Gratitude: Opening the door to Miracles
Gratitude brings many benefits.
Lately more and more people are talking about Gratitude and more people are engaging in grateful awareness in their daily lives.
When you bring focus to those things in your life or your environment that you are grateful for, it redirects your thoughts and attention. It moves your focus from your mind to your heart. So when you have those seemingly non ending thoughts that are looping and keeping you in a low state, gratitude will break that loop and will centre you and bring in peace.
Gratitude will open the door to bring in miracles into your life. It is very powerful. It’s a beautiful and easy practice too.
Your connection and openness will grow and become deeper. Gradually, with practice, your gratitude will expand and so will your heart and the love you feel for yourself and others.
If you already have a gratitude practice, I invite you to go deeper with it. Expand out and be present to noticing all that is around you and all there is to be grateful for.
For those looking for a practice, a great way to start is by journaling each day for 5 minutes. Write down 3 things that you are grateful for and if you feel like expanding, write down why you are grateful for them. No repeats allowed. At the end of the day, take note of the synchronicities that came in during the day and write those down as well.
Another great gratitude practice is to bless your food and all who played a part in creating the food that is in front of you at mealtime. This is a great family practice to do with kids. Think about everyone who contributed to your nourishment, from the seed, soil, water, sun and earth, to the farmer who planted, to the truck driver who took the produce to be processed to the cashier at the grocery store who checked you out to the cook who prepared it…and so many more. It’s amazing to think of all the people who help feed you every day!
Other ways to increase your connection to gratitude,
Pay attention to the language you use every day. Use words like blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate, abundance, grateful, - avoid gossip and speaking badly about anyone.
Start a gratitude jar - have some pieces of blank paper beside a jar and write down each day one thing you are grateful for. On New Year's Eve, it's a great time to read them all.
Engage in an act of kindness – helping someone, saying thank you for things people do for you, give recognition when it's due at work, call your parents/grandparents/friends and tell them that you love them.
Live Mindfully – be in the present and notice all the beauty around you. Be grateful for what you have big or small
Start or end a meeting with gratitude for the team, for your clients/customers, for the opportunity to serve others.
You may notice that your Gratitude practice starts off somewhat forced. It is not something that many of us have practised for a long time. Be kind to yourself as you begin. Over time, it will grow so that you will embody gratitude and you find that it is just a part of you that flows as you flow through your day.
It will bring so much to your experiences.
Move to living in gratitude. Miracles are on their way.
Be the Change.