Practice gratitude
The importance of developing a state of gratitude and the main benefits of this practice.
Максим dev Психолог, нумеролог, самопсихолог
WHY TO DEVELOP A STATE OF GRATITUDE
I could go on for a very long time listing the pros and cons of a simple technique like gratitude, but I’ll highlight the main four:
1. Until you learn to appreciate what you have, life will not give you new things.
A simple example. There’s a kid, he’s got a lot of toys. He doesn’t appreciate them, constantly wants a new toy, and when he gets a new one he plays with it for a couple days and complains again. Would such a child want to buy a new toy? No. And there’s another kid. He also has a lot of toys, but appreciates them. Plays, enjoys and gets excited about each new toy like it’s the first time. He knows exactly what toy he wants, but he doesn’t complain about not having it, he enjoys the ones he already has.
I think the analogy is clear. There is a good expression on this subject, “Why would God give you something new and good if you don’t yet appreciate what you have now?” I don’t know why 🙂
2- Gratitude triggers consciousness.
In the webinar, I talked about how gratitude is a state that is only born at the level of consciousness. At the animal level, gratitude has no meaning. So once we get into a state of gratitude, we trigger a level of consciousness and can consciously manage our animal level and therefore get better results in life and not get derailed by unnecessary stress and strain.
3. The state of gratitude is the key to the power of the subconscious mind and soul.
Gratitude, love, service. It is these three states that tune your vibrations so that you hear the real you, your desires, and through your subconscious mind launch your true needs into realization.
4. Gratitude makes you feel better.
In addition to developing your spiritual level, gratitude greatly affects your overall well-being. Any gratitude meditation helps you calm down, improve circulation, and relieve stress and tension. And after all, it is stress that is one of the most dangerous problems of our time. Any doctor will tell you that the cause of most modern diseases is stress and poor lifestyle.
HOW TO THANK
When you recognize all the possibilities of gratitude, it’s a natural temptation to start using this magical tool to get yourself more of all sorts of goodies. But life is a very interesting thing and put a filter on it. Some people start using this practice and expect gifts from life, but it doesn’t work that way.
Giving thanks must be sincere, and this is something that must be learned. Learning to really appreciate what you have. To see the joy and wonder in even everyday little things and be grateful for them. Gratitude for the sake of gratitude. Of course, no one is stopping you from wanting anything, but it’s what comes first that matters. Do you give thanks primarily to benefit yourself? Or to just give off the energy of gratitude? First we give, then we receive, that’s how the laws of the universe work.
The form of doing gratitude practice can vary:
- Written – just jotting down gratitude in your notebook/smartphone, easy to do in a quiet environment, gives a deep dive
- Mentally – mentally give thanks, convenient to perform anywhere
- In the format of meditation – giving thanks mentally with a transition to a deep state of gratitude, convenient to do at home in a quiet environment
Exercise. Thank You List.
This is a basic practice to begin developing gratitude.
- Start a gratitude notebook.
- Write down 10 things you are most grateful for in life in general and specifically today.
- You can write it down in this format, “I have a wonderful family, I’m thankful for that.”
Over time, your animal level will get used to this routine and begin to throw off your level of awareness by doing the practice on automatic. To avoid falling into this trap, add a new gratitude item each time.
You can also do this practice by mentally curling your fingers on your hand for each point of gratitude.
Assignment:
Make your gratitude list.
THANK WHOM/WHAT
Thank whoever and whatever you want, just do it 🙂 Life, God, universe, higher design, evolution, big bang, mom, dad, store clerk. Whatever is closest to you, what or who you feel like giving thanks to, then give thanks. In the “extra” section, I’ll give you a way to always find something to be thankful for.
An important nuance: you should give thanks for the positive. That is, it is undesirable to use negative forms like, “I’m thankful I’m not sick” or “I’m thankful I don’t get fired from my job.”
Gratitude is the focus of attention. And directing that focus better on the positive areas of your life. “What if I don’t have anything positive in my life?” – What if I do? 🙂
HOW OFTEN TO GIVE THANKS
As with any practice, at first you’ll need to remind yourself of it and “artificially” induce a state of gratitude. But over time, you’ll start to do it more sincerely and more often. Regular practice will help you to be in a state of mindfulness, gratitude, and precise intention for most of your life.
HOW TO FIND OBJECTS OF GRATITUDE
Often at the beginning of a practice, the question arises, “What is there to be thankful for?” The animal mind wants to keep getting more and more benefits for itself and sees no point at all in giving at least gratitude. Now I’m going to give you a way that will help you always find the object of gratitude, but first the basic directions:
Life
You are a human being and you have the gift of living exactly as a human being. You could have been born a duck or a lizard after all 🙂
Health
I think you know someone like Nick Vujicic. If you don’t know, see here:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Вуйчич,_Ник
He has no limbs at all, but that doesn’t stop him from living happily and inspiring others. Do you value your hands, feet, fingers? Maybe we should thank life for that. We very often ignore our “normal” state. When our head hurts, we begin to appreciate the moments when our head didn’t hurt. When a runny nose appears, we begin to appreciate the moments when it wasn’t there. So maybe we shouldn’t wait for the next runny nose and say thank you now?
IMPORTANT. Gratitude does not mean “being happy with what you have” and sitting quietly, saying, “The main thing is that you have arms and legs, and that’s good”. Gratitude means appreciating what you have and not being afraid to want and get what you want.
Family
How often do you say “Thank You” to your loved ones? Unfortunately, very often we take for granted that the wife cleans the apartment, cooks for us, or that the husband works hard for the good of the family. And when our grandmothers or grandfathers pass away, we remember that you and didn’t say the usual “thank you” to them. Thank you to our great-grandparents for making our grandparents, who made our grandparents, who made our parents, who made us 🙂
Material resources
A warm bed, unlimited hot water, heating in the apartment, an elevator in the house, fresh food – these and other familiar parts of our lifestyle were not available to most people just 70 years ago. But now we don’t appreciate these benefits of civilization at all. And you also have clothes, gadgets, money, you can be grateful for that too, both life and the people who invented/made/sold them.
These are basic areas of gratitude and you can start practicing with them. Next, to discover deeper levels of gratitude within yourself use the “ball of gratitude” method.
Look around you and pick one of the items you are thankful for. Like a smartphone.
Start unraveling the “ball of gratitude.” Here’s an example:
- I am grateful to life that I can use this smartphone, it makes my life more convenient, more interesting.
- I am thankful to the company that made this smartphone.
- I am grateful to the designer of this smartphone.
- I am grateful to the entire programming team that created such a user-friendly system.
- I am grateful to the author of this smartphone.
- I am grateful to the people who work in the production of this smartphone.
And so on 🙂 This tangle can be very long. Just look around more often and unwind those tangles.
