Thank you. Arigato. Merci. XieXie. Gracias.
“Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a fulfilled and successful life.” Jack Canfield
“There is nothing more life changing than gratitude.” Oprah Winfrey
Eureka! Say What?
In this article, I will explain why Gratitude is the number one skill in making your life better in all areas. Gratitude is the foundation of abundance and wealth, the metastrategy for happiness, creates 2 of the pillars of love and is the gateway to Devine Grace, and creates huge health benefits in sleep and exercise and others. I really am stunned that this has been a eureka moment for me. I can’t believe I missed this until now. Yes, I knew it was important—but this important?
This week, I have been doing the Chopra-Oprah Meditation of Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude, reading about Wahei Takeda’s Arigato to Abundance, and in the last month recently read in How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky that gratitude is a metastrategy to happiness (article on Happiness to come). Then I also read via Optimize.me that people keeping a gratitude journal will sleep 30 minutes longer and exercise 33% more—this extra goodness in health results from gratitude.
By reading these pieces at the same time, I have been able to realize the importance of gratitude. Then I started looking up quotes for gratitude and came across so many masters and teachers that say Gratitude is the number one thing to change your life—Canfield, Takeda, Oprah—wow.
This is an important moment for me because the best known “skill”, which is one of 8 core virtues of Optimize.me, and definitely a top 5 of most spiritual and philosophical movements, to achieving health, happiness, love, and abundance is therefore gratitude. That sentence is awkward. Let us pause for a second to take that in and restate it. Gratitude is one of your superpowers and the best way to health, happiness, love, and abundance. Gratitude is the number one way to change your life.
Notice, I didn’t say tool or feeling. Some people think Gratitude is a feeling (not naming anyone here Mark—LOL). However, it is a skill that can be developed. Gratitude can be learned and applied in your life immediately to produce its benefits.
Unfortunately, gratitude is not a one-and-done magic pill. Gratitude is a simple skill that requires you to take action to make it work for you. Like many of the skills we learn, it is a choice and because it is also a virtue, we need to cultivate and practice it until it becomes easier as a habit.
Let Us Hear from the Father of Gratitude: Robert Emmons
“As showcased in my previous book Thanks!, groundbreaking research has shown that when people regularly cultivate gratitude, they experience a multitude of psychological, physical, interpersonal, and spiritual benefits. Gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and satisfaction with life of any personality trait—more so than even optimism, hope, or compassion.
Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and gratitude as a discipline protects us from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness. People who experience gratitude can cope more effectively with everyday stress, show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress, recover more quickly from illness, and enjoy more robust physical health. Many of these effects are quantifiable.
Consider these eye-popping statistics. People are 25 percent happier if they keep gratitude journals, sleep one-half hour more per evening, and exercise 33 percent more each week compared to persons who are not keeping these journals. … Experiencing gratitude leads to increased feelings of connectedness, improved relationships, and even altruism. We have also found that when people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving, and closer to God.” Robert Emmons, foremost researcher on Gratitude, author of Gratitude Works!.
Vishen Lakhiani at Mind Valley
Vishen Lakhiani in his 6 phase meditation program notes that studies have shown that Gratitude is positively correlated with:
- “Higher emotional intelligence.
- More forgiving attitudes towards other people.
- Lower rates of depression.
- Less anxiousness in life.
- Greater feelings of social connectedness
- Better sleep and less headaches.”
The Neurobiology of Gratitude
While neuroscientists don’t know exactly everything about why gratitude works, it appears that gratitude is rooted in the brain’s chemistry and anatomy. It appears that like happiness, the neurotransmitter dopamine modulates and is linked to gratitude. Dopamine regulates reward, pleasure, and motivation. When we feel grateful, we get rewarded with bursts of dopamine, and therefore the brain seeks out more grateful events to juice our body with pleasure. Hedonic adaptation is also at work, so it is important to have a variety of gratitude strategies that are alternated.
Also, gratitude has two parts according to Robert Emmons 1) affirming the goodness in one’s life 2) recognizing that the sources of this goodness lie at least partially outside the self. This then also links networks attached to the social cognitive processes.
So the brain systems for reward and social cognition interact to produce the benefits of gratitude.
Gratitude and Happiness
“Our thoughts, our moods, our relationships, our health, our lives—everything changes!” Robert Emmons, From Gratitude Works!
The How of Happiness
First, let us on gratitude regarding happiness. In the How of Happiness, the book notes that gratitude is a metastrategy for achieving happiness and that’s why it is the number one tool for happiness (a full article on happiness is being edited and will be out shortly). Robert Emmons defines gratitude as “a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life.”
Gratitude Boost Happiness in Eight Ways
1. It allows the savoring of positive life experiences. By savoring you’re able to extract the maximum satisfaction and enjoyment from your current circumstances.
2. Gratitude bolsters self-worth and self-esteem. When you realize people have done things for you or how much you have accomplished, you feel more confident and effective. Gratitude encourages you to consider what you value about your current life.
3. Gratitude helps people to cope with stress. It allows you to interpret your negative life experiences positively. Interestingly after the 911 terrorist attacks, gratitude was found to be the second most experienced emotion (sympathy was number one).
4. Gratitude encourages moral behavior. Grateful people are more likely to help others and be less materialistic (yet have more abundance).
5. Gratitude strengthens relationships. When you feel positive about your relationships, then you may enter a spiral up of a positive feedback loop. The more positive the person about the relationship the better like they are and more likely they are to win friends.
6. Gratitude reduces comparison by focusing the person on themselves and what they are grateful for versus comparing themselves to the Joneses (see activity #3).
7. Gratitude is incompatible with negative emotion. It’s hard to feel grateful which is a positive emotion and a negative emotion such as anger bitterness or greed at the same time.
8. Gratitude helps to reduce hedonics adoption by focusing on what you’re grateful for and the good things in your life. People don’t take those good things for granted which counteracts the effects of hedonic adaptation.
Dr. Amit Sood and the Mayo Clinic
Dr. Amit Sood has done enough research with more than 50,000 people at the Mayo Clinic to be able to say that pursuing gratitude and compassion is a faster way to happiness.
I think it bears repeating in the equation form:
Gratitude + Compassion = Happiness
Dr. Sood uses the neurobiology of the brain to note that the brain through evolution has focused on survival and safety versus happiness. In the caveman days, our brain was designed for survival—and so in the default mode did lots of wandering versus focus. Furthermore, it did not have as many distractions as today. However, in the information age, compassion and gratitude have been shown to rewire the brain to enable it to focus and leads to happiness.
A Very Happy Brain
The pursuit of gratitude and compassion leads to happiness more than the pursuit of happiness. This is explained in this video here (4 mins and it is made for children like me).
Dr. Soot Happy Brain Practices
Dr. Soot teaches several things that make the brain function better and our lives work better.
Gratitude First Thing Before Leaving Bed
1) The first practice is to think of 5 people that you are grateful for before you get out of bed. This helps to prevent your mind from going into default mode immediately.
a) First person—see the color of their eyes and send silent gratitude to them
b) 2nd person—think of the first time you met them—send silent gratitude to them.
c) 3rd person—think of them being happy—send silent gratitude to them
d) 4th person—think of the 8 year old you (or inner child)—send silent gratitude
e) 5th person—think of someone who has passed away—and send silent gratitude.
Turn Off Brain Fault Finder When Greeting Loved Ones
2) The second practice is when you arrive at home. Give your family and especially your spouse 3 minutes of undivided attention. Our brains prefer novelty. If a friend who you had not seen was at your house, you would be excited to see them more than your spouse. For our brains, novelty beats love. We need to train the brain. So before greeting your loved ones, prepare your mind as if you had not seen them for 30 days. Then also turn off the brains fault finder and for 3 minutes focus on what is interesting about them and what they are interested in. Second focus on intentional praise. The praise, “honey you were really right about….” Always seems to work. LOL.
Greet People With Your Heart, Not Mind
3) The third practice is when you meet anyone, especially for the first time. In 30 milli-seconds we have a tendency to judge if they are trustworthy or not. Instead, create a heart connection first by wishing the other person well. Takes 2 seconds. I wish you well or my favorite is I wish you health, happiness, love and abundance (not sure where I heard that before. LOL).
Understanding More About the Happy Brain
Dr. Sood goes on to explain that his program emphasizes how to train for $50 (yes only $50) how to use gratitude, compassion, acceptance, meaning, and forgiveness to create a better happier brain and more fulfilling life. Dr. Amit Sood Ted Talk
Gratitude and Money/Abundance
“Gratitude opens the door to … the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.” Deepak Chopra
The amount of money you have in your life begins with your relationship to money (beliefs) and your abundance consciousness. This was espoused by Andrew Carnegie, and documented by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich. This is the philosophy also espoused by Wahei Takeda, who died in 2016. He was once called the Warren Buffett of Japan because he was also Japan’s most successful private investor and a multi-billionaire.
Arigato Money
Wahei philosophy is documented in a very small book called Maro Up! The Secret to Success Begins With Arigato: Wisdom from the “Warren Buffett of Japan” by Ken Honda and Janet Bray Attwood. According to Wahei, the fastest way to abundance is appreciation. What you appreciate, will appreciate. Arigato Money In, Arigato Money out. Thank you. Thank you. Arigato is Thank You in Japanese.
Becoming a Billionaire by Saying Thank You to Cookies
Wahei’s fortune began with a confectionary company. His company became famous for manufacturing the “Arigato” Baby Cookies. While the cookies were being made, Arigato songs would be played in the factory so that the “cookie” would have heard the word and vibration of Arigato a “million times.”. When the baby ate the cookie, the baby would be “eating” the vibrations of Arigato.
Janet Attwood is famous for the Passion Test and met Wahei in Japan several times, along with Ken Honda, who listed Wahei as his mentor. According to Attwood, Wahei’s energy was only the other person who emanated the same high-level experience as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought the Transcendental Meditation Technique to the West. This is saying a lot because Attwood has spent significant time with many enlightened beings.
Money EQ Course Based on Arigato Money
Ken Honda’s Money EQ course at Mind Valley is based on Wahei principles and his own teachings. Ken wrote his first book and decided to give it away for free. These were the days before the Internet and at one point his costs for printing and shipping his free book used to cost him as much as $100,000 per month.
What Type of Relationship Do You Have with Money?
The Money EQ course teaches abundance and your relationship to money. One exercise is to talk to money. Another is to look at your adaptive behavior to money. The adaptive behaviors are interesting. Like looking at your core wound, how we look at money depends on our experiences with money. We can either be controlling with money, and be a saver, spender, or money maker. In other words, in order to control the money we have, we can either save it, decide we can never have enough, so might as well spend it and feel good (shopping therapy), or decide to make a lot of money.
Another behavior towards money could be indifference. These are people who may have grown up rich and knew money was provided for them so they have a neutral attitude toward money. Many teachers and professors are neutral. Then the last major bucket is people who are fearful of money—the Hippie, Gambler, Saver-Splurger, or Worrier. You can have multiple approaches. Interestingly, after all my work with money, I am now a Saver. Before, I was definitely the Spender (travel for 2010 to 2019), the money maker (2003 to 2008), and the Gambler.
Making Money Goals Inevitable
One of the most interesting energy exercises done was one to make sure money goals feel inevitable. This is the energy of money.
So after reading this, close your eyes and do the following exercise.
1. Feel what it feels like in your body to feel something is inevitable that it will happen. This could be like the sun will rise up in the sky every morning. For me, I feel that in my heart region.
2. Feel what it feels like in your body to feel something is possible, maybe it will happen, maybe it will not. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs may win the Stanley Cup this year win the next 3 years. For me, I feel that in my stomach and belly.
3. Feel what it feels like in your body to feel something is impossible, perhaps, like a unicorn will show up at my door. This one I feel in my head or a little outside my head. (Some will feel this outside their body).
4. Now check these places with things you may have manifested for sure, ones that you may have not happened or didn’t happen, and then those you knew for yourself were impossible. Do you feel those in your body in the same places?
5. Now look at your goals for your life and this year or next 3 years. Say each one and see where in these three areas these goals land. How do you feel?
6. Now, the magic trick, move the “impossible” to the “possible” area. And the most important, move the “possible,” to the “inevitable”. Sit and see how it feels as you move one goal from one area to another area.
7. Listen and sense what your “inevitable” part of your body is now telling you what you need to do to make the “possible” become inevitable etc. Take Action.
Gratitude, Beliefs, Abundance, and Wealth
“The single greatest thing you can do to change your life today would be to start being grateful for what you have today and the more grateful you are the more you get.” Oprah Winfrey
Gratitude and Self-Worth
“Gratitude is a vital catalyst for the soul-filling meaningful success we all seek. As we’ve already learned, we cannot attract more into our lives without first truly appreciating what we already have….many of us have the belief that success only comes with sacrifice. That really isn’t what the universe wants for you. In fact, the universe is standing by ready to fill your life with blessings. When you feel your life is blessed, blessings multiply. That is a law of nature. You being here means you are worthy of all the riches life has to offer. What I know for sure is that when you are grateful and when you BELIEVE you are worthy, you will attract unimaginable abundance into your life. So recognize your worth, radiate your gratitude for it and thanks from the depths of your being. And just watch how quickly success starts to line up for you.” Oprah on Chopra Meditation on Grace through Gratitude.
I think it bears repeating in the equation form:
Gratitude + Self-Worth = Abundance
Interestingly, self-worth is a core belief. So if you are having issues with money, normally our self-worth core belief needs to be strengthened i.e. the “I am enough”. See the article here. The 4 Core Beliefs you need to have an extraordinary life.
Abundance and Framework for Creating Wealth
I have previously written about the Evolved Mind Solution to Money in the article here (The Simple Framework for Creating Wealth, From Poverty to Riches.) Essentially, the 3 step formula for creating riches has been passed down from Andrew Carnegie. First, clear the forests i.e. clear your beliefs (including self-worth—see above equation on importance of belief). Second, fertilize the fields by creating an abundance consciousness (opening the channel with gratitude). Third, plant the seeds, by creating a definite plan and taking action. The first and second step is ultra-important and often missed. We need to create beliefs that support wealth and also create an abundance consciousness.
Gratitude supports wealth creation by having you think positively and optimistically. People who are happy outperform neutral or unhappy people by 31% in productivity and 37% in sales. Also, people who are grateful are connected to other people who are supporting them—those providing the belief the universe has their back and they are loved. These are important core peoples. People who are grateful are focused on their strengths, knowing that they are enough. So gratitude helps create the core beliefs that provide confidence to take action.
Opening the Channel to Abundance
Gratitude supports abundance consciousness. As Deepak Chopra teaches in the Abundance Meditation, “By being grateful for all that you have and expressing that appreciation in your daily life, you open a channel through which abundance can freely flow.”
Therefore, in order to create abundance consciousness, in step 2, you need to open the channel to abundance using gratitude and appreciation.
“When we feel that we are children of the universe (of God), we then feel deserving of the abundance of the universe. When we feel deserve and we give thanks to the universe (God), we then generate even more abundance. What you give thank to, what you appreciate, then it appreciates.” Chopra-Oprah Meditation on Grace through Gratitude.
Focusing on Positive Solutions
The brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When we focus on gratitude, we are focusing on the positive elements. When we focus on positive things, the brain is able to access our imagination to focus on creating solutions to bring us the goals which we want to achieve.
When we focus on negative things, we do not have access to those parts of us that allows us to think at a higher level, other than fight or flight.
Our emotions are our indicators of whether or not what we are thinking is focused on positive things. When we are grateful or appreciative, we feel good. We get feedback from our emotions that we are focused on positive things.
So with Gratitude, we are able to focus on the creating solutions. We are able to think about our future selves and create solutions to bring our future selves into the present.
Gratitude and Love
“The source of grace already resides within our own awareness. We don’t need to go anywhere or search anywhere to find it, we only need to change our perception of what is already around us. In the next three weeks we will learn how gratitude shifts our awareness, changing our approach to others and the world….Gratitude is the two-way flow of appreciation between your thanks and the uplifting response that you feel in return.” Chopra-Oprah Meditation
When we send gratitude out from our heart, it is received by Nature in the same spirit it is given, and it is returned back to us by the universe in the form of grace, which is the divine form of love. When we are in the flow and receiving back love from the universe, our cups will fill up and overflow with love. When we feel that love and are overflowing, we are able to then give love to others from a place of overflow.
Gratitude and the Love Pillars
In our relationships, gratitude and appreciation are also one of the core principles of a great relationship. One of the 4 fundamental principles is the 5 to 1 ratio of good interactions to negative ones. Appreciation and gratitude are wonderful positive interactions.
In addition, respect or appreciation of the person is also one of the pillars of a fundamentally sound relationship. See the article How you can be a Master of Relationships Instead of Disaster here. When we respect the person, we are more likely to be caring and kind, and certainly less argumentative (right Mark. LOL).
So in 2 out of the 4 pillars of good relationships, gratitude is important.
“By focusing on what we appreciate and admire in our partner and being grateful for the value and gifts that our partner brings into our lives, we cannot but think positively and may feel more intense love as a consequence.” Scientific America: Discovering the Secrets of Long-term Love. This was the second (of 4) most important attribute behind physical affection (sex) for being intensely in love.
I think it bears repeating in the equation form:
Gratitude + Sex + Friendship + 5 to 1 = Intensely In Love Long-term Relationship
Appreciation Exercise and Love
In addition, to how to love yourself and self-compassion exercises, I have also learned the Appreciation exercise from Lion Goodman at Clear Beliefs. You can send appreciation to yourself and to other people. It is almost like the loving-kindness meditation.
- Send appreciation energy to the person who you want (could be yourself).
- Here is the key, keep 50% attention on the person’s spirit or soul—the purity of themselves, or higher, true selves. The other 50% is on the person’s humanness, the part of them that is human and make mistakes or is caught up in their story.
- When I practice for 3 minutes with another person, the other person gives feedback as to the quality of the energy they are feeling. They are also free-talking out aloud what is passing through their minds. It is interesting that after a few minutes, the other person mind’s will quiet, and their fears and concerns sometimes pass due to the appreciation energy.
- I find that when we recognize both the person’s spirit and the follies of our human selves, we are able to really open our hearts to others and get connected. I definitely use this appreciation energy in my coaching sessions and more and more, when I speak to everyone.
Gratitude and Health
While this is a short note, gratitude is often lumped together in the study of happiness. We know that happy people are healthier people (Happiness article will explore more). We do know however as Robert Emmons noted in his quote from above, those who kept a gratitude journal in the experiment had 30 minutes more sleep and exercised 33% more. We know exercise and sleep are the cornerstones of a good health regimen.
Those numbers are actually astounding for doing a 10-minute journaling exercise daily. I am actually trying to sleep more and also run a little bit longer i.e. one day this year, I want to run 5 miles (currently at 3.4 miles as my longest.). Just keeping a journal gets me towards both of these. LOL.
How Grateful Are You—Quiz Time
The Berkeley Gratitude Quiz
I just did the test and scored 100 out of 105. Very good. However, please remember that I have been doing the Chopra-Oprah Gratitude meditation and researching, practicing, and writing about gratitude for more than a month now. Cultivating gratitude via practice works. LOL.
The Gratitude Works! Test
Answer the following 10 Questions either 1,2,3,4,5,6,7; where 1 strongly disagrees, and 7 strongly agree, 4 is neutral.
1. I have so much in life to be thankful for. ___
2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list. ___
3. when I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for. ___
4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people. ___
5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that have been part of my life history. ___
6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone. ___
7. I have been richly blessed in my life. ___
8. To be honest, it takes an awful lot to make a person like me feel appreciative. ___
9. I have a wonderful sense of Thanksgiving for life itself. ___
10. I often reflect on how much easier my life is because of the effects of others. ___
How to score:
1. For Questions 1,2,4,5,7,9, and 10 add the scores.
2. Reverse the scores for 3,6,8. If you answered 7 (strongly agree), give yourself a score of 1. If 1, give yourself a score of 7.
3. Add the reverse scores of 3,6,8 to Step 1 and your total will be from 10 to 70.
How You Rank
- 65 to 70 is extremely high gratitude;
- 59 to 64 is very high gratitude;
- 53 to 58 is high gratitude,
- 46 to 52 is average gratitude and
- 40 to 45 Below Average.
My score for Feb. 2021 was—68—extremely high gratitude. However, gratitude is a practice or virtue that needs to be cultivated. So I actually need to keep on practicing or doing gratitude to reap the benefits of gratitude. I cannot say, I now have high gratitude and then I can stop. This is like having a bicycle and saying, I know how to ride a bicycle so I don’t need to ride it to get the benefits of riding a bicycle. I need to DO gratitude to get the benefits of gratitude.
Various People’s Instructions For Gratitude
Gratitude Needs to Be Cultivated
“Because it is a virtue, gratitude, at least initially, requires mental discipline. Virtues do not come easily, and in some sense, we need them as they act as a counterpart to our natural tendencies. This is the paradox of gratitude: although the evidence is clear that cultivating gratitude in our life and in our attitude to life allows us to flourish, it can be difficult to accomplish. Developing and sustaining a grateful outlook on life is easier said than done because the choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. We can put the science of gratitude to work for us, however. A
number of evidence-based strategies, including self-guided journaling, reflective thinking, letter writing, and gratitude visits, have shown to be effective in creating sustainable gratefulness. We will explore all of these practices in the chapters that follow. They will help you become good at gratitude. You will find that each time you make the choice for gratitude, the next choice will be a little easier, a little more automatic, a little freer. In doing so, we open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities for a fullness that life has to offer.” Robert Emmons, Gratitude Works!
Per Vishen Lakhiani 6 Phase Meditation
1. Express gratitude for 5 things in your personal life.
2. Express gratitude for 5 things in your professional life.
3. Express gratitude for 5 things about yourself.
Robin Sharma
1. Express 10 things in your morning ritual and why you are grateful.
Ken Honda and Dr. Scott
1. Send gratitude in your mind to the other person.
2. Wait until you can see that they have received your gratitude by seeing them smile.
The 21 Day Gratitude Works! Program.
This is the program Robert Emmons outlines for 21 days to Creating Emotional Prosperity. I took the challenge as I am writing. So in addition to listening to Chopra-Oprah 21 days of Grace through Gratitude, I have also undertaken this program. I think both are wonderful. Gratitude is so important that I think spending your time learning about the nuances of Gratitude is well worth reading the book Gratitude Works! By Robert Emmons.
The 21-day program consists of 7 exercises that are repeated for 3 weeks in your gratitude journal for about 10 minutes each day. The exercises teaches you how to vary your gratitude practice which is one of the issues I have with many stated gratitude practices (they don’t vary the practice). Each week though you should try to think of different things than the previous week. The Instructions for each day is below:
Day 1: The Three Blessings:
Recall and write about 3 things, big or small, that happened today/yesterday for which you can give other people some credit. Why do you think it happened? What caused the event? What can you do to make it happen again? Did you share the news of the blessing?
Day 2: To Whom For What
Think of 5 things that you are thankful for that someone did something for you. Eg. I am grateful to my father for making me breakfast this morning. I am grateful to Hyacinth for introducing me to the person who can help me make patties. Etc.
Day 3: The Gifted Self
Today focus on the benefits or gifts that you have received: everyday pleasures, people in your life, personal talents, natural beauty, or kindness from others. Write down these gifts and be aware of your feelings as you savor these gifts. Be aware of the depth of your gratitude. While the exercise does not suggest a specific amount, why not shoot for 5 or more.
In the second part of the exercise, you need to think of ways you can reciprocate or give back to the universe or God for your gifts. This may take some creativity. Random acts of kindness are good. Passing on the gift is great and so is paying it forward by helping someone using the gifts.
Day 4: Scarcity
When a positive life event is about to end, people tend to appreciate it more. Think of something that might end in the next 3 months—event, experience, relationship, activity. Given how little time you have left, write about why you are grateful for it/them.
Day 5: Absence of Blessings
What would have happened if an event or person never happened in our life. For example, by thinking about the consequences of not having that person in our lives (say your wife or work or moving to a new city, etc.), we are more grateful for having them in our lives.
Day 6: The Gratitude Letter
Think about someone who you have never really thanked before. Write about 250 words to that person and let them know how you feel and the importance of what they did for you and how it affected your life then and now. You can do it by letter, audio, or video. You can send it or not send it. Imagine how the person would feel when they received it (if you don’t send it). Remember, for each week this person needs to be different.
Day 7: Remember the Bad, and Bad to Good
You can remember the bad and know that you have survived it and look at where we are today. Equally and more powerful is to look at the bad things and look for the lemonade. Look at one past difficult situation and focus on the positive aspects of that experience. What things are you now thankful for? How has those past event made you better able to take on challenges in the future? How has the event helped you to appreciate the important people in your life? Write about 3 unpleasant events (day 7, 14, and 21) and the positive consequences of those events.
Action Items:
1. Take either gratitude tests or do both to confirm your level of gratitude.
2. Do the 21-day gratitude challenge.
3. Select some of the tools which you will use daily after the 21-day challenge.
4. Remember Gratitude is a virtue. It works the more we cultivate it. We also need to vary our practice.
5. I am so grateful that you were able to read this far. What are you grateful for? Harmony Bitspire