You get what you focus on.
When you focus on expressing and experiencing gratitude for everything you already have, you’ll invite more things you love into your life.
Complaining about the not haves is easy.
No money, no time, no energy, no peace of mind, no zen, no control over external circumstances.
But like I’ve said before: mood + mindset = success.
And those are both whatever you choose them to be.
Simply by opening up your awareness of what you want, you’ll start seeing all the opportunities to get more of it.
Like, have you ever noticed that the day you decide to get a French Bulldog, the world’s suddenly full of them?
Every third dog owner you meet has one and they’re in every TV show you watch.
Gratitude works the same way.
When you open up your awareness of all the things you’re grateful for, more of those things will start showing up.
Feeling thankful puts you in a state of openness and receiving. Gratitude is like a turbocharger for making changes in your life.
Being grateful isn’t our natural state as human beings, so it takes effort to cultivate.
Your brain has a built-in negativity bias.
To counteract that, you need a consistent practice of gratitude to rewire your brain to seek the positive.
And it’s only over time that you’ll really see the compounding effects of gratitude in your life.
You need to keep at it to get better.
The easy part is that there’s always something to be grateful for.
Like you have a working body, you’re breathing, you can read, you can write, you can count, having legs that take you for walks, you have a house to live in, clean water coming from the tap rather than having to trek half a day to a well or curling up on the sofa to read a book.
This is an opportunity to reconnect with all that you have.
Regularly remind yourself of all the things you already have and you’ll notice a whole new kind of abundance opening up in you.
You don’t have to do it every day, but you could write a list once a week or once a month.
You can write down three things you’re grateful for, three different ways you’re grateful for one thing, and use gratitude journaling prompts to help you.
JOURNALING PROMPTS:
Write a list of 10 things you’re grateful for.
Start each sentence with “I’m grateful for…” or “Thank you…”
If you find it hard to come up with things, just look around you.
Gratitude is a skill and you need to practise to get better.
Here are 15 gratitude prompts you can use when you’re feeling uninspired.
