Spiritual Practices

Gratitude

Spiritual Practice: Thank God daily for all the many blessings that the Divine pours into your life. When we acknowledge someone who gives us a gift and express our gratitude, that person will be eager to give us a gift again. There's a personal aspect to God that responds to that kind of acknowledgment and wants to give us more. Even if you think of Divinity as impersonal, the principle still holds—you get more of what you focus on, whether good or bad. Gratitude puts your attention on the blessings, so that's what you attract more of.

Spiritual Practice: Spend the day looking for things to be grateful for, especially the things you normally take for granted. Feel the gratitude coming from your heart rather than your head. You'll find that you're in a constant state of thanksgiving.

Spiritual Practice: Repeat a prayer or affirmation of gratitude during your meditations, before going to sleep and after waking up, or anytime something good happens. When something good happens there's a tendency to let our best friend know about it. Let that impulse be a reminder to repeat a gratitude prayer or affirmation. A simple "Thank you" from the heart is sufficient and effective.

Spiritual Practice: Every morning, spend a few minutes and think of all the things in your life that you have to be grateful for. Feel the gratitude coming from your heart and direct it toward whatever aspect of God appeals to you. Repeat the process before going to bed.

Spiritual Practice: Keep a gratitude journal. Every evening write down the various blessings or positive experiences that came to you during the day and express your gratitude for each one. You might start seeing blessings that you weren't that conscious of before starting the journal. See the number of blessings grow and watch your gratitude expand. You will have a more positive outlook on your life, and attract more of what you're grateful for.

Spiritual Practice: Be thankful for everything—the good and the seemingly bad. The "bad" is only a blessing in disguise because there's always something to be learned, and perhaps a greater blessing around the corner. You certainly don't want to attract more "bad" by focusing on it, so you can thank God for the lesson you've learned from the experience. If you haven't yet discovered what the lesson is, then your grateful consciousness will help you realize what it is eventually.

Spiritual Practice: As you use the various tools you need to do your duties throughout the day, mentally express gratitude for each one. To help you with this practice, each morning spend several minutes visualizing yourself using each tool, e.g., your computer, your car, the Internet, and so on. As you visualize yourself picking up or turning on or starting to use the item, express gratitude for it from the heart. For added benefit, imagine other sensations as well, whatever makes sense, such as the feel of the computer on/off button and the sound of the computer starting up. Visualization will help you to remember to express thanks because you'll be creating a strong association of gratitude with the use of that tool. To start off, you might find it easier and also more powerful to focus on only one item for each visualization period.