We all have a grateful day every holiday season. Many of us sit down to Thanksgiving dinner and go around the table sharing our gratitude for the family and friends in our lives, for a great meal, our health, our homes and more.
The holidays seem to be in stark contrast to our modern society’s modus operandi. Let’s face it – if you take a scroll through FaceBook or any other social media platform on any given day, you will get a large dose of grumpy, negative and outright snarling humanity on display. Not a grateful day.
From Grateful Day to Grateful Years
My question is simple. If we can have a grateful day once a year, why don’t we keep that focus for the entire year? We all experience the shift in energy around our grateful day, regardless of our country and its timing.
People are happier, laughter is more free flowing, our hearts are filled with love and hope springs eternal. It’s a magical time of the year…because for a few days, or only one grateful day, we believe in magic.
We feel magical and happy because we are thinking about gratitude and good things. In our gratitude and spirit of giving, we direct our unconscious minds to select a reality that matches our positive point of focus. That’s why so many of us feel hopeful, loving and just plain excited during the holiday season. That spirit of gratitude permeates our offices and lives…and most of us feel the lift in our hearts that creates a happier reality.
Study after study has proven that when we are grateful, we expect and experience a better life. We innately know this is true from our own experience. So why are so many of us grateful and thankful for only a grateful day, or days, every year? Why not every day as a grateful day?
Years ago I started a simple practice that helped me find my way out of a trauma that put me on my knees. This practice helped me shift into a permanently positive place. After 10+ years I can tell you that my daily reality mirrors my writing. Here it is:
- Get a journal.
- Each morning when you rise, write five to ten things you are grateful for in your life. After you write them, go back and read them, pause and truly feel the full gratitude full your body and mental space.
- At night before you go to bed, write the five-ten things you were grateful for today. If it’s a bad day, write 5 things anyway. Be grateful for air, water, a roof over your head. We ALL have so many things to be grateful for:)
- Do this every day and pay attention to how you and your world change.
We can all program our unconscious minds to expect life to bring us things to be grateful for. All we have to do is be grateful.
You can start right now – with 5 simple lines….
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Want a powerful book that’s my guide for gratitude? Check it out here… and I am not a partner in any way, shape or form. This book will change your life. Truly.
6 Comments
Steve
November 27, 2013 - 5:21 amHey Rebel
Great post and one that I endorse 100%. Gratitude is one of my pet topics and something that I am asked to speak about extensively. I am conducting research into gratitude and I would love your readers to help me. They can tell me what they are most grateful for in the world by going to http://bit.ly/TFG1MG and in return I will give them an e-book on how to be ‘properly grateful’.
You never know if I’m really lucky you might even pay me a visit and donate one towards my goal of collecting 1,000,000 of them!
rebel brown
November 27, 2013 - 11:12 amHey Steve
Always glad to be a promotional platform for those who stop by.
There are numerous Neuroscience studies on gratitude – you might want to check them out.
Also – not sure I can agree with your “properly grateful” comment. We are all unique in our mindware – and there is no one size fits all way to believe or think or hold an emotion. We are unique in our experiences, our mindware programs and our realities. So suggesting that everyone should follow one “proper” way to be grateful seems a bit overstated to me.
Just sayin’ – just as our mindware is unique so are the ways we find to be grateful, positive and every other state in our lives. Viva la difference!
reb
KimsKlutterMO
November 27, 2013 - 11:33 amThank you for such a wonderful post. What a great world it would be 365 days a year, we can dream about it!
rebel brown
November 30, 2013 - 11:35 amWhat we dream is what comes true in our live Kim! So Dream Often and Dream BIG!
Thanks for stopping by!
reb
Dan Forbes
November 28, 2013 - 6:45 amRebel, I’ve enjoyed the practice of noting 5 things I’m thankful for each morning. It’s a great way to start the day.
Whether it’s done in the evening or in the morning, just incorporate into the day somehow. Even in the darkest of days, it’s not hard to find something for which to give thanks, and it lifts the spirit.
rebel brown
November 30, 2013 - 11:37 amISnt it amazing how our mental and emotional states – and our reality – change when we focus on appreciation for what we have Dan? Amazing to me how programmed we are in our modern age to focus on what we dont have, cant have, alll the negative aspects that create fear. From fear, we create only more fear and limitation.
By simply shifting our focus for a few minutes a day – we can begin to change our reality. HOw powerful is that?
Thanks as always for stopping by!