How Practicing Gratitude Changed My Life

This morning I woke up in a funk. I woke up late, skipped my morning workout, felt burdened by my daily meditation practice, and was not motivated to complete the day's tasks. I woke up feeling lonely and thinking of things that were not going well in my life. However, I have adopted a system of being that does not allow me to rest in negative energy or ill feeling, so I needed to get out of this funk! And I did. I this by employing the practice of gratitude.

I smudged my room and my person with some white sage, eucalyptus, and silver dollar, lit some candles, put on Jhené Aiko's tiny desk concert and went to work. I journaled about how I felt, how I could fix it, and completed the entry by compiling a list of things that I was grateful for. By the time I was finished, I felt unblocked, content with my position in life, and motivated enough to write this article.

I realize that in the last paragraph I named many wellness practices such as journaling, smudging, and adjusting my environment. So, you might be wondering why I am choosing to attribute my shift in energy to gratitude practice alone rather than the host of practices. I am choosing to do this because though the shift in energy may have begun during the implementation of the smudging and adjustment of my environment, it did not solidify itself until I sat and recognized my true position in life which was achieved through gratitude practice.

I have held a consistent gratitude practice almost daily for the past two years and it has contributed to a major shift in my outlook on life which wildly affects my energy. I would begin my mornings by sitting and naming at least five things that I was grateful for, and during the seasons when life was not all rainbows and sunshine, I would state my gratitude for the basic gifts of life; my breath, the warmth of the sun, the beauty nature, access to water, and a new day.

Recognizing the gift of life, regardless of whether or not things are perfect, allowed me to shift my focus away from the things that I was lacking and onto the things that I did possess. Doing this in the morning allowed me to start my day focused on my power and the beauty of life rather than my struggles and the hardships of life.

There will always be more things in life that we do not possess, than we do. So, if we spend our time focused on everything that we lack we will achieve happiness, we will never find contentment within ourselves, and we will constantly chase after our areas of lack while life passes us by. So today, I challenge you to name five things that you are in possession of, or have access to, and are grateful for. I challenge you to keep this practice up each day and witness the shifts that occur in your mindset and your energy. I urge you to focus on these things that you are grateful for, especially when you feel down or when life gets hard.

I am not saying that gratitude practice is a magic cure to all of life's ailment's, however it can help ease the effect that life's pains have on your energy. Gratitude practice is a simple technique that can be applied anytime, anywhere, by anyone. All it requires is a little bit of thought about the things that you have in life, and the choice to acknowledge and focus on these things.

So, I hope that this article helps somebody. I helped me.

Stay beautiful, stay well, and continue to unapologetically be you!

Love,

Madisyn Damara