The month of November is always the time of year when I return to gratitude. Of course, it’s because of Thanksgiving! My annual reminder.
And as I circle back around to focusing on gratitude, I’ve been reexamining the studies behind it.
Here are the Top 3 Takeaways:
1. It isn’t that happy people are grateful, it is that grateful people are happy.
In 2011, when I completed my certification program in happiness coaching with Dr Robert Holden, this was one of my big a-has. That having a gratitude practice was (as he calls it) the shortest short cut to happiness. And it’s true!
Every time I shift my thinking from lack to recognizing all the blessings I have in my life, I immediately feel lighter, more joy filled and loved.
Try it right now! What are 5 things you are grateful for?
2. Life is happening for me.
Instead of the sentence, “life is happening TO me,” we modify one word – the preposition- so it reads: “life is happening FOR me.”
What a massive game changer!
But yet, with a pandemic raging, it may not feel like life is happening for you. Maybe life feels even more difficult and challenging now.
If that resonates with you, can you look underneath the surface of things and see how no matter what you might be experiencing (stress, anxiety, uncertainty), life really does love you?
I will admit that this idea took me awhile to really settle into.
It was only through constant repetition of listening to Louise Hay’s affirmation (life loves me), accompanied with my willingness to open to basic trust, that I was able to fully step into this truth.
If you find that altering this preposition feels daunting, ask yourself, “would I be willing to consider that life is happening for me – even when it doesn’t appear to be?”
In other words, are you willing to consider another way of seeing?
3. The more gratitude you have, the more open to receiving you are.
It’s a funny thing. But the universal law- like attracts like- reminds us that the more we stay in the space of gratitude and openness, the more good will keep flowing into our lives.
It’s a shift in perception from lack to the recognition that you already are everything you seek, have everything you need, and are completely whole.
When we fully step into this space, we can receive even more! Crazy, right? But definitely worth a try.
So where to start?
Many people have gratitude journals. Every day they write down 3-5 things they are grateful for.
Some people lie in bed and recite their list to themselves (either first thing in the morning or just before bed.)
You could get creative with it – maybe write a gratitude song? Or make gratitude into an interpretive dance or collage.
Whatever it is doesn’t matter, as long as it helps you align with the power of gratitude.
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