start monday with gratitude

week 45

Welcome to Week 45, lovely soul.

Below you'll find the video and video transcript introducing you to this week's quote and musings.

Scroll further and you'll discover this week's daily exercises, high vibe tune, and downloadable wallpapers.

Once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack

Germany Kent

video transcript

If we look hard enough there’ll always be something in our life we wish we had but we don’t.

Indeed, finding that something (or somethings) that are missing doesn’t even have to be that difficult, and usually isn’t, because our minds have been trained to focus on lack and scarcity.

It’s something we’re subjected to every single day as that’s how so many companies sell their wares to us. Without marketing through lack and scarcity, many companies simply wouldn’t exist.

It’s a result of this programming that we tend to see only what’s missing in our life, what our life is lacking. And our drive towards filling that gap is never-ending because once one gap is filled another one magically appears.

We are so focused on what we don’t have that, even when we do get it, our focus immediately moves on to find the next thing we feel is lacking in our life; our mind travels on to find the next gap along our path.

When, however, you flip life on its head and choose to see everything you already have, from the smallest blessing to the largest miracle, then the gaps created by lack begin to fade and disappear.

When you look around you, each and every day, and express gratitude for everything you have in your life, you soon find even more to be grateful for.

As you find more and more to feel grateful for, you slowly but surely lose sight of the gaps in your life, the things you thought you were missing and lacking. And indeed, not only do you lost sight of those gaps, they simply fill themselves in and disappear.

As your attention turns towards gratitude and away from lack, so too does your focus, until all you can see around you are the blessings that deserve your gratitude.

Where once you walked a path filled with gaps that you felt needed filling, now you walk a path where there are no gaps because you appreciate and can see that your life is already filled with blessings and miracles.

daily gratitude practice

Many companies market and sell to us by homing in on our sense of lack and scarcity, how we want to be as good as the next person, how we want to have the same (or better) than someone else.

Today I want you to be vigilant to all the marketing that is happening around you, in magazines, on TV, in shops, on billboards and find 5 ads that appeal to you, that would tempt you into buying whatever is being advertised.

Taking the 5 ads you discovered yesterday, I want you to dissect and understand them.

Most ads are designed to home in on something that’s missing or scarce in your life. They often use clever language and feelings that, when you dig a bit deeper, are designed to make you feel less for not having whatever they’re advertising, in your life.

How do they try to market and sell to you? What language is being used? What emotions are being used? Can you see how that ad manipulates you and tries to get you to buy? Can you see how it works?

These are 5 ads that you chose yesterday based on the premise that they would tempt or attract you to buy whatever it is that’s being advertised. So the focus on scarcity, the focus on lack, the fear that you’re missing something… that works, that sells.

Think of times in the past when you did buy something because of an ad similar to the ones you looked at the l past two days.

Can you see how the ad was worded, how it made you feel? Can you see how lack and scarcity were used to get you to buy at that time?

And when you did buy whatever was being promoted, did it really fill a real gap in your life or did try to fill a gap that wasn’t actually there or, even, did it create a gap? Did you feel fulfilled when you bought this thing from a place of lack?

Take a deep dive into your life and think of something that you feel is missing. It can be something small or it can be something large. Just go with whatever first comes to your mind.

Now think about it and work out why you feel that thing is missing in your life. Why is your life not complete without it? Why do you believe this?

Is that really your belief or someone else’s, perhaps that of your family or society?

When you really take the time to scrutinise this missing thing, can you really say your life lacks because it’s missing?

Repeat this for anything else you feel is missing from your life.  

We’ve focused a lot on lack and scarcity this week, be it something that we are being manipulated into believing is missing or something that we genuinely felt was missing before we broke it down and understood where the belief came from.

A gratitude practice is not complete without looking at the shadow and darker side, at the side of lack and understanding why we have felt lack, why we feel there is lack in our life.

Going to the shadow side is never easy but it is eye-opening.

Today we’re going to celebrate all the hard work you’ve done this week. Today I invite you to find a couple of ads, preferably ads about something you would find attractive and desirable, and I invite you to remove all the lack and scarcity being used in that ad to manipulate you into buying whatever is being marketed.

When you’ve got the product down to its bare bones, stripped clean of any clever marketing, I want you to ask yourself if you would still like to have that product in your life (there is no right or wrong answer here).

If you would no longer like it, then you know that your desire was driven purely through clever marketing of lack and scarcity.

If you would still like it, understand where that desire is coming from, what the emotion is, check that it’s not coming from a place of scarcity or lack, and then express gratitude, in the present moment, for having that product in your life as if you already do have it.

Let’s stay in the shadow side just a little longer.

Today I want you to think of something you bought that, after you bought it, you regretted it, or it didn’t make you feel as good as you thought it would, it was a bit of a let-down.

Go back to why you bought that. What was your thinking? What emotions were involved?

Can you see that you, more likely than not, bought it because you felt the was a gap to be filled in some way?

Our final day studying the shadow side and today I want you to have a bit of fun.

Take some time to do something, be it scrolling the internet, watching TV, or reading a magazine; something where you will be confronted with, at some stage, advertisements.

When you come across the add, I invite you to stop and say, “I don’t want that, my life is full” and then spend a few moments, just a few short moments, seeing where the scarcity element is in that ad.

and let's not forget...

This week's high vibe tune reminds us that gratitude makes you feel so good you forget about any lack

have gratitude wherever you go...

... with this week's gratitude quote wallpaper.

Note: details of how to download this week's wallpaper is provided below.

“Once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack” ~ Germany Kent

16:9

16:10

4:3

mobile

how to download your wallpaper

Before copying one of the pictures below, you'll want to quickly check your screen settings because the worst thing you can do is use a wallpaper with an aspect ratio that differs from the aspect ratio of your screen.

The aspect ratio of a rectangle is simply the proportion between width and height. The most common are 16:9, 16:10 and 4:3. And it will be for these 3 sizes that I shall provide you with your free wallpaper.

To find your screen resolution follow this basic guide. Steps for your computer may vary slightly but I hope this will give you some guidance:

  • Right-click the desktop and select Display settings.
  • Scroll down until you see "Resolution" (you may have to choose an "Advanced" option)
  • To find your aspect ratio, divide the width over the height. For example, if my resolution is 1920 x 1080 then I would divide 1920 over 1080 to get 1.778, which indicates a 16:9 resolution. Similarly, 1.6 indicated 16:10 and 1.333 indicates 4:3
  • When you've calculated your screen's aspect ratio, go to the picture below that matches that size
  • Right click on the picture and select "Set as Desktop Background"
  • Choose whether to "Fill", "Fit", or "Stretch" your picture - if you've chosen the right size "Fit" will be your best option
  • Select "Set Desktop Background" and you're done

  • First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down on it until you see a menu.
  • From here, click the “Save image” tab, and it will begin downloading.
  • The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by pressing and holding a blank area on your screen (meaning where no apps are placed), and home screen options will appear.
  • Select 'add wallpaper' and choose whether the wallpaper is intended for 'Home screen', 'Lock screen', or 'Home and lock screen'.
  • Another set of options will appear where you can choose where the photo you would like to use will be coming from, namely the Gallery.
  • If necessary, crop the image to a suitable size. Once satisfied, simply click 'Done'.

  • First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down for about 2 seconds until a menu appears.
  • From here, click “Save Image“, and it will begin downloading.
  • The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by, first, going to the 'Photos' app and selecting the wallpaper photo you've saved there.
  • Click on the share icon on the lower left corner of the screen, then select 'Use as Wallpaper'.
  • Then choose to set the photo as either the lock screen, home screen or both.