Practice Gratefulness
Why Gratefulness is Important
Be grateful for what you have, be grateful in the little things, have a heart of gratitude. Does any of that sound familiar? I remember growing up and hearing my parents say I should be grateful for what I have. I heard what they were saying but I had no idea why they said it or why it was important.
It would be easy to just say it’s all about the endorphins, it makes you feel more joyful, it keeps you focused on the positive, all those things. You can Google all the reasons for being grateful is important. But I wanted to make it personal and keep myself transparent for you all.
When I’m not grateful there is this negative voice in my head that starts to creep in. It’s starts out kind of small, like a whisper. It might say something like, don’t worry about how you look, or it doesn’t matter that you do nothing all day. Before I realize it that voice starts telling me that what I do not only doesn’t matter but that it’s a waste of time and no one wants to listen to me anyway. It’s a slippery slope that I would rather not go down.
I view being grateful as a way of creating a magnet for miracles in my day. That may seem almost silly but attracting good to you through being grateful is much better than attract the negative to yourself. We all need more positivity in our lives.
Where Does Gratefulness Come From?
The short answer is your heart. The long answer is your heart. Being grateful starts with your heart. There is a saying from that what is in your heart will come out of your mouth. Think about the truth in that saying. Have you ever been upset at someone and held a complete conversation in your head about what you would say to that person? Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this. If you were alone you may have even talked out loud. That’s your heart talking.
When you check our heart, we check out thoughts and what we will say to ourselves and to another person. It stops that small negative voice from growing and being the dominate voice that speaks nothing but negativity to ourselves. When I’m checking my heart that negative voice has no choice but to be quiet.
Have you ever heard of a broken heart? There is such a thing, when your heart hurts so badly that if feels broken. If your heart can hurt feeling broken, it can also feel joy and gratefulness. Practicing gratitude is about helping your heart feel grateful. Daily practice will produce daily gratitude and make you a magnet for miracles to come your way in life.
3 Steps to Practice Gratefulness Everyday
I want to give you 3 steps that you can take to practice gratitude every day. Consistency is what is going to build a heart full of gratitude. These 3 steps will need to be done daily and I would encourage you to set a daily reminder in your phone or put it in a planner to keep yourself on track.
- Start with the first 5–10 minutes of your day, before you even get out of bed, focused on breathing. Yes, breathing. The idea is to clear your mind and focus on something simple. Listen as you breath in and breath out. Close your eyes if it helps. For those of you that do yoga this might seem familiar. The reason we do this first thing in the morning is to set your mind in a focused place and to prepare your heart for the day.
- Take the next 5–10 minutes and visualize your happy place. For me that’s being outside in the warm sunshine, maybe in a field of flowers. Just stay there and look around. What do you see, what do you smell, what do you hear? At this point, I’m could still be in bed, but you could get up and start moving. No matter what you decide to do, be in that happy place until you can see, smell and hear as if you are really there.
- Next take a notebook or journal and write down 3 things that makes you grateful. If you are not a journal or notebook type of person, no worries. You might want to type it into your phone. Make sure you date each entry. Tracking gratefulness is important. It helps you see where your heart is going and to increase your level of gratitude.
Feel free to contact me too!
