Developing An Attitude of Gratitude

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
—Meister Eckhart

Renew your passion for life!

Each day you’re given the gift of starting over with a blank canvas.  You don’t have to wait for a new year or your birthday to commit to change. God gives you a reason to rejoice each day He wakes you up.  Your responsibility is to receive His gift and open it with a heart of gratitude and in a spirit of awareness.

“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

I wonder how many of us can say we live like we believe this? Sometimes we are aware of the Spirit who dwells within us and pokes and prods us to remember and record every precious and priceless moment. More often, however, we sprint through our days unconscious and unaware of the blessings and miracles surrounding us. We unconsciously overlook the blessing of God opening our eyes each morning, our ability to walk to the bathroom unassisted, the water that flows freely and abundantly from our showers, and the food that lines our cabinets and refrigerators as we nourish ourselves and prepare to begin yet another day. These are just some of the blessings we often overlook each morning before we even walk out our front door.

• How do we continue to miss these precious gifts day after day?
• What will cause us to stop and be grateful?
• How can we awaken and renew our appreciation and passion for being alive?
  

The underlying mindset that causes you to miss these blessings is you haven’t developed the practice of noticing and recording them.

I use the word practice with careful intention. We’ve all heard the saying “practice makes perfect”; however, I believe “practice creates new habits.”

Here’s an excerpt from my course, Tools For Transformation.

When we are in the habit of doing something consciously and purposefully every day, we create a new habit. When we create a new habit it becomes part of our daily experience.

Sadly, it usually takes a shocking event to threaten our sense of security or state of “normalcy” to startle us into a profound awareness and awakens us to the truth of how much we have, how often we have been protected from danger, and how much there is for which to be grateful.

To combat my prior state of complacency and lack of consciously recording my blessings, I put into practice keeping a Gratitude Journal. Each night before going to bed, I pull out my gratitude journal and list a minimum of five things I am grateful for that day. Some days my list includes amazing miracles and encounters, while other days they’re the simple pleasures of my day. Most days, my gratitude journal consists of far more than five things. (Noting five things to be grateful for on any given day should be an easy task—just look around you!)

The daily practice of keeping a Gratitude Journal will radically renew and rejuvenate your life. Make a commitment to begin this practice today and develop an attitude of gratitude.

I can testify to the power of this practice. I have been keeping a Gratitude Journal for over twenty years and I assure you as you begin to fill the pages of your journal with all the blessings, gifts and miracles in your life, you will begin to feel and see the inner shift.

As Melody Beattie so beautifully states,

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Let us make time to rejoice, record our blessings, and be glad in this day. After all, we will never be given the chance to live this day again.

With light and a deep sense of gratitude,

Susan Day