With Gratitude
Wednesday, November 18th 2009 @ 12:00 AM (not yet rated)
You’ve been told to be grateful your entire life. Since you were a tiny girl you have been told to say, “Thank you,” and to “Count your blessings,” and being the good girl that you are, you have undoubtedly tried hard to appear grateful and to actually be grateful. So what’s new in this?
As I initially began to develop my new consciousness and awareness, I realized for the first time how truly ungrateful I actually was. I was one of those people who rarely said, “I’m sorry” and who mostly said “thank you” just to be polite. I didn’t believe that most people actually felt grateful either. I thought they were just being dramatic… ugh!
The truth was that I didn’t have a huge range of emotion about anything. As one of my coaches, Jonathan, once said to me, “There is a deadness that many of us carry with us that makes it difficult to really feel our lives.” Now, maybe you are one of those people who is always gushing with gratitude, who cries during commercials for baby wipes, and who genuinely is in touch with all that is wonderful in life. If that is the case, I applaud you. Congratulations on not wasting half your life repressing the best and highest emotional vibration you can feel…gratitude!
For the rest of you, I’d like to let you in on a little secret. Feeling gratitude – really feeling it in your gut and in your brain and as it tingles your whole body – totally ROCKS!
Now let me clarify a bit. There have certainly been moments in my life when I have felt gratitude. Receiving an unexpected gift I really wanted, or being touched by the selflessness and kindness of another were sometimes enough to jar me out of my jaded complacency and boredom. However, until I became really conscious and connected I could only recall a handful of times when I felt the breathtaking, knock your socks off, childlike wonder and amazement, tears in your eyes gratitude/joy that I can now tap into on a regular basis.
Gratitude is the highest vibration level humans encounter. It is a major attractive force. You’ve certainly experienced how gratitude attracts support even in your own life. Have you ever noticed that when you are being appreciative of your spouse – like, “Hey honey, thanks a lot for all of your help with the kids today. I really appreciate it,” you are very likely to notice him helping even more just after that?
It works the same way with the Universe. Have you ever given a gift to someone – a really special gift you worked hard to find and wrap and make just perfect – and when the person received it, she seemed as though she didn’t really like it or appreciate it? Now think about someone you gave a bag of hand-me-down clothes, and they gushed and gushed about how much it meant to them and how they would really put them to good use. Which person did you feel like doing more for? Which person attracted your support?
This is a great example of the Law of Attraction. Like attracts like. If you are coming from a place of complete gratitude for what you already have (material possession, situation in your life, difficult circumstance, etc.), you will only be able to attract more good things, because the Universe will be compelled to give you more of what you want.
So what if we are kind of in a funk where everything seems just “so so” and there’s nothing really happening to get jazzed about? Or worse yet, what do we do when we are faced with a circumstance that clearly, logically doesn’t automatically make us feel grateful? What if our cat dies, or we get the stomach flu, or our car gets a flat tire? We still reach for gratitude.
What?!
You heard me. As I’ve said many times - you always have choices. When you become aware that you are not in a space of gratitude, you can choose to change that thought. Change the thought and the feeling will follow. Here are three actions you can take to find your gratitude when you have momentarily misplaced it.
Attraction Action #1: I’m so lucky!
One of my favorite thought games for getting myself back in alignment is to simply take whatever situation I am in, or whatever thing I am ungrateful about, and start to think about how I am lucky it is this way instead of another.
For example, if I realize I am in a kind of general funk and nothing is really good or bad, I’ll take whatever situation I am in right then, and start to run through some reasons I am grateful. If I am driving in my car when I notice the feeling of being out of gratitude, I will start a process of thinking something like this: “What if I didn’t have a reliable car to drive? What if I had to be exposed to the weather when I traveled? Isn’t it great that I am able to listen to my favorite music while I go from place to place? Aren’t I lucky that cars were invented, so I can complete the errands I want to do even if they are many miles away?”
And so you keep going until you start to really feel better, and until you really start to appreciate what is right in front of you. If it doesn’t work at first, keep up the conversation with yourself. Move from thing to thing that you encounter until you begin to get a whiff of the millions of ways in which you are blessed every day.
Attraction Action #2: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
Once you have a taste of the gratitude you have been searching for, do this exercise to amplify that gratitude exponentially. Find a particular thing you are grateful for, and then begin to give reasons why you are grateful for that one thing. Try to make the reasons as detailed and fragrant as you can. Let me show you the difference.
If I just say, “I am grateful for my children.” I get only a little charge.
However, if I say I am grateful for my daughter and the way her little flat feet slap the floor when she runs into the kitchen for breakfast, and for the way her big brown eyes look at me as if I am the smartest and most beautiful woman in the world, and for the sound of her infectious little giggle when I tickle her in bed at night, and then she gets so cracked up she tickles herself…. See how I begin to create a whole warm flow of emotion?
I can even make myself tear up with that line of thinking. That kind of gratitude has a huge vibrational pull, and that is the goal of this game.
Try it right now. Pick something that you are grateful for and then begin to list the reasons why. Be very specific and really put yourself in the space of a particular moment, or recall a special detail about that thing. List at least three reasons why that thing is really amazing. Now, enjoy the buzz!
Attraction Action #3: Being a Contribution
In order to get present to what an amazing life you already have, spend time giving to or contributing to others. When you help someone who has less than you, it is a quick reality check for appreciating what you have in your own life.
If you are sidetracked with thoughts about not having enough money to buy your children new clothes for school, donate some old clothes to the Goodwill store. This may cause you to realize that your child still has a closet full of clothes, and this will help you put things back into perspective.
If you are fretting about getting all the details right for creating a fun party for your child’s birthday, send some money to an orphanage in Africa. This will allow you to appreciate that your child will make it to his next birthday and will have people who love him to celebrate with him.
Practice giving and helping others so you can appreciate all that has been given and all of the help that has come to you. Now that’s a win-win!
Gratitude is not only a great thing to do because it feels amazing, but it is also one of the most powerful experiences you can be involved in. Living your life in the space of gratitude will serve you by raising your vibration level to cosmic proportions, which will, in turn, make you a very powerful creator of your own life. Focus on the good in your life and you will attract more good into it.
Enjoy this season of “Thanks – giving,” and use it to boost your vibration level and to feel good.
I’m so grateful to have you BuzZen with me!
With Gratitude,
P.S. Why not start amping up right now… comment below with your list of some of the things you are grateful for!
