Gratitude had been a buzz word for so many years and countless swear by it for so many people to be wrong. My keen interest in rituals and wisdoms from all around the world, had me come across gratitude practices from far-away lands to right on our doorstep. While most religions asks their followers to thanks their god, non-believers often thank the Universe, their lucky star, their 4 leaves clover or even the fairies for all the good things happening in their life.
GRATITUDE ATTRACTS POSITIVITY
Practicing gratitude daily, pushes you to observe your life and search the positive outcomes you have enjoyed so far. Most people will tell you that like a magnet, positivity attracts more positivity. By focussing daily on the positivity already in your life, you will suck into your life even more good things. I thought at first, that the ritual seemed easy enough but I could not have been more wrong.
MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL
When I started to practice gratitude, I purchased a beautiful gratitude journal and pick a super stylish pen. It took me days to compare notebooks and pens because I wanted everything to be so perfect. Soon enough, I realised that it was the easiest part of the ritual and totally unnecessary. Gratitude is about finding what is already in your life, not looking for things to add. I failed at the first hurdle but I was stubborn and refused to be defeated. I forgave myself for focusing on the materialistic part of the ritual and used my journal and pen anyway as they were far too gorgeous to go to waste!
TRIAL AND ERROR
The next day, I decided to start the practice and set myself to find 5 things I was grateful for.
I said out loud: Thank you for…??? and then realised that it was actually a very difficult exercise. After 20 minutes of intense search I came up with:
- Thank you for my beautiful family.
- Thank you for my lovely home.
- Thank you for my supportive friends.
- Thank you for my good health.
- Thank you for my gorgeous notebook and pen!!! Don't laugh, I was running out of ideas!
PRACTICE MAKE PERFECT
After a couple days, I started to relax a bit more about the practice and tried to look for things which were less generic. I searched for more detailed events and focussed on the last 24 hours I just had:
- Thank you for the nice bus driver who stopped to let me in.
- Thank you for my understanding daughter who let me have a much needed nap.
- Thank you for my beautiful orchid which has just given me another gorgeous flower.
- Thank you for my helpful neighbour who took my parcel from the Postman.
- Thank you for my lovely husband who cooked such a tasty meal last night.
ALL DAY GRATITUDE
This ritual switched something in me that made me focus on the positive in my life. Gradually, I was practicing Gratitude all day long. As soon as something positive was in my life during the day, I would immediately say “thank you”. Somehow, as I was saying it, I will have this warm fuzzy feeling inside me. This feeling is just so good that I find myself looking for something else to be grateful for. It had a snowball effect and by the end of the day my heart was so full of love that it transformed me into such a positive and content person. And that was the SECRET behind Gratitude: true happiness comes from being content with what you already have.
ARE YOU READY?
So, are you ready to add Gratitude into your daily routine? Why not start with listing 5 things you are thankful for every morning and evening. Don’t worry about buying a Gratitude journal, just list them in your head.