The Prosperity In Gratitude

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" ~Henry Ward Beecher

This is the time of year when we give thanks. It's the time when we look around our lives and feel grateful for all that we have. Our families, friends, and all of the love and blessings in our lives. We are grateful for the work that we do. We look to see the silver lining in all of our difficult situations, and feel grateful for the opportunity to learn so much from. Did you notice how abundant you felt when you were standing in all of that gratitude?

Gratitude is a powerful thing to exercise when we are looking to create more abundance in our lives. Why? Well, for a multitude of reasons, but one of them is confirmation bias. Wikipedia defines confirmation bias as the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.

Because as we focus on all that we are grateful for, we begin to feel more joyful and abundant. And when we begin to feel more joyful and abundant, we then begin to focus more on the good things already in our lives. What you focus on grows. Like attracts like.

There is a blessing for us in the loving expression of gratitude. As we focus on what we have, we see more of it. As we focus on our joy, we see more of that. As we focus on love, we indeed see and feel more of that.

Love and gratitude go hand in hand. Gratitude can start a positive momentum in your life that changes your life forever.

The question is, "It's Thanksgiving today, but, shouldn't we practice gratitude all of the time?" The answer is YES! Especially if you would like to find more love, joy, peace, and abundance in your life.

How to Put This Into Practice in Your Daily Life

1. Look for what you want to see vs. what you don't want to see. Too often we go about our day waiting and expecting awful things to happen, or we expect to be disappointed. We walk around saying, "I don't like this, and this, and this...." and look for things that need changing. You would find that your world may seem completely different (without anything around you really changing) if you focused on what you did indeed appreciate. "I like this, I like that... oh, and I really love that!"

2. Appreciate and be grateful for something about yourself. Be grateful that you have a beautiful smile and a heart of gold. Be grateful that you are a savvy business person, or that you are inventive or intuitive. Be grateful that you are a caring and present parent.

3. Look around your home (inside and out!) and appreciating that. Your pet(s), your favorite books, more than enough food, the sun, the leaves. Focus on the beauty that you do have in life vs. the things that you don't have - and probably don't need.

4. Keep track of all the good things that happen to you in your calendar or a daily journal. Noticing, appreciating, and acknowledging even the little things affirms that good things do in fact come your way, and you can begin to trust in God as the source of your joy. Want to see fast results? For the next 30 days - set aside time to write for 5 to 10 minutes all of the positive things you can about your life, your relationships, your work, your home, etc, etc. You will not be the same person at the end of those 30 days!

5. Open your mouth and let the gratitude flow from your heart. You will find amazing things begin to happen to you and those around you. Can you imagine what might occur when you regularly tell others how thankful you are for them and the things they do for you (or the things you see them do for others).

Yours in joy and wellness,