Gratitude – A Way To Find Ourselves

In one of my earlier articles, I had spoken about the importance of gratitude and how it impacts the way we see ourselves, our environment and others in our life. The idea of feeling blessed for all that we have ensures that more flows to us. This is the basic tenet of gratitude, not just as an exercise but also as a way of life. Why? Because we have been conditioned to look at what we do not have instead of what we do have. And as we start looking at what we do have, life takes a miraculous turn towards abundance.

Those interested can read the said article here:

How Important is Gratitude In Your Life?

The idea of gratitude was that we should be doing it or going through the thankful emotions at a time of calm to set up the day for us. If done long enough, gratitude becomes a way of life, and we see more and more of what we have, and therefore, feel blessed and end up attracting more and more. That’s the fundamental essence of the exercise.

Now, the problem is that even if we go through the idea of feeling gratitude early in the morning or late in the night, the question is - how do we do it? So, let’s answer that part.

How Do We Go About the Gratitude Exercise?

The question is not about the exercise but the process. The problem with many is that we can’t get our mind to focus on what we have. We end up drifting away to other thoughts and feelings and in no time end up in a different thought process than the one we intended.

This is because the idea of gratitude is still new to your brain. Those familiar with the way the brain works know that a neural pathway is formed every time we do a particular task. The more we do something, the more prominent the neural pathway becomes and more profound is our habit formation. So, even if things seem difficult the first time you are doing it, don’t worry, just continue doing it, and it will become a habit.

But what is the process that we should follow?

Gratitude - The Process

As mentioned in the previous section, if we do the gratitude exercise thinking about things that we are grateful for, then sooner or later we will drift away into thoughts. To avoid the drifting, it is recommended to use pen and paper to do your gratitude exercise.

The reason for the pen and paper is that we become more focused on writing down than wallowing in thoughts. When the grateful thoughts come, we write it down and move to the next one. In this way, we ensure that we stick to our exercise and complete it in one go.

Also, I recommend a pen and paper instead of typing it on your laptop. Why? Because we activate more faculties of our body and mind when we write. You may wonder that that is true for typing as well. Then let me ask you this – how many of you can type without seeing? Answer that for yourself. Now, how many of you can write without seeing? Not many; in fact, none at all. These questions prove that you use much lesser faculties while typing than while writing. So, get writing to activate your whole self. If you are doing the exercise then might as well do it by taking your whole self to the activity, wouldn’t you agree? I bet you do. 😊

Once you get comfortable with the gratitude exercise, you can shift from writing to just thinking about grateful things in life. But I would suggest continuing with writing and keep your whole self occupied in the exercise. As you continue to do the exercise, you will see yourself being grateful all through the day, and that is what we want! 😊

Enjoy The Gratitude Journey

I hope you embark on the gratitude journey and never leave. That is one journey once you take, you wouldn’t want to leave, anyway. So, I wish you all the love for starting and continuing that fulfilling journey!

I will see you soon!

Image Courtesy: Peter-Lomas at Pixabay