Developing an Attitude of Gratitude

5 steps to living a more grateful life.

We’ve all had one of those days, you know the one. You wake up late after a terrible night's sleep. You reach for your favourite top only to realise it’s creased up in the washing pile. There is no time for breakfast and it's raining. You're in a bad mood and somehow you just know that it’s going to be one of those days... And then just like clockwork, it all begins to unravel. You look around and everyone seems miserable, you spill your coffee and your co-worker is just being a jerk. 

Now, maybe I am exaggerating a bit but we all know how it goes, the more of a bad mood you find yourself in, the more reasons you find to be in a bad mood. It’s almost as if being in a bad mood attracts more of the same into our lives.

But what would happen if we tried to view things from another point of view?

What if?

What if we stop and we take a long deep breath and give gratitude that we have a bed to sleep in every night. We welcome the opportunity to wear some different clothes, and take a moment to breathe in that lovely smell of rain. How could approaching things from the point of view of gratitude change our day and maybe even our lives?

Read on to discover 5 steps to living a more grateful life.

“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

But what is gratitude? 

noun: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. "She expressed her gratitude to the committee for their support"

Gratitude has no religious connotations, and can be practised by anybody, anywhere!

Gratitude is a wonderful thing to practise, and there are a multitude of guided meditations available on the subject.

There are many teachings on gratitude and it is something that you can begin introducing into your life today, with very little effort.

Around the world people have practised the act of being grateful for many, many years, and at The Rocking Bohemian it is something we value very highly.

Jack Kornfield, an American writer and teacher, wrote: “Buddhist monks begin each day with a chant of gratitude for the blessings of their life. Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to Mother Earth and Father Sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given”

Gratitude is a powerful thing to exercise when we are looking to create more abundance in our lives. Why? Because as we focus on all that we are grateful for, we begin to feel more abundant, and when we begin to feel more abundant we then begin to attract a flow of abundance in our lives. What you focus on grows. Like attracts like. That's why you won't increase the abundance in your life by focusing on all that you don't have.

Bring an attitude of gratitude into your life today with these 5 steps:

1. Begin a gratitude journal. Set aside 10 minutes every day to write down all of the positive things that you have going on in your life. This could be relationships, hobbies, your physical attributes, your job... or anything else that brings a little joy into your life.
   

2. Keep track. While we are on the subject of journals, try to get into the habit of jotting down all of the good things that happen to you each day - examples of this could be the smile given to you by a kind stranger that made you feel all warm inside. The fact that all the traffic lights turned green for you on the way home or the loving message sent to you from a friend just when you needed it. Appreciate the synchronicities that happen throughout your day.
   

3. Appreciate yourself. Remind yourself of your strengths. Your long luscious hair, your healthy body. The fact that you are a wonderful loving parent, or successful business person.
   

4. Seek it out. Next time you are out I want you to spend 10 minutes looking for red cars. Next, I want you to spend 10 minutes avoiding red cars... you’ll soon find that you see just as many red cars while avoiding them as you did while searching for them.That's because the human mind will seek out what you are thinking about - whether that is what you do want or what you don't want. Try to switch your daily focus to what you do want and that is what you will find more of.
   

5. Meditate. Check out our meditation index for an ever growing list of meditation styles for you to browse through. Alternatively you can look to Youtube for a range of guided meditations, and you will even find some that are specifically aimed at gratitude. Or you can choose to sit quietly and focus on your breathing. I like to set an alarm and then meditate until the alarm tells me to stop (this is a great way to stop yourself constantly wondering how long you've been meditating for, and instead allows you to focus on the moment at hand.)

We are all energetic beings and the energetic vibration of gratitude is one of the highest and purest vibrations available to us. By bringing ourselves to that energetic frequency and sending out the love that we want to see returned, there is no limit to the wonderful benefits that come our way. Start that momentum today.

So what are you waiting for? Get started on your journey to a more grateful life today!