Gratitude is a powerful positive emotion that generates a feeling of blessedness and contentment. This indirectly makes one feels lucky and fulfilled, which is the opposite feeling of misfortune, lack or scarcity. Thus, according to the Law of Attraction, a sense of gratitude attracts into your life more experience and opportunities for abundance and good fortune.
That is the reason why gratitude is an attitude that is strongly encouraged in all religions. Through constant practice of gratitude, one can learn to be genuinely grateful for all the little things in one’s life. Here are three ways to practice gratitude.
1. Be grateful for the things that went right in your life
These are usually the things that we have put in the effort and planned for. For example, we can feel grateful for the job interview that went right, or the launching of our project that we have planned for weeks. We can feel grateful for having done a great presentation to our clients. Anything that we have planned for or put in extra effort consciously to make it happen falls into this category.
2. Be grateful for the things that did not go wrong
These are usually things that we take for granted each day, such as driving to work or spending time with our children. We can feel grateful that we were not stopped by a traffic police on our way to work, or that we arrive safely to our work place. We can be grateful for having some time to play with our children or going to a movie. Reflect on how many people in this world do not even have enough to eat or a place to sleep, or cannot have a peaceful sleep because of the fear of war. These are the everyday things which we have taken for granted. Be grateful for these things that did not go wrong.
3. Be grateful for things that did go wrong but you were able to learn something from them
We are make mistakes. Some of these mistakes may be major errors in judgments. We may even have hurt some people. When we make these mistakes and have learned from them, the mistakes are not made in vain. We benefited from these experiences. Be grateful that we are able to learn from them. Most people make mistakes in relationships, and despite having make mistakes many continue to repeat the same mistakes. If you do not repeat your mistakes, be thankful that you have learned from your mistakes.
About the Author:
Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor and the author of “From Fear to Love: A Spiritual Journey” and “The Book of Personal Transformation“. He is also a contributing author of David Riklan’s “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life – Volume 3” with other authors like Mark Victor Hansen, Ken Blanchard, Byron Katie and Les Brown. You can get more inspiring and mind transforming articles at his websites at The Self Improvement Site and Mind Science 101.