Practice Gratitude In Your Life - The Gratitude List

"Reflection upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some" Charles Dickens

Count your blessings they say and I never really understood what that phrase meant when I was younger. It was not until a couple of years ago that I was presented with the opportunity to 'practice' gratitude that I finally understood. As Charles Dickens so aptly said it " Reflection upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty..".

It was at one of those phase in my life when I was feeling down and out when a friend of mine suggested that I do a Gratitude List. She said that I am to do it every night before you go to sleep. So, I went back home that day and started doing my Gratitude List. Simple enough I thought.

At first, I had a hard time coming up with what I am grateful for for the day! Here I thought it would be a breeze. I was wrong. Clearly, I was not in a gratitude mindset and I was blown away by that fact. I could hardly make it to no. 3 on my list of things that I am grateful for. I did not understand the mechanism. Laughable indeed!

The next day I texted her to tell her my experience. She then told me it is natural to not know what to right the first time. She gave me a few example of things that I can be grateful for - I am grateful for the air that I breathe, my long thick black hair ...etc ... Nothing special, just simple 'normal' thing that I obviously took for granted.

That night, I started over.. one normal simple thing to be thankful for to another. That night, I finished 3 full A5 pages in my notebook. I was amazed.. I had so much to be grateful for. I did it again the next night and the list just gotten longer from then on. It gets easier to be grateful to the simplest of things once you are in the gratitude mind set. 

I also noticed that my heart became lighter as days went by. I learnt that I in actual fact have nothing to complain about. I only have so many things to be grateful for. 

Now, as I am writing this, I am grateful to my friend to have introduced me to this simple act of submitting my gratitude to God ( or to the universe if you are inclined to that ) everyday before I sleep as a reminder that I am blessed. Being in Gratitude mindset means being in the state of Abundance always. 

So, I would like to invite you to give this Gratitude List writing a go and experience the miracle if being in Abundance. 

xoxo In Gratitude,

Diane