Sit down first thing in the morning and write down ten things that you feel grateful for.
When that’s finished, be quiet for about five minutes and ask for guidance.
Then, send love to three people that are bothering you.
This daily practice will change your life as long as you…
Make Sure You Feel It
You probably already know that making a gratitude list can make you happier because it disconnects you from toxic, negative thoughts and emotions and allows you to focus on something positive.
However, merely writing down what you’re grateful for and then checking it off your to-do list is not enough.
To get the most from the practice, you must make it more than an intellectual exercise. You must feel the gratitude in your body because how you feel controls your vibration and what you attract into your life.
But here’s the problem…
Some days you will find yourself so mired in the problems and challenges in your life that it will be hard to feel genuine gratitude for one thing, let alone ten.
So, what should you do? How do you get in tune with the feeling of gratitude?
You shift your thoughts by thinking about or doing something that causes you to feel happy and grateful. For instance, you can think of a person or a pet that you love or have loved. Or you can remember an event or a day that has special meaning for you.
Get engrossed in your memory. Recall the feeling of being with the person or pet, the joy of your wedding day, or the excitement of your favorite holiday. Then, while you’re feeling that way, make your list of ten things you are grateful for.
And listen… you don’t have to search for major things you are grateful for, like a new car or a promotion. Your gratitude list can contain simple things, like enjoying a perfect cup of French-Press coffee or catching a glimpse of the sun.
Now here’s the remarkable part…
When you make your gratitude list, you can include things you want or dream of. They don’t have to be physically already manifested in your world.
For example, you can write down that you’re grateful for achieving a goal you’ve set or that the breakup or divorce you’re currently going through ended amicably.
This is true because the real power of practicing gratitude does not come from what you’re grateful for; it comes from the feeling of being thankful.
Ask Spirit for Guidance
After you complete your gratitude list, close your eyes, be quiet for five minutes and ask Spirit to please guide you throughout the day.
Then, be open to what you fear or feel.
When I first told Sandy to do this, she said, “I’d like to have an obvious and concrete message when I’m asking for guidance. How do you do that?”
“Do you fish?” I asked.
“Yes, I like salmon fishing.”
So, I explained that getting clear guidance is like fishing. Sometimes, you notice something, and you wonder if you have a fish. You’re not sure, and so you question if it’s really a fish. That’s not clear guidance.
However, there are also times when you know you have a fish on the line. You feel the fish; there’s no question in your mind that the fish is there, so you start reeling it in.
When you’ve got a fish, you know you it’s there. That’s how guidance comes in. It comes with a boom, and when it does, your job is to avoid reasoning your way out of it. Don’t question if it’s real; go with it.
Listening to and following this guidance facilitates divine presence in your daily life and leads to extraordinary breakthroughs.
It’s All About You
Next, send love to three people that are bothering you.
Of course, if someone is bothering you, there’s a good chance that the last thing you want to do is send love to them. So, here’s a trick that will make it easier…
Bring someone or something that you love to mind. Hold an image of the person or thing in your mind as you feel the love you have for them and send those loving feelings their way.
Then slowly let your loved one fade out of the picture and start to picture the person who is bothering you. Let the image of that person slip into your mind as you continue to feel the love for your loved one. It sounds silly, but it works.
Why should you send love to people you’re not on good terms with?
Because thinking negative thoughts about someone is like you drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. Thinking bad thoughts puts you in a negative vibration, which attracts bad things to YOU. Sending genuine loving thoughts to those who are bothering you takes the poison away.
The minute you send out love, you get it back immediately. You don’t have to wait for it to come back because it’s within you. That’s why you want to do this practice each day.
Why This Practice Is So Important
Have you ever read Chapter 7 of The Science of Getting Rich? In this chapter, Wallace Wattles says, “The whole process of mental adjustment and attunement can be summed up in one word: gratitude.”
So, let’s look at the term “mental adjustment.”
Suppose we have challenges in our life that are dominating our thinking—a shortage of money, a business problem, a relationship problem. In that case, we will tend to focus on the problem. And by doing that, we add energy to what? The problem! And then the problem grows.
Wallace Wattles is saying, don’t do that. Choose to make a mental adjustment by seeing what you want. Don’t spend any time thinking about or looking at what you don’t want.
Now Wattles said, “the whole process of mental adjustment and attunement.” The attunement is getting in harmony with the law.
How can you put that into action?
Well, let’s look at it this way. Whenever you seem to be overwhelmed with problems or negative emotions, stop whatever you’re doing and block all of that stuff out.
Then, think about something, anything that you are grateful for. I know that’s a pretty tall order; however, if you do it, everything will start to shift in an instant—like snapping your fingers. When you change the way you look at the problems, the problems will change.
Create a New Life Model
The positive effects of expressing gratitude each day compound like interest. You might not notice the benefit of the practice immediately, but after several weeks and months, you will.
That’s because a daily gratitude practice trains the brain to be more in tune with experiencing gratitude — a positive plus a positive equals more positives.
The benefits of doing this daily practice will be undeniable in the coming weeks because everything—your health, happiness, success in achieving your goals—is affected by the way you think and feel about your life. It will make a more significant difference in your life than any strategy or plan you could think of.
To your success,
Bob Proctor
Get the download to complete your three-step gratitude practice.
