The holidays are coming and I love to get a headstart. Pumping up my gratitude practice always makes me feel so grateful. Not only for the practice, but for myself for showing up for my life. Because the best way to honor life and all life is to practice gratitude – good times, bad times, and all the times in between.
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So whether you want to start a gratitude practice or you would like to put your current gratitude practice on steroids, this post is for you.
But before we get started, let me say somthing to the doubters.
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So You think A Gratitude Practice Isn’t For You
Are you the type of person who thinks something like this about gratitude:
- I don’t believe in all that positive thinking garbage.
- In this world, what is there to be grateful for?
- What do you want me to do, thank the Universe or something?
If yes, surely you are also thinking that you say thank you all the time and you certainly do not need a practice to give thanks.
Your mamma taught you this from the age of 3.
Or maybe you don’t consider yourself spiritual. You are concrete. A doer, not a thank the Universer.
Well, I am here to challenge these thoughts…⠀
First, What Is A Gratitude Practice & Why Do We Need One?
I have no doubt that you, like me, say thank you when someone helps you out, gives you a lift, offers a compliment.
But these are just the surface types of thank yous.
We say thank you automatically and without really feeling it.
It is like holding the door open for someone instead of closing it in their face even when we are in a rush.
We were educated from a young age that this is not something that a civil person does.
The practice of gratitude goes much deeper. It is feeling grateful for all aspects of your life, especailly the details; details that you sometimes have to beauty hunt to find.
The practice of gratitude is reminding yourself every day and in as many moments of the day that:
- You already have enough.
- Your family is enough.
- You are enough.
- You are ok with where you are, your job, your mind and body, your relationships – even when they are far from perfect. Even when something feels pretty sucky. Because gratitude is finding the value in both the good and the bad.
Gratitude is the power of choosing. Choosing to love yourself and your life no matter what.
Many people associate gratitude with letting go. However, gratitude is really a letting in. An alllowing.
Allowing what is right now to be enough for you to feel the abundance.
From the post, How To Cultivate Gratitude – 7 Less Common Things To be Grateful for
And as for the second question, it’s simple. We need a practice because our minds are drawn to the missing, lost, and negative, and we constantly forget how blessed we are.
So You Think You Aren’t Spiritual
So what is spiritual anyway?
We are made of much more than our body and mind. Underneath the obvious, there is energy, wisdom, and SPIRIT.
Simply put, spirit is that invisible stuff inside of us that brings us to life. It makes us infinite and divine.
For me, being spiritual means that we intentionally stimulate our spirit in search of that something that will make us feel connected with something bigger than our favorite sandwich or tv series.
People, passion, purpose, and yes, also the Universe.
the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power
You got some of this in you, don’t ya?
So you, rolling your eyes at all this. You are spiritual too!
We are all made up of this same beautiful stuff. Even you.
Some of us just need to look a little deeper, knock down a few walls, and dust off our spirit a bit 😉.
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Do You Need A Little More Convincing?
Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise – then you will discover the fullness of your life.
David steindl-rast
Here are some more reasons why you want to start a gratitude practice.
ASK YOURSELF:
- Do I want to live my life abundantly?
- Do I want to be able to deal with challenges better?
- Do I want to feel more joyful and connected?⠀
If you answered YES to one or more of these questions, then you want to have a gratitude practice because it is only through practice that we achieve this type of fullness in life.
And darling friend, you are definitely in the right place. So let’s get started!
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5 Ways To Practice Gratitude All Day, Every Day
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Confucius
Your gratitude practice may start out easy peezy. You begin to ask yourself every day when you wake up this question:
What am I feeling grateful for today?
Maybe your even write it in a notebook or journal.
However, if you want this gratitude attitude to really sink in and take over your life in the best way, you need to step it up.
Here are some ways to take your gratitude practice to a higher level.
#1 Say Good Morning With Gratitude
When you open your eyes, take a full breath in bed. Thank your breath for breathing you into another day.
Then look around and give thanks to your bedroom and the place you call home. Think of one or more things that you are grateful for. Say thank you.
When we start our day with gratitude, there is nowhere to go but up, up, up.
#2 Make Gratitude A Habit Like Brushing Your Teeth
As you brush your teeth, scan your entire body and one by one, send your body parts love for doing all that they do for you every moment of every day.
There is nothing more devoted to you than your miraculous body.
I would say that it deserves to hear at least one thank you a day.
#3 Put Your Gratitude On A Tight Schedule
Set an alarm to remind you to stop and feel grateful. Your schedule may look something like this:
- 11am: Put your hand on your heart and thank yourself for showing up today.
- 3pm: Stop and think of someone who loves you and feel grateful for this constant presence of love in your life.
- 7pm: Close your eyes and think of one beautiful moment of the day. Smile and give thanks.
- Bedtime: Repeat an affirmation such as: I am aware that today was a gift. I am so thankful for my life. Or, close your eyes and simply repeat the words thank you several times.
I’ve found in my life that the easiest way to increase my joy is to religiously practice gratitude until I’m a gratitude machine!
Rhonda Byrne
#4 Keep A Gratitude Journal
Journaling gratitude is not only for people you love to write. You can keep it as simple or elaborate as you want.
Start with these suggestions.
- Choose a time of the day when you will write down what you are grateful for. Writing at the same time every day will keep you on track. Make it a ritual.
- Use a notebook, your daily planner or a journal to write down what you are grateful for.
- Commit to writing down at least one thing you are grateful for every day. We all have the time and energy to write down a few words or sentences.
- Bonus: Add a quote about gratitude or an affirmation to reinforce how grateful you feel.
Journaling your gratitude is not only an important part of your daily gratitude practice.
When done regularly it becomes a sacred ritual, a meditation, and a photo album of joy.
Your gratitude journal is more than words on paper.
It is your voice.
It is your memory.
It is your place to go to when you lose yourself.
#5 Meditate To Elevate Your Gratitude
A gratitude meditation is a type of meditation that focuses on expressing gratitude for any or all aspects of your life.
One of the best ways to manifest gratitude deep in your heart is by practicing with a gratitude meditation.
A gratitude meditation is not necessarily connected to any particular spiritual or religious belief. And it doesn’t have to be time consuming.
Something is better than nothing: If you cannot find time to sit and meditate, try listening to a gratitude meditation while you are getting ready in the morning, sipping your coffee or preparing a meal.
A gratitude meditation is a wonderful way to begin the day or say goodnight.
Buddhist monks begin each day with a chant of gratitude for the blessings of their life.
Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to mother earth and father sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life.
In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given.
Jack Kornfield
3 Gratitude Meditations That Will Leave You Feeling Blessed
- Full Body Gratitude, 16 Minutes
- I Choose To Feel Grateful Today, 10 Minutes
- The Joy Of Breath, 10 Minutes
Fundamental – Don’t Just Be Grateful For The Sweet Stuff
Be thankful for the bad stuff.
The bad stuff reminds you of the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to before.
Reminder: We do not favor the good, easy, and sweet when we are truly grateful.
Gratitude is:
- not about giving thanks only to what is apparently beautiful.
- about being thankful for everything in your life.
- not about erasing out the bad, but balancing our focus by remembering the good.
- about transforming the bad into something valuable. What are you learning? How are you growing? Can you recognize a blessing here?
- not about giving in to the negative. Instead we beauty hunt for the positive.
On beauty hunting:
Sometimes you need to search a little bit harder, but with practice it gets easier to find something beautiful in absolutely everything.
An example may be: In a horrific situation, maybe you feel an even deeper connection with the people who are supporting you through the experience.
Thankful. An Example Of How I Want To Live My Life
When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.⠀
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This is how I want to live my life.
And my dear friend reminded me of this the other day. She is a true warrior because no matter what life throws at her (and it has and is!) she is powered by gratitude. ⠀
As she spoke with me of the insanely difficult time she is facing, she smiled and her beautiful message just confirmed what I already felt in my heart:⠀
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We can be going through the most horrendous moment in our entire lives and still feel empowered and completely blessed.True gratitude does not have conditions.
Wow! Right?!
This is the goal of our practice. WE CHOOSE WHAT WE FOCUS ON.
Every day we train ourselves to redirect our mind. Less expectations. Less distinguishing between the likes and the dislikes.
Taking on life with our inner light and a smile.
Gratitude is acknowledging the challenges, facing them, but as my friend says, not giving them all of us.
It is never surrendering over how blessed we feel.
Every day, we retake charge of our always wandering off towards the negative mind and remember to be thankful first.
Final Note – The Energy of Gratitude & Good Vibes
Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe.
You open the door through gratitude.
Deepak Chopra
Sponges & Channels
We act the way we act most of the time without giving the slightest thought to who we are affecting other than ourselves.
And yet we affect one another in every moment of every day.
We are sponges and we are channels. The energy in the space you are in flows. It is given and received continuously.
We have all experienced it. You are in a great mood and then along comes someone to knock it right out of you. Yes, this happens because we are sponges. We absorb the energy around us. And the bad energy has a way of seeping in real quickly if we aren’t fully present with ourselves.
We have also all experienced something like this. You are in a horrific mood and someone comes along and maybe it is something they say or just their golden presence, but you immeditately feel better. In that moment, that person is a channel of love, compassion, joy and gratitude.
The Power Of Our Gratitude
May all of this be another reminder of our power and of how connected we all truly are.
May it also be a reminder of how fundamental our inner light and energy is to the world.
I have witnessed the softening of the hardest of hearts by a simple smile.
Goldie hawn
Our gratitude practice is not only for us. It is for everyone.
Your family, friends, and pets. Your collegues. The woman who is standing beside you at the crosswalk. The pizza delivery guy. The person who you decide to smile or not smile at as you enter the caffè.
Our energy is so powerful that it travels even through phone lines, text messages, and comments on social media.
How you act and how you feel affects everyone you have contact with. Everyone.
And let me go a step further, this energy will then get passed on to the next person that person you decided to smile or not smile at connects with.
What a responsibility we have to the world. Can you feel this now?
When we understand this, we can practice being more present to our vital energy. We can cultivate it with the respect that it deserves.
Checking in With Your Gratitude & Good Vibes
We can remember to check in and ask ourselves:
- What energy am I adding to this space right now?
- Am I a channel of love, compassion, joy, and gratitude in this moment or am I a channel of tension, negativity, and pain?
- And also, what am I absorbing?
Remember you are a sponge. So check in with your gratitude.
Your gratitude practice is like an armour against life’s debilitating energy and it will protect you.
Gratitude As A Way To Serve
Our gratitude practice becomes so much more than something we do to feel good about our life when we begin to concentrate on a much bigger question:
How can I use my gratitude practice to serve?
So next time you are in a room filled with negative feelings, moods – a really bad vibe, or the vibe of the entire world is seeping into every pore, get extra present with yourself.
Decide whether you are going to be the sponge or channel in this experience. Once again, remember to tap deep into your gratitude.
Put out the vital energy that both you and everyone else needs so much right now. Always.
Go beyond this: Share your gratitude practice with a child.
There is no better way to serve than to lead our future towards joy and gratitude.
And as you do, remember to say thank you to yourself for choosing to be a channel of gratitude and good vibes.
As the Persian poet Hafiz wrote: May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe.
Resources For Abundance
Further Reading
- HOW TO PROTECT JOY IN THIS UNJUST WORLD – Care For Your Heart Today
- HOW TO CULTIVATE GRATITUDE IN OUR LIVES – 7 Less Common Things To Be Grateful For
- HOW TO SEIZE TIME – Remembering Gratitude When In A Liminal Space
- 10 DAILY REMINDERS YOU NEED TO LOVE YOURSELF, BE GRATEFUL & FEEL EMPOWERED
- HOW TO BECOME A HAPPIER HUMAN BEING – 4 Truths About Arriving At The Happy Life
