Gratitude: Short and Sweet
This blog will be short and sweet. Gratitude enhances your health. You’ve heard this a cabillion times. Information about the specific positive effects of being grateful is everywhere—online, on TV, on the radio, on public signs. You’d have to actively ignore the plethora of calls to be grateful to not know they exist. So I won’t regurgitate what’s already out there.
It's Personal
I will, however, make it personal. When I am in gratitude, I experience deep connection to life and the awareness that I am always supported and never alone. I say “in gratitude” because it is a state of being, an experience of wholeness. It’s a similar experience to being “in love” and my body, mind, and spirit are aligned.
My life is complete in gratitude. Actually, the truth of the matter is that I am, and you are, complete all the time. It’s just that ego is very good at convincing us that we come from lack. Wholeness is my, our nature. Being grateful returns me to that truth.
Ways to be grateful
In my November 2020 blog, Gratitude is Key to Health, I offer 3 ways to be grateful. My Gratitude Gaze, the Gratitude Journal, and the Reframe Game are some methods I use and share with clients to be in gratitude. And I have another gratitude practice for you.
I am a busy girl. Once my day gets going, it goes. Inserting rituals and practices between clients, meetings, exercise, writing, and speaking is extremely challenging. So meditating works best for me beforehand. What also works is including Gratitude Time in my meditation practice. Every morning before I rise to dress, Gratitude Time leads me into meditation to start my day grateful, centered, and intentional. Here’s how my Gratitude Time works.
Gratitude Time
1. Breath of Fire
I get into a comfortable position and engage in Breath of Fire, a type of yoga breathing that involves inhaling passively and exhaling forcefully without pausing. This relaxes my mind and body, centering me. YouTube has many video examples of how to properly perform Breath of Fire.
2. Being Grateful
First, I thank God for another day of life. Next, I think of 3 things I am grateful for, spending a few moments on each to experience heartfelt thankfulness and to be in gratitude. My health, people who truly love and support me, my home, a good night’s sleep, and helping others are just a few of the many things that make me grateful.
3. Meditate
Being in gratitude deepens my meditations. Entering meditation connected to my wholeness broadens my awareness, enhances my inner peace, and opens me up to more experiences for which to be grateful.
Being in gratitude reconnects me to my wholeness, my innate completeness, and aligns my body, mind, and spirit. Health naturally follows. Specifically, I am more aware, I experience more inner peace, and I’m open to more experiences that generate gratitude—a recipe for a strong immune system, mental wellness, emotional stability, and spiritual connection. Tapping in to my wholeness with gratitude equals health. So shortly and sweetly, gratitude enhances health.
Be in gratitude!
Do you need help connecting with your gratitude and wholeness?
Living In Total Health is a great place to start! This total wellness guide covers all factors influence, providing insights and information that you can apply immediately.
–Living In Total Health is available in hardcover and ebook. Click to order your copy.
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