How Gratitude Helps you Create More of What you Want
This article is all about gratitude and celebration. As we direct our focus to what’s already great, we keep our focus in a positive direction
Llike the saying says, “what you focus on grows”, we then go on to generate more of the good things. So I think it’s time very well spent, and I invite you to give it a go and see for yourself.
Start by pondering the question… ‘what am I grateful for in my life right now?’ and come up with at least 10 things. You may even like to start your very own Gratitude Journal and add to this as often as you like. What a great way to capture positive things in life that you can come back to and reflect upon, especially at times when things just seem too much.
A great way to strengthen and reinforce these feelings of gratitude is through affirmations. Affirmations are about consciously programming your subconscious mind. They retrain your focus and your ‘speaking’ into positive patterns.
My favourite affirmation on the subject of gratitude that I’d like to share with you is “I am grateful for this day and for my life”. Try saying this, or something like it at least ten times once a day, for the rest of this month. Feel free to do it more often if you’d like.
Be sure to be really present with it as you say it. Notice how it makes you feel and the kind of day you go on to experience. I have found it especially powerful when done at the beginning of the day in combination with a moment of quiet time. This may be during a morning walk or some stretching or just sitting in stillness or even as you lie in bed before you get up.
The power of gratitude cannot be overlooked. It is one of the most potent positive emotions we can access and no matter how challenged you may be feeling, there is always something to be grateful for. Choose gratitude and enjoy the results.
On to celebration!
Celebration reinforces positive behaviour by rejoicing your outcomes. As parents and managers well know, rewarding positive behaviour serves to reinforce the pattern and thereby create more of that outcome. The same is true for goal-setting and achievement.
What have you achieved this year that you would like to celebrate?
How will you celebrate? When will you do this?
Consider rewarding yourself in creative and meaningful ways. Again, like with your affirmations, be really present to it.
Here’s a quote from Buddha to finish on…. “Let us rise up & be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn al little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful”.
