If you spend any time in the personal development or spiritual community, you have already heard about the power of gratitude. Practicing gratitude is one of the best ways to raise your energetic vibration and improve your life. In this episode, we discuss the do’s and don’t’s of practicing gratitude. We end with a meditation to help you to cultivate this beautiful energy.
Key Points:
- There is a lot of research on the power of practicing gratitude. Gratitude enhances our overall sense of wellbeing and trains your brain to focus on positive experiences, overriding the brain’s natural bias towards negativity. [1:52]
- Everything is energy, including our thoughts and emotions. Different thoughts and emotions vibrate at different rates and the higher the vibration the closer you are to your true spiritual state. Most of us have an energetic or an emotional set point that we are used to going to and our society as a whole tends to vibe low. There are a lot of people out there who are used to being stressed, afraid, and generally unhappy. The energy of gratitude is most closely aligned with your higher self. [2:52]
- The best way to shift your energy is not to resist what you are feeling, but to focus on what you would like to feel instead. Gratitude is a quick and easy way of shifting your focus toward whatever is bringing you joy in the present moment. [3:45]
- You can practice gratitude in the moment, like when you are feeling down about the weather and notice how grateful you are for this warm cup of tea. But you can also make gratitude a daily practice to get into the habit of vibing at a higher level. [5:42]
- A great time to practice gratitude is first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. Take a few moments to bring to mind some things you are grateful for. This will set your energy for the rest of the day. Another great time to practice is before bedtime. Taking time to reflect on all the things that went well during the day is a great way to set the stage for pleasant dreams and a restful sleep. [5:57]
- If you have trouble finding things to be grateful for, it is OK to start small. Small things count as much as bigger ones: that first cup sip of coffee in the morning, the feeling of the breeze on a sultry hot day, the fact that your cat waited a few extra minutes before waking you up this morning. Wherever you can find gratitude is the perfect place to begin. [7:05]
- Gratitude is not about what you think you should be grateful for, but rather what authentically brings you joy. There are no “shoulds” when it comes to experiencing gratitude. You don’t have to be grateful and you don’t even have to feel good when you don’t want to. Gratitude is just something that helps you boost your vibration when you want it and when you need it because you can always find something to be grateful for. [11:25]
