During the month of November we typically practice gratitude – focusing on this essential element of mental and emotional health for one month of the year…..
Practicing gratitude is meant to be a strong constituent of our wellness toolbox – developing the attitude that leads to a consistent state and recognition of gratitude in our lives brings immeasurable amounts of strength, resilience and health to our inner state of being.
Why? Because offering gratitude brings us into the present. It is not something we do in the future or did in the past, it is a current frame of mind that draws our state of being into expansion, rest, security and peacefulness. There is not room for doubt worry and fear when we are in the expression of gratitude. And yet, practicing gratitude can extend into the past with healing effect, calming disturbing memories and healing old hurts, as well as be projected into the future via our expectations, framing our forward motion in positivity and joy. All done in the now. In the simple state of recognizing and expressing gratitude. And of course, there is an unseen acknowledgement of events and happenings larger than us in which we express this state of gratitude. Implicitly we become part of a whole, a moving evolving wholeness that includes a state of being blessed through inclusion and settles us into a fabric of creation – the unfolding of new gratitudes in each day. This forms the basis of the law of attraction – which is part of the tracking system of our brain function. When we are focused upon a thing, we see it everywhere. Practicing being aware of what there is in our lives that we can express authentic gratitude for focuses us on framing our lives around the gifts hidden in each day. This process invites us to become more and more aware of those places worthy of gratitude and changes the course of our outlook, expectations and the very events and happenings that flow into our days simply through the power of our own focus and outlook.
Years ago in business I learned that knowledge and skill, no matter how much one has learned, account for 20% of a person’s success rate in a job. Attitude is the other 80%. It is the most powerful ingredient in any human struggle. Bringing hope, light and the space to practice gratitude to others is a whole industry of mental/emotional health. Healthy people are able to express gratitude – to see opportunities for it and to apply it liberally as a salve to life’s pressures and hurts. Expressing gratitude turns on beautiful endorphins in the brain and allows us to function fully and healthily for life. So, use this time of Thanksgiving to instill and deepen the attitude of gratitude until it becomes an integral part of your day – one you do not have to focus on especially, one that just flows gently through the day from the moment you rise to the moment your head goes back down to the pillow. Your day will be filled with little shining nuggets of gratitude that will set off and bring a glow to all the challenges and accomplishments you lived and worked through today.
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