A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles..

Gratitude

“When you understand there is nothing missing in your life, the entire world becomes yours.” Lao Tzu is a Chinese philosopher.

Here are some important gratitude practices that we should follow:

1. Commit

This is a spiritual exercise that becomes more powerful with time and practise. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have days when you can come up with a million reasons why you can’t possibly do it. (Isn’t it far more vital to put the trash out?)

Gratitude doesn’t come as naturally as grumbling, so you’ll probably reject this activity. Over the years, I’ve discovered that appreciation has magnetising power even when you can’t seem to summon the energy to shift into it, even if you have to force yourself to start.


2. Begin
So go ahead and do it. Begin by writing “I am grateful for…” on a piece of paper or on your computer. Maybe you’ll have to pause for a moment and wait because you’re at a loss for words. But hold your horses. Allow yourself to be carried away by the moment. Something will change within you. The words will come eventually.

This force you’re channelling is bigger than you, and it’s bigger than your problem, regardless of how huge it is. There’s more to fear than what you’re feeling right now. There’s a lot more to you than just that.

Your appreciation list is a bridge that connects you to a safe haven on the other side of those turbulent waves.

3. Write it down

We would sometimes tell each other what we were grateful for during our daily phone talk if we were both really busy. For some reason, I never thought it had the same impact as writing. There was something different about the aura that seemed to surround the written list.

4. Feel it
Some days you’ll write without a trace of thankfulness in your heart. That’s OK. Just go ahead and do it. Allow the sensation of appreciation to permeate every cell in your body once you’ve summoned it in your heart. Take it on. Put your hands on your heart and close your eyes. Raise your head, your torso, and your arms all at the same time.

Immerse yourself in the sensation. It’s a dance. Sing it out loud. No matter what is going on around you, strive for a fullness of heart.

5. Choose a set time of a day
This is something you might want to do when you first wake up in the morning or before going to bed. Because we live in separate time zones, this is a difficult one for us. The best we can hope for is that she writes her list to me while I’m sleeping, and I write mine to her when she’s sleeping.

6. Practice present- moment gratitude

As you go about your day, try to pause every now and then and reflect to yourself, “I am grateful.”

This is something I enjoy doing with my morning cup of tea. Before you take your first sip, gently touch your tea or coffee cup with love and admiration. When you walk through your day with mindfulness and grace, those things will come to mind when you sit down to make your appreciation list.


7. Share the gratitude

Join forces with someone. Find someone to partner with, even if you don’t have a life partner half a world away like I do (lucky you!). You’ll motivate each other, and your sense of commitment to that individual will provide the motivation you need to create your list on those days when it seems impossible.

Reading what the other person has written makes it easier to access your own thankfulness, and it’s entertaining to watch your gratitude email become longer and longer! You can see how far you’ve come.


8. Don’t stop once you see the results

We figured we’d take a vacation from appreciation for a time after we started seeing results. We immediately saw, though, that the energy around our recovery would begin to lag and lose oomph. So we’d pull ourselves back into the practise, and our recovery would resume its momentum as if by magic.


9. Allow yourself to be a human

If you have to complain, do so. Every now and then, I miss a day or two. If you can’t think of anything else, write five times “I am grateful, I am making my gratitude list.” We went three or four days without writing on occasion.

We would either play catch-up and write a few days in one sitting, or we would simply let those few days pass and resume where we left off. Be wary of the inner voice that tells you, “You’ve missed a day.” You’ve blown it when it comes to gratitude!” Do not pay attention to it. Remount your horse and continue riding!

Your best is waiting for you!