The Power of THANKFULNESS & Top Tips for logging GRATITUDE.
Including a WEEKLY GRATITUDE DIARY free printable, as my gratitude gift for my readers!
Here we are again, it’s that time of year full of events that make everyone stop in their tracks and actually think about what they are thankful for. Nearly everyone enjoys Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day & New Year’s Eve and not just for the food and festivities! Whether you know it or not, it’s also because of the high that thankfulness and acknowledging gratitude, can bring during this time of year too.
Let’s discover more about this together and then at the end of the blog, I will give you tips and tricks on how you can incorporate the ‘power of thankfulness‘ into your everyday life not just on specific days like Thanksgiving and Christmas Time. I will also give each reader A FREE PRINTABLE ‘WEEKLY GRATITUDE DIARY’ SHEETas my gratitude gift just for you!! 😉
You know those sayings such as:
“It lifted my spirits!”
“I’m on cloud 9!”
“It just feels right!”
“I know it’s time to let go and move on” etc?
Well they come from that very sense of uplifting that certain positive emotions can bring – feelings such as being in love, hopefulness, faithfulness, gratitude, forgiveness, peacefulness etc. This is because certain emotions connect us back to our souls, our essence our natural states of being! But how?…
It is through really embracing these emotions and letting them take over us (take over us as in accepting them and being overwhelmed or consumed by them) that they then become a ‘state of being’ rather than just a feeling and then we are literally able to give our spirits ‘a lift’ (like the difference between loving someone with the emotion love and actually being IN love with someone, consumed by it and living in a state of constant love so you always feel on that high of being in love and the high of feeling loved back etc).
This is what happens onThanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, our birthdays, etc; we embrace the feeling of thankfulness/gratitude so much we go through the day in a heightened state of thankfulness and we are able to ride out the festivities on a high, up on cloud 9, full of smiles and joy in our hearts!
Experiencing Thankfulness, Love, Gratitude and Peace!
These are all emotions everyone can experience. Take love as an example, when you soak in that emotion and embrace it fully and let go and just let yourself be swept away by love, you can then live in a state of being with that emotion. So when you are living with your soul ‘being’ being at one with love (at one as in fully embraced it & been overwhelmed and taken over by it) you are grinning, happy, bouncy, smile instead of get stressed, uplifted and your soul feels alive and happy through just being with love. It makes you view the world through rose-tinted glasses!
Or peace for example. When you are comfortable with who you truly are in your soul and feel at peace with yourself, then you can live in a state of ‘inner peace’ which lets you live in contentment and changes your reactions to situations. Inner peace fights against letting others actions affect your peace of mind – yes you can disagree with people’s actions or even find them hurtful, but it is inner peace that then speaks to your soul and tells it:
“Yes that hurt, yes they were wrong, yes I might cry – but I refuse to let them make me angry or bitter, I wont give them the satisfaction or control of taking away my inner peace. It wasn’t right and I don’t agree with it but take deep breaths and I’ll try to stay grounded and calm with the peace I already have inside me.”
Thankfulness is the same. Living in a state of gratitude makes you see the good in everything even though there is so much bad in the world to see alongside it, the bad doesn’t overshadow the good. It makes you see a positive for every negative.
You know that saying “There is always a silver lining” well living in a state of thankfulness opens your eyes more to actually see them. It makes you appreciate the small things even though you acknowledge the disappointment of living without the bigger things. I wrote a blog post all about this entitled:Remember the small stuff!(click on this blog title to open the life reflection up in another tab.)
Top Tips on how can you keep that ‘high’ or ‘joy’ from embracing thankfulness at Thanksgiving & Christmas Time, for the rest of the year too…
TIP 1 – Use a Gratitude App
Well, one thing that really helped me in the last few years was downloading a gratitude app on my mobile, I use‘Attitudes of Gratitude Journal’ by Vista Media. Each day it pops up and asks me “What were you grateful for today?” and after you type in your answer it will then pop up a quote on thankfulness/gratitude to encourage you on your gratitude journey.
The app stores all your answers, so on your down, darker days, you can sit and read through your answers to remind yourself of all there is to be thankful for and shine a light when it’s needed most. A great added feature on this app is a password protection option to keep your diary private if others use your phone.
TIP 2 – Writing a Gratitude Diary or Gratitude List
If it helps you to write things down then I’d suggest a ‘Gratitude Diary’. I’m so grateful for my readers, I’ve only gone and created a free GRATITUDE DIARY printable just for you, as my way of saying ‘Thank You’ for reading and following my blog.
Just click here to download the gratitude diary sheet, print it, then put it up on the wall or somewhere else noticeable to you like by the side of your bed or by the kettle. Then each time you see it or each time you use the kettle, you write down things to be thankful for that day.
TIP 3 – Taking a 2 minute STILLNESS SHOT
Yes, I made up this name, but hey just roll with it… You need 2 minutes out of your day, you choose when is best for you. For example: set your alarm 2 minutes earlier in the mornings and spend that 2 minutes being still, maybe you want to lay down, or prop yourself up on the pillows and sit up – whatever position suits. Close your eyes and just be still. Stop your mind from thinking about getting ready, or the meeting you have at work or all the things on your ‘to do’ list. Stop yourself going over things in your mind, like the fight you had with your partner the night before or yelling at the kids.
STOP your body and be STILL!STOP your mind and be STILL!Just relax and listen and concentrate on your breathing, or your heartbeat, the ticking of a clock or to the birds chirping outside the window. This calms your soul amongst the stresses of the day still to come and re-centres our spiritual being by simply ‘just being’.
End the 2 minutes or however long you spend doing this, by saying some things you are thankful for, I find this more powerful when I say them out loud but you can also say them in your head if you prefer or if you don’t want to disturb others etc. Over time, see what differences it can make to your day or attitude by continuing to start off your day with stillness for your soul and a spirit of thankfulness!
If for others like myself, spirituality through faith does play a part in your life, then I’d suggest saying prayers of thankfulness, as this is another way of releasing your list of things you are thankful for. Also, saying them out loud and proclaiming them into the atmosphere is a great way of changing the rooms energy/feel/spiritual frequency. Or in your ‘Prayer Journal’ include writing down prayers of thankfulness for each day’s blessings etc alongside the things you are still praying for.
This a great way of changing your focus from solely being about what you need and are asking for. Instead, you are acknowledging the things you need but being lifted in gratitude for remembering and focusing on all the things you do have to say thank you for. Gratitude is a beautiful spiritual frequency to live on.
TIP 4 – Gratitude / Thankfulness Quotes, Affirmations and Mindfulness.
Another thing that has helped me on this fulfilling journey through the power of gratitude, is reading words that encourage thankfulness and get you to focus on the good not the bad. This has especially helped me in changing my attitude and attention I gave to talking about pain and every time someone asked me how I was, the need to go into the ins and outs and list all the daily struggles of living with chronic illness.
Gratitude, thankfulness and inner peace really made me change my perspective, what I give my energy too and focusing on the good not the bad has brought me to such a happier place for my soul and spirit. The pain is still there but I totally engage with it in a different way by not letting it consume me, my words and thoughts. It wasn’t easy and it took time to break the habit of giving it so much of my energy, but I’m so thankful for the new perspective gratitude has given me!
The words we choose to read and speak had a direct effect on our thoughts, mental health, attitude, reactions, what we decide to speak about etc. I talk about the power of the way we speak to ourselves in a post I encourage you to read to become more aware of the language you use and how you speak about things.(Click HERE to open the post in another tab to read it.)
I have a board on Pinterest called ‘Affirmations, Christian Meditation, Mindfulness & Mental Health’ (click below to find it on Pinterest)
Here I have a collection of things that I declare out loud at different times of the day such as while the kettle is boiling, say to myself as I get ready for the day, read as I’m in a waiting room etc. Affirmations of gratefulness, being thankful, choosing to focus on the positives while declaring what I want to change for the better to help with the negative.
That is the POWER of THANKFULNESS that we can practice everyday not just on Thanksgiving Day! Thank you for reading, its one of the things im grateful for today 😉
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