The Path Toward True Gratefulness:
Three Impactful Practices for Vibrant Living
Many teachers have emphasized the importance of being grateful. Yet too often we have miss understood the depth of this practice.
I have noticed two common habits around the art of being grateful that will limit your joy factor in life.
1- Most people practice gratefulness from a place of what they should be grateful for. In my practice, when men and women share what they are grateful for in their lives, ninety nine percent of the time, they talk from their head not from their heart. Their head tells them to be grateful for this or that but their being does not match what they say. Bottom line, they create a deeper disconnect between their true experience and their mind. This increases unhappiness.
2- Gratefulness is usually about what you have or the behavior of others around you. In this situation, your sense of gratefulness is only focusing on your surroundings. You have a new car, a new house, great vacation, a great support system around you, etc. While it is wonderful to appreciate, value and receive from your environment, you will most likely base your level of happiness on your outer reality. This limits you tremendously.
Focus on these three practices to truly experience vibrant living
1- Be grateful about who you are. Shift your focus from what you have or what is happening to you to who you are. What is the core quality within you that you choose to celebrate today? How do you express this quality in your life? Are there any ways you could express it more often? What will happen if you do?
2- Be grateful about the challenges you are facing in your life. Your biggest challenges in life are your biggest growth opportunities. When you truly receive the challenges you are experiencing, you have an opportunity to learn something about your personal limitations and from there to grow.
3- Be grateful for what you wish. What do you want to create in your life? Who do you want to become? Say yes to your soul’s longing and bring that longing into your present as if it is already there. It will help you shift your paradigm and create a life that matches your deepest longing.