I have been working on this post for quite a while now. Gratitude is something I really believe in, and I know it can change lives. It has changed mine dramatically. My life is so amazing because I practice gratitude daily, whether it be for only 10 minutes a day or longer than that. I write out a gratitude list daily of both material and immaterial things I am so grateful to have in my life.
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There are so many things in this world that each of us can show gratitude for each and every day. Showing gratitude for what you have, even for what you don't have, raises your vibration to help you bring in more of what you do want in your life. The higher your vibration, the better you feel. The better you feel, the more gratitude you can show to the universe.
I've been practicing an attitude of gratitude for a quite a while now. And I try to share it with others every chance I get because it really does change your life. I would always get started with something, then it would fall to the wayside because the habit wasn't strong enough. Well, things in my life really started changing when I started practicing gratitude daily.
First, it started with my attitude. I was much happier and just in an overall better place. The first thing I do each morning when I wake up, is say "Thank YOU!" I thank the universe for giving me a new day. I thank the universe for keeping me healthy. I thank the universe for all that I have. Then later in the day, sometime in the morning usually, I will write in my journal, a list of at least 10 things I am grateful for. I don't base this off of the list I wrote the previous day. But the majority of the things on my list each day are the same or similar. And that is because those are things I am eternally grateful for and I need to keep thanking the universe for each of them every day. My list doesn't stop at 10. If I have more stuff to add, then I keep adding them, until I have nothing left to add for that day. Then, I just go about my day and am in a very good mood. There is very little that can change my good mood anymore.
Second, my life started changing for the better. Good things started to happen to me. It really seemed like I was a major streak of bad luck, and yet somehow, in some way, I had attracted all that bad stuff to me. I don't know how I did, but today, I don't want to know how I really attracted all that bad stuff to me. That stuff is in the past and today is a new day. I am not the same person I was last month, let alone 4 months ago when this streak of bad luck happened to me. But once I started practicing the gratitude, and my attitude changed, good things started happening to me. I received gifts I didn't ask for. I am completely healthy. I am manifesting an amazing future.
Lastly, my life is so amazing! I love my life right now. There are things I'm still working on, but we are all human. We all have something in ourselves that needs to be worked on. No one is perfect. But I live each day for the present and exactly what I have in this moment right now, right here. I can't change the past, nor do I really want to. It made me who I am today. I've learned so many lessons from the past and I am continuing to learn lessons on a regular basis. I've always said that I love learning new things, well what better way to really improve my life, than by learning new lessons that I need to apply to my life.
There really is so much that you can do to practice gratitude daily. But the first thing you really have to do is, have faith, trust and believe that the universe really does hear you. You may not see immediate results from this, or you may, it's all in divine timing! Then you also have to really feel the gratitude that you are showing to the universe. The universe knows if you are not for real with your feelings. Let this change your life for the best. And the last thing you have to do, is let go of the negativity. Stop thinking about the "what if's", the "but's", the lack of something that you don't have. Think about what you do have. Say thank you for what you do have and what is coming to you.
Here are some ideas that you can do to practice gratitude daily:
- Gratitude jar - use a jar, a box, something that is easy to store papers in that you can see daily. On little pieces of paper (I like to use colored paper), each day write down something that happened that you are grateful for that day and put it in the jar. Put the date on the paper as well. You don't have to limit to this to one item per day either. Anything that you feel extra gratitude towards, write it down and put it in the jar.
- Gratitude journal - in a new journal or a notebook, write the date, then write a list of things you are grateful for in your life, both material and immaterial things. This list should include at least 10 things each day. Don't refer back to the previous day, just use your memory to show what you are grateful for. Do this EVERY DAY! This will really get you into the spirit of being grateful. I love doing this!
- Say "Thank You!" to the universe several times a day. You can also specific things you are thankful for when you say it. This practice is especially good first thing when you wake up each day before you even get out of bed.
Living a life of gratitude is much better than going around blaming yourself or others about all the bad stuff that has happened in your life. Blaming won't change your life. It will just continue to make the bad stuff happen to you, because you are blind to the fact that good things are happening to you at the moment. When you show gratitude, you can brush off the bad stuff, because so much more good stuff is happening to you and you are noticing all the good stuff.
Believe me, gratitude can and will change your life. Practice gratitude daily for the next 30 days, and if nothing in your life changes, then come back to me and let me know what you did every day. But when your life starts changing, I still want to hear from you! Share your stories with me about how this is changing your life.
