Gratitude

Gratitude is a helpful tool you can use to feel a bit happier in your life. I've started making gratitude lists everyday almost a year ago and so far I can say that it helps me to think more positive in and of my life.

Being grateful doesn't mean to say "thank you" every time people help you or give you something - no, gratitude is, at least for me, more about realizing that your life is good just as it is now. We often come to a state of thinking that life is unfair and we ask ourselves questions like "Why me?". This kind of thinking causes a lot of negative emotions within us and we aren't able anymore to see the good things in life. Writing a gratitude list can help you to see the good things in life and to think more positive again. You will concentrate on what you already have and what you are instead of dwelling on what you don't have and what you aren't.

This tool is used as well when practicing the Law of Attraction. To explain the Law of Attraction short, it says that your thinking attracts everything that happens to you. So if you think negative, then negative things will happen to you, but if you think positive, then you will experience a lot of good things in your life. It may sound easy, but it's a little bit more complicated than that. I don't want to go much into detail, so I'll tell you why gratitude is important when it comes to practicing the Law of Attraction: by being aware of everything you already have or are whilst showing gratitude, you will attract even more positivity in your life, because you concentrate on abundance and not the lack in your life, which would more likely attract more lack and negativity. So instead of thinking "I don't have enough money" you should think "I'm grateful that I have a roof above my head, that I have more than enough food to eat and to keep me alive as well as a car so that I'm able to drive everywhere I want to go" (I hope it's clear what I want to show here...). The first sentence will evoke a feeling of lack in your life, but the second one evokes an emotion of having enough and being happy about it, and that's what you will attract as well. Gratitude will help you focus on the positives in life and therefore you will attract more things of which you can be grateful for. I think this is the reason why gratitude has helped me so much, because I became aware of how good my life actually is and attracted even more positive experiences in it.

So, how to start being more grateful? As I've already stated, it's helpful to make a gratitude list every day. Write down 5 things you are grateful for, either when you wake up in the morning, when you go to bed in the evening or at whichever time you want to do it. I like to do it in the evening to reflect my day a little. These things you write down don't have to be big ones like "I'm grateful for being healthy and for being able to go get education etc", start with little things like "I'm grateful for my morning coffee and for the person who held the door open for me at the mall" or something like that. It's the little things in life that matter :) Maybe you buy yourself a journal where you collect all your gratitude lists. It's some kind of funny to have a look at old lists and see what put a smile on your face. Of course you don't have to write your lists down, you can create them in your mind whilst laying in your bed, or you even say them out loud. It might first feel strange to think about the things you can be grateful for, but the longer you do it, the more natural it will feel to you. As well I should add that you don't need to be an extremely spiritual person to practice gratitude. Everyone can and should do it in my opinion, no matter how old you are, where you come from or which social status you might have. You can only benefit from it.

To give you some ideas, I will share with you 5 things I am grateful for today:

• I'm grateful for my family that keeps supporting me in my journey.
• I'm grateful for nice books as they may put me in a different world and as they can distract me as well in some way.
• I'm grateful for delicious chai tea lattes with perfect milk froth on top.
• I'm grateful for big comfy sweaters.
• I'm grateful for my dog which can always put a smile on my face.

I hope that post wasn't too messy to you, that it helped you a little bit and maybe that I could inspire you somehow. If you want to, you can share some things you are grateful for in the comments, I would really be interested in that!