By Steph Lavelle
Gratitude, seems like such a buzz word lately right!
But do you even know what it’s all about? Have you thought about how being more grateful in life could impact the quality of your life and your mental health?
If we think about what we offer here at Wildflowers, it’s support in order for you to feel happier in your own body and to celebrate the uniqueness that is you. So, if you then think about gratitude it is literally the concept of finding the positive in life, whether that’s an experience or situation, words, thoughts, etc. So it seems like a powerful fit to offer tools that tap into the power of gratitude. This will allow you to find more opportunities in life to be positive.
What we focus our attention on in life has a huge impact on our health, emotionally, mentally and physically.
If we are primarily focussed on the negative circumstances or events that we are or have experienced, then this will leave us feeling emotionally overwhelmed, mentally unsteady and physically drained. It will also mean that we are more likely to recognise the crappy things that happen throughout our day.
BUT
If we work on supporting ourselves to acknowledge the positive happening in our lives then we will start to experience a waaayyy more positive outlook on our life.
So, a really powerful way to start experiencing the benefits of increased positivity in life is to cultivate a daily gratitude practice. A gratitude practice is an epic way to start your day as it will set the tone for how you experience the rest of your day, although ultimately you can start using gratitude in any way and once you see and feel the difference it starts to make to your life it will be easy to expand it out so that it is a lifestyle inclusion.
How this might look for you is the question, so here are some ideas and you can shift and change things to make it perfect for you ;)
Option 1
Every morning as soon as you wake up, pick up your journal (you may have a specific one solely for your gratitude practice) and write down 10 things you are grateful for.
Now the trick is in how you structure the sentence to acknowledge your gratitude!
In order for your mind and heart to fully connect the dots, for the energy of gratitude to be felt in your body and this to become the frequency at which you vibrate, you need to use a specific formula that is so super simple! This will allow you to attract even more amazing things to be grateful for in life,
Start each sentence with; I am grateful for (you could use blessed, thankful, appreciative etc.) and then write what it is you are celebrating.
Once this has been written expand the thought out and include why this person, thing, experience etc adds value to your life.
Lastly include how this makes you feel.
For example your gratitudes may look like this;
I am so grateful for __________ because it means I can ___________ and that makes me feel __________.
Once you’ve written your 10 gratitude, read through them and really allow yourself to feel the positive emotions all of these things bring to you world.
Option 2
Pick a specific area of your life and start to be more grateful for it in every way possible continuously throughout your day.
For example - you may be experiencing stress due to money so instead of always thinking about how much money you don’t have or how much things cost, you give gratitude for your money every chance you get.
This could mean every time you open your wallet to get out money or your card you say thank you for the money to pay for this item.
It could be that you give thanks for the things you already own every time you use something that you really love, ‘I’m so grateful I had the money to buy this’.
Instead of thinking about what you can’t buy it might be acknowledging that you have a home and food in the house and how grateful you are to have these things to stay safe and healthy.
It could be giving thanks every time you drive your car for the money it costs to keep it running and how easy it makes your life.
& the list could go on but simply picking an aspect of life and starting to recognise the positives is going to change you life!
Option 3
Now this could be the hardest one which means it could also be the most powerful process for you to make the shifts in life that you need to be able to see your life as a more magical, positive and enjoyable experience.
If there is a specific person that you have experienced difficulty with in the past or currently, make a list of all of the reasons you are grateful for this person.
Yes this might sound a little left field, like what the hell are you talking about Steph but trust me, if you are able to find gratitude for those who you feel have created the most upheaval in your life then you will be able to maximise your ability to live a life that truly feels amazing and leaves you feeling refreshed instead of depleted.
So, even though some people may have had a negative impact on your life they have still taught you something and that is what you can use to empower yourself with gratitude.
You may have realised how strong you really are due to someone else's mistreatment of you.
You may now be able to help others because of your experiences.
You may feel clearer around the boundaries you need in life to stay healthy emotionally, mentally and physically.
Whatever the reasons are, write them down and acknowledge that even in what might seem to be negative circumstances you are still able to find the positive and give yourself credit for rising above the pain to experience the pleasure in life you deserve.
Gratitude is powerful and if we use it consistently it can and will change our lives for the better because we will no longer be focussed on the negatives and instead we will be finding the joy, the laughter, the peace of mind, the pleasure, the benefits and the love in every single moment.
Now that sounds life a life worth experiencing doesn’t it <3
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