sorry” with another word. I recently heard a suggestion to replace when/where you would normally say “sorry” with the words “thank you.” So for example, if you ran a few minutes late to a meeting at work, instead of walking in and saying “Sorry I’m late,” you could say, “Thank you for waiting for me.” The message expressed is similar, but the tone and intent is so much different. Give this a try, and see how it changes your interactions throughout the day.

Tell five people that you love and appreciate them

A simple way to show gratitude to the people we love in our lives is doing just that – sending a reminder text or email with the words “I love and appreciate you,” or even just “I appreciate you.” This takes about one minute to do for someone, even less if you’re sending a text. But the impact is invaluable.

Never underestimate the impact of gratitude, especially when feelings of appreciation and love are received by others. Try one of these tactics today to show gratitude, and your world will become a brighter, fuller place.