Gratitude – Being Thankful

Gratitude

 Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation for something, whether it is for the food you eat, your relationship, your family or anything else you have in your life.  The list of things we can be grateful for is endless and by expressing our gratitude on a daily basis we are bringing positivity into our lives. Gratitude is a very powerful emotion, it can dissolve negativity, bring happiness and make you feel good too. When we focus our attention to the things we are grateful for we are living in the present moment.

On the same note if we are ungrateful for our lives and the people and situations around us we will just bring in more negativity and less things to be grateful for. Feelings of resentment, anger, jealousy and dissatisfaction are not only negative emotions but will just bring in more of the same negative emotions. When we focus on the things we have lost we are living our lives in the past and the good things we have around us in the present are being missed or ignored.

Einstein proved that everything in the universe is made of energy and this energy vibrates on different frequencies. When we are discontent and unhappy we vibrate on a very low frequency and when we are happy and content we vibrate on a much higher frequency. One of the most powerful universal laws is the law of attraction, this law states that whatever we send out to the universe we get back, like attracts like. So if we are sending out negative thoughts and emotions we will get back more negative thoughts and emotions. If we send out positive thoughts and emotions we will get back positive thoughts and emotions.

So this is where gratitude comes into play. When we are grateful for the things we have the law of attraction and the universe will bring us more things to be grateful for. Also when we spend time looking at what we have and are grateful for we are looking at the positives in our lives and are sending out positive thoughts and emotions which will also help lift our mood, help us to stay positive and help us to live in the present. If we are constantly looking at what we have lost we will continue to live in the past and give up on all the good, positive people, events and situations around us.

So how do we use gratitude on a daily basis? It is very easy to bring gratitude into our everyday lives, the more we say thank you, the more we have things to say thank you for, like attracts like!

 

Gratitude Diary

Spending 10 minutes a day writing a gratitude diary is a great way to get started. Before you go to bed at night spend a little time thinking about your day and write down, with feeling and emotion everything that made you happy and that you were grateful for, i.e. your college brought you a coffee, the train was on time, the queue in the shop was short, you avoided getting wet in the storm, whatever it is write it down in the present tense. “ I am grateful the bus was on time”,” I am grateful for the coffee Millie brought me.” etc.

You can also use gratitude to bring in the things you would like in your life, again they need to be written in the present tense with thought, feeling and belief that you already have them otherwise they will always be in the future. For example let’s say you are having problems with a particular relationship and you would like things to become a lot easier and calmer, you could use something like “Today I am feeling love and gratitude for those people who are challenging me in my life. The love and gratitude I feel will dissolve all negativity.” Or if you would like to bring in better health you could write “I am getting better and better, every day, in every way, thank you.”

 

Mentally

Just saying “thank you” at every opportunity throughout the day is also a great way of expressing your gratitude for the positive things around you in the present moment. Mentally or silently saying thank you is a very positive way of changing your mood, bringing in more things to be grateful for and keeping your thoughts positive. Try speaking the words “thank you” from your heart, and really feel it, when you wake up in the morning whilst walking to the bathroom, it’s a great way to start the day and sets the day off in a positive way.

Here are a few gratitude ideas to get you started:

“I am grateful that my body is emanating perfect health and harmony”

“Thank you for the abundance that comes my way, every day.”

“I am truly grateful for all the new people, experiences and events that are bringing happiness into my life.”

“Thank you for my ability to love unconditionally.”

“I am truly grateful that the love that surrounds me today and every day.”

“I am grateful that I can easily and willingly forgive those who have hurt or wronged me, enabling me to live in and enjoy the present.”