start monday with gratitude

Spend some time today thinking about everything you have in all areas of your life, every tangible thing and every intangible miracle or blessing you have experienced.

Focus on the area of family, focus on the area of health and wellbeing, focus on the area of your home and environment, focus on the area of your career and work, focus on the area of finances, focus on the area of love for yourself and from others.

When you focus on all you have, rather than all you have not, you easily see just how full and plentiful your life is. It gives you more than enough to be grateful for, right? And it also reminds you how generous the universe is and how much you are supported, doesn’t it?

Can you also appreciate how focusing on gratitude widens and expands your perspective, no longer restricting it to lack and scarcity?

Express gratitude for your life and the abundances you have and receive in your life. And express gratitude for the generous, supportive and loving universe.

Think back to a time of worry and struggle that worked out positively in the end.

For example, perhaps you had a bill to pay and you didn’t know how you would because you didn’t have enough money in the bank.

Think back to how this situation got resolved. For example, did a friend or family member step in to help you out? Did money owed to you that you’d forgotten about suddenly get paid? Did the person or company due to receive payment give you another month’s grace? How did the situation get resolved?

Now think of more situations where you were worried about what would happen and things just unexpectedly sorted themselves out.

When you think back, how often have things got sorted out in the end? No doubt more often than when they didn’t.

Looking back through all these times when the situation got sorted, however that may have happened, does that not remind you that the universe has your back, that the universe will always find a way to look after you and help you?

And if you know that the universe will always look after you, does that not bring you comfort that you should no longer look to the future with worry and fear, nor live with an outlook of doubt, because you appreciate the universe will take care of tomorrow’s worries just as it took care of the worries of today?

When you can see from the past that the universe has your back, that things will work out, doesn’t that encourage you to express gratitude for your life and for the universe? Doesn’t that show you to look at things more positively and from a different and wider perspective?

Think of a worry that exists in your life right now.

Remembering the lesson from yesterday’s exercise that the universe loves you and will take care of you, I invite you to let go of today’s worries and trust that everything will work out for the best.

It doesn’t mean that everything will work out exactly the way you want it to, however it does mean that it will work out.

How light do you feel when you no longer have to worry about the outcome? How much more relaxed and calm do you feel when worry leaves your body? Doesn’t it feel so much better to not worry, than to worry?

And if you feel lighter when you release worry and trust that everything will work out for the best, can you imagine how much lighter your energetic vibration is?

If you have a lighter and, therefore, higher energetic vibration, according to the universal Law of Attraction, you’ll attract things of a similar energy to you, other lighter and brighter things.

We know that one of the highest vibrating emotions that we can experience is gratitude. So, do you feel you can express gratitude to the universe today for resolving the issue that has been causing you worry and then let that worry go?

Think of a concern or worry in your life in the present moment, something that may be weighing heavily on your mind.

Now focus on everything you have to be grateful for in your life, everything you have, everything you experience. Simply look around wherever you are right now, be it in your home, in your place of work, sitting in a bus, out in nature. Wherever you are right now, look around you and take note of everything you have and are to be grateful for and express your gratitude for it all.

Whilst you were expressing gratitude, how did you feel?

You felt good, right? Light, happy, content, calm…

By simply expressing gratitude you have changed your emotion and energetic vibration, you’ve altered your mindset and your attitude. And you didn’t have time, space, or energy available to devote to the concern or worry you began this exercise thinking about.

Can you see how gratitude changes your attitude and brightens your outlook?

Look at all you have in life in the present moment, all you have received and achieved.

How plentiful is your life? How blessed is your life?

Now look back and consider the many struggles and obstacles that have crossed your path in the past, both small and large. Struggles which, at the time, may have caused you worry, may have caused you sleepless nights.

Regardless of how many struggles and obstacles have crossed your path, regardless of how small or large they may have been, you’re here now in the present moment, enjoying a life that is full, blessed and plentiful. Is that something to be grateful for?

And, looking at where you are today regardless of the struggles and obstacles that crossed your path in the past, does that bring you more comfort and trust that you’ll also make it through the struggles and obstacles that may come onto your path tomorrow and in the future?

Can you see that by focusing the positives, by focusing on all you have to be grateful for, that gratitude can actually change and broaden your perspective and expectations of the future, that gratitude helps you change your attitude, so you no longer need to worry about what’s to come, and that gratitude leads to a brighter outlook because you no longer need to worry about tomorrow?

So many people go through life thinking life is out to get them because all they can see and all they experience are the challenges in life. Their focus is lasered-in on the negative.

And by focusing on the negative, they lower their vibration and attract the very thing they focus on. And all this does is bring in more negativity, challenges, and hardships.

Life is merely offering them what they expect to receive. It’s a vicious circle. They experience challenges, complain about challenges, and receive more challenges.

Think back to your experiences to date since you first started practising gratitude every day. How much brighter has your life been as a result? How many blessings and goodness have you received in your life through expressing gratitude? Would you say your life is much better since practising gratitude daily? I would like to hope so.

Write down everything that has happened to you since you started practising gratitude daily.

Read through the list you wrote yesterday. How many challenges and negative experiences did you write down? Did you write down any at all?

You might be thinking that I only asked you to write down the positives. However, if you re-read my instructions in yesterday’s exercise you’ll read: “Write down everything that has happened to you since you started practising gratitude daily”. I invited you to write down everything, not simply the positives.

However, because you’ve been practising gratitude every day for some time now, you would have naturally focused on the positives and, indeed, if you did recall any challenges you probably would have done so from a positive perspective.

Changing your outlook and your mindset to one that is vibrationally higher, that is more positive through practising gratitude isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time and dedication.

However, when you put in the time and are committed to a daily gratitude practice, the changes you experience are vast. Now that’s something to be grateful for, right?