Perhaps you are aware that being grateful for everything that is happening or has happened in your life can literally change your life. Or perhaps, like me, you hear someone talk about being grateful and you think to yourself or even say out loud, “What have I got to be grateful for? I’ve got, A, B, C, etc… going wrong in my life and it sucks!” You may even consciously be aware that whatever you think about repeatedly becomes your reality, but you feel like you can’t get your mind to cooperate with you. Or you might think this is all just happy talk. You can’t wish wealth or good health or happy relationships into your life! Everyone knows that.
First, there are probably two things going on here. One would be the conditioning you have acquired from family, friends and society at large that says something to the effect that the only real things that are happening in the world are things that we can bring in through our senses, predominantly through sight. If you can’t see it then it probably isn’t real. The second thing that is probably happening is the involvement of your ego. This is a survival program running in our minds that analyzes everything in our conscious and subconscious awareness and determines if it is harmful, harmless or beneficial. Basically it is a filter, similar but much more sophisticated, to the filters we use on our computers when we search or work with data. This filter lets in or blocks out information or data from your environment based on biases you have developed over the years. I think a good example to illustrate this would be how you may not notice how many of a certain make or model of car exists in your vicinity until you buy one. Then you notice them all the time. You had not set your filter to notice that car until it had personal significance to you. I felt this, as I think many women do, when I first became pregnant. Of course I was aware of pregnant women before then but I didn’t really pay attention, but when I became pregnant, I felt almost overwhelmed by all the pregnant women I noticed.
You may also have read or heard about human beings having vibrational frequencies. All things are made up of energy so therefore all things have vibrational frequencies.This is not something you can see with your eyes, but it has been measured scientifically and even photographed so this is not an esoteric notion. Science has proven this. There are many things that affect this vibrational frequency, but the most profound is our emotions. When you are happy or calm or loving you will be vibrating at a relatively high frequency. When you are angry, depressed or fearful you will be vibrating at a relatively low frequency. Because everything has these frequencies, whatever level you are vibrating at, you will draw to you people and situations that are in the same vibrational level. Therefore, in order to bring happy, calm or loving people or situations into your life, you need to bring your vibration level up to that level if that isn’t what you are experiencing currently in your life.
This is where a practice of giving thanks can be particularly effective. It can help on two levels. First, gratitude is a high vibration emotion, so beginning, ending your day with thoughts of gratitude will raise your vibration. This also kind of sets the tone for the day when you begin your day in gratitude. It also sets the tone for your sleep and dream cycle, which is also affected by your vibrational frequency. On the second level, thinking and speaking your gratitude for the people and situations in your life can and should include those people and situations you would like to attract into your life. For example, when I’m arguing or unhappy with my husband, I practice gratitude for our relationship, particularly our loving communication with each other. What? We were just arguing. Why should I be grateful for that? I want a loving relationship with him with open and loving communication so that is how I am framing my thoughts. My subconscious mind, where most of this is happening, accepts statements of gratitude as a period at the end of a sentence. It is finished. I have achieved it, therefore the signal of gratitude. I have used this practice many times and even though the results may not be immediate, there are positive results. I had to tune myself to become aware of increased loving communication. That is part of the equation as well. We will find what we are looking for. If you are looking for ways of being right or superior, you will find them, usually by way of looking for someone or some situation to blame. Most people spend their entire lives avoiding their own feelings by projecting onto and blaming others. In reality what is happening in our lives, all of it, begins and ends with us. So don’t go to your boss, your spouse or family members to have it out because something is bothering you. Go inside yourself instead. Create the picture you would like to see in your life and then create the gratitude statements that match it. Be grateful for your strong, energetic, healthy body and all it does for you. Be grateful for your loving spouse, children, family and friends. Be grateful for your job, your house, your car or whatever else you enjoy or want to see in your life. It may not all manifest at once or in ways that you predicted, but it will manifest and it will be beautiful.
If this information resonates with you and you would like to go further, please check out my store. You will find a guided meditation to reinforce your gratitude practice. You may also wish to make an appointment to work with me as a life coach or hypnotherapist to create a comprehensive and lasting practice.
Namaste.