You can shop almost any home furnishing website and I guarantee you will find something decorative with the word “gratitude” beautifully scripted in hand lettering. Amazon carries over 30,000 unique items adorned with this inspirational term. To date, the hashtag #gratitude has over 23 million posts on Instagram.
Almost everyone knows, in theory, that gratitude leads to happiness. If you search the word “gratitude” on Google, you will find several science-backed articles explaining the health benefits of being grateful.
With the current state of well-being being greatly challenged even before COVID19, why don’t more people put it into daily practice? My hunch is that gratitude’s great secret is still just that…a secret.
Have you ever lost your job, lived through a massive break-up, hit financial hardship, battled addiction, felt depression, experienced anxiety, fought illness, grieved a death, or entered any other life challenging situation? Did you try to remind yourself to appreciate what you “have” in order to lift your spirit? Chances are it didn’t work very well.
The problem with that mindset is that gratitude has nothing to do with what you “have.” It has everything to do with what you “feel.” Gratitude doesn’t discount your feelings of fear, anger, or grief. Gratitude is like a giant hug that hoists you from the depths of negativity and pulls you right into the realm of possibility.
Here is the secret you may have missed…
“Living with gratitude means savoring the most beautiful moments of your day.”
Here is how to put it into practice…
Savor. Every day is filled with at least one feel-good moment. The sun on your face, five minutes of silence, a well-led meeting, the conversation that left you energized, the perfect meal, a funny movie, or watching a mama bird protect her nest. The list goes on. By being present with that moment and savoring the feeling that comes from it, you are automatically dissolving feelings of negativity and flooding your soul with something beautiful. Let that good feeling wash over you like a wave. Even two minutes in this state of mind and heart will make an impact on your overall mood.
Elevate. By fully embracing this beautiful feeling, you will immediately raise yourself from a lower level of emotion to a higher one. Moving up the scale of emotions enables you to maintain more positive levels of energy.
Law of attraction states that “like will attract like.” You will attract to yourself whatever level of energy that you maintain. If you are stuck in fear, you will continue to manifest experiences that trigger your fear. If you are constantly feeling guilt, you will create an environment that satisfies your guilt. Practicing gratitude helps you deliberately choose to elevate yourself to a place of courage, love, possibility, and ultimately peace. When you are in a more positive state of being, you will witness beauty unfold for you in the most interesting ways.
Sustain. When you form a daily practice of relishing in beautiful moments, you will teach your mind to continue to seek more of those moments. By regularly feeling what is beautiful in your daily life, you will eventually become accustomed to feeling more positive than negative. Feelings of beauty over a consistent period of time will elevate your baseline of emotion. That sustained higher level of energy will help you consistently attract increasingly good experiences. Gradually, then suddenly, you will notice that your life has become more abundant than before.
The secret of gratitude is simple. Feeling good attracts more good.
If you want to remind yourself to be grateful with a wall covering, journal, post card or screen saver, by all means go for it. You won’t have trouble finding something to inspire you. The most important action you can take, though, is simply to DO IT. Start now and tell me about your experience.
If you’d like help getting started on creating abundance in your life, you can schedule a FREE 30 minute “Own Your Inner Beauty” coaching session with me.
Let’s make beauty happen.
