How To Be More Grateful In Life

Gratitude. Appreciation. 

These are some of the best feelings in our life.

They fill us with happiness, ease and delight while completely changing our worldview.

When your mind is filled with gratitude, you begin to notice the abundance of the world. Opportunity is everywhere. You interpret everything in a beneficial way. This perspective is crucial in today's time while the Corona Virus is around. It's more important now than ever, to focus on gratitude instead of fear and anxiety. 

Besides that - here are some of the  scientific benefits of increasing your gratitude:

• Gratitude helps you make friends and be social.
• Improve your physical health. Studies have shown that those who have more gratitude report fewer aches, pains and have an overall feeling of health and wellbeing. 
• Improve your mental health. Grateful people feel less depressed and anxious.
• Enhances empathy. 
• Improve your sleep. 
• Enhance your self-esteem. 
• Increase in mental strength. 

This article is in honor of our brand new subliminal audio release of Gratitude & Appreciation. You can find more about that here.

Now, let's begin with strategies for you to be more grateful in life so you can begin to experience these benefits for yourself:

1. Thank you walk

As you know already, we are big fans of walking. 

This strategy and the next one were both taken from a book called 'the Magic', by the lady who wrote The Secret. Just to be clear - I've never read the secret. However, The Magic is a book that details 30 exercises to increase your gratitude. I highly recommend it.

It's fairly simple to do.

Your right leg is thank. Your left leg is you. As you walk outside, begin saying to yourself with every step.

Thank. You. Thank. You. Thank. You. The right leg/foot is the thank, the left one is the you.

It can be vice-versa. 

Aim for 100 steps or more. If you space out and forget, just bring your attention casually back to every step.

Thank. You. Thank. You. Thank. You.

Go on a thank you walk and raise your vibration.

2. Gratitude rock

This is something to do at the end of every day.

Find a rock. Any rock. It can be something you find outside. 

Place it on your nightstand by your bed.

Right before you fall asleep, take the rock, hold it and think back through your entire day.

Focus on all the 'Wins'. Everything that went well. 

Say 'thank you' for every win you experienced. 

This, over time, will reorient your mind to focus on the positive.

By doing this at night you will be allowing your subconscious to focus on all the success in your life. Not only will you wake up feeling excited and happy, you will begin to create positive momentum. 

3. Gratitude before meals and drinks

Taking a moment before every drink, every meal is one of the most underrated life hacks ever.

We eat and drink multiple times a day. Imagine taking a few moments to appreciate what's in front of you.

• Your body. For processing this food/drink and converting it into energy.
• The cook. That created the food you are eating.
• The vegetable, meats. Someone had to do the manual labor to farm these items.
• The person that drove these products into your grocery store.
• The entrepreneur that decided to start selling these products.
• The hundreds of people that were involved, that you will never know about.  

You can go on and on.

A couple of moments a day you raise your vibration. Now imagine a week. A month. A year. You are a completely new person.

The biggest changes come from the smallest action.

4. Gratitude for what didn't happen

One quick way to instantly feel grateful is to reverse it.

Be grateful that a gigantic nuclear bomb didn't just go off.

Be grateful that your internet didn't turn off.

Be grateful that you didn't lose your eyes when you were younger.

There is an infinite number of situations you can think of. All that is required is your creativity.

Whatever happens. Think about the opposite.

Instant gratitude. Poof. Thank me later 🙂

5. Gratitude through others 

This is an exercise in loving-kindness that I learned from Tim Ferriss.

Here is how you do it:

• Bring someone (anyone) to mind.
• Imagine them feeling very happy and grateful. As if they just got a surprise present and it was exactly what they wanted.
• Notice how, just by visualizing someone else as being happy and grateful, you create those feelings inside yourself.
• Do this with 3-5 people every day. 

This is such a simple and powerful strategy for you to be more grateful in life.

It takes less than 1 minute and has lasting effects for the entire day. 

6. Gratitude for your work 

Work plays such a big role in our life.

Some of us are in school. Others go to a job. Maybe you work from home or have an internet business. 

Whatever it is - there are so many things that could be appreciated.

Think of all the tools you use in order to get to work.

Computer. Internet. Phones. Co Workers. Your Desk. 

That's just a quick off the top list.

Without your work - you would be broke.

Think about all the things the money you earn allows you to do. 

It allows you to purchase experiences, take care of yourself and others.

Be grateful for this because you can always come back to #4. Imagine if you didn't have this job. This career. This income.

Now...that would suck.

7. The Grateful flow

This is a mental tool I learned from Barry Michels and Phil Stutz in their book The Tools. Here is a link to this specific tool and their work. 

Also, I was fortunate enough to see Barry speak live here in Miami. Here is a picture of him teaching this exact tool.

Taken from their website:

"When your mind is filled with worry, self-hatred, or any other form of negative thinking, you've been taken over by the Black Cloud. It limits what you can do with your life and deprives your loved ones of what is best about you. Life becomes a struggle to survive instead of the fulfillment of great promise."

The cues to use this tool:

1. Use Grateful Flow immediately whenever you are attacked by negative thoughts. If unchallenged, negative thinking will just get stronger.

2. Any time your mind becomes undirected—like when you're on hold on a phone call, stuck in traffic, or standing in line at the store.

3. Turn specific times (like waking up, going to sleep, and mealtimes) into cues by practicing Grateful Flow on a regular schedule.

How to use the tool:

1. Silently say to yourself specific things in your life you're grateful for, particularly items you'd normally take for granted. Go slowly and feel the gratitude for each item. Don't use the same items repeatedly—stretch for new ones.

2. After about 30 seconds, stop thinking and focus on the physical sensation of gratefulness. You'll feel it coming directly from your heart. This energy you feel is the Grateful Flow.

3. As this energy emanates from your heart, your chest will soften and open. In this state you will feel an overwhelming presence approach you, filled with the power of infinite giving. You've made a connection to the Source.

Read it. Practice each step by itself, then combine them together.

This is a simple and extremely effective way to open yourself up and be grateful no matter what is happening right now. 

8. Gratitude journaling

This is the most common and powerful way to instill gratitude in your life. 

Every morning take out a piece of paper. And begin writing 10 things that you are grateful for.

I recommend using this sentence structure:

1. I am truly grateful for ______ because ______

2. I am so happy and thankful for ______ because _______

3. I am truly blessed for _______ because _______

4. I really appreciate ______ because _______

We add a because to make it more powerful. The brain loves reasons. It doesn't even need to make sense.

I am grateful for this blog because I love water. Works perfectly fine.

Here is the main point that is not talked about when it comes to gratitude journaling.

It's not about how many you did. 3 items or 30 items.

It's about focusing and feeling the sensation of gratitude. That is the power. That is where your life transforms.

Take a moment after each item on your list and re-read it. Say to yourself, thank you, thank you, thank you. Notice the feeling and expand it as much as possible. Feel it deeper and deeper. Smile and embrace it. Allow yourself to feel it fully.

That is how you really gain the miracle benefits of being in the grateful flow.

Thank you, thank you and thank you for reading this article.

I appreciate every one of you.

-Daniel

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