How many times have we heard things like “He’s not grateful for the money I gave him!” or “She’s not grateful for this or that  that I have done for them!”?

First of all, we have no way of knowing the gratitude that the receiver feels in these situations, but I can tell you this much, if you are making statements like the ones above, you are not giving freely or with an open heart!

Some people have a hard time expressing gratitude outwardly.

Sometimes all you will receive in return is a simple thank you when inside the recipient of your good deed is welling up and ready to burst into tears of gratitude.

We are trained to hold our emotions in, including the ones of gratitude!

When you give a gift, be thankful that you can!

When you give of yourself don’t look for anything in return.

Be satisfied in knowing that you have done the right thing, that your blessing has helped another and you will be blessed in return, maybe not the way you expect it, but you will be.

Gratitude comes from within, it is an appreciation of all that is good and welcome in our lives. Gratitude is expressed when we openly give thanks for those things.

When someone does something for us we are trained to say, “Thank you”, but how often do we really feel the thank you that we are giving?

Think back to a time when you were just so overwhelmed with something someone had done for you and you just had to blurt out a thank you.

That feeling of thanks, of gratitude, could not be contained.

If you were to stop and feel the thank you each time you gave it, you would be living in gratitude.

If you were to stop and feel how much you love and enjoy any little thing in your life, you would be living in gratitude.

Some people think that gratitude has to go deeper than giving thanks for the “things” in our lives and be more spiritual.

I say that every little thing in your life that gives you even the slightest bit of joy, every little thing that makes your day a little easier is worthy of true gratitude.

True gratitude is spiritual and fills the heart with warmth and joy!

When you can stop and say, “I really do love my coffee pot! It brews me a wonderful cup of coffee and I enjoy every sip! If it wasn’t for that coffee pot I may not have such a great cup of coffee!”, and truly feel the love and appreciation for the coffee pot, the coffee beverage and even the cup you are holding, to feel the joy that those things bring into your life, that my dear friends, that is feeling gratitude!

An “attitude of gratitude” is recommended by all the teachers of the Law of Attraction. Why is it so important? For one, gratitude can put you in the vibration of your desires fulfilled. Gratitude brings completion to cycles; when you are grateful ‘in advance’, you are feeling and responding to the completed manifestation cycle at a level of knowing. In other words, you are energetically in the fulfillment of your desired manifestations. The subconscious mind makes no distinction between what is ‘actual’ and what is imagined—its conviction comes from your emotional energy, based on intensity and frequency of those emotional states. With an attitude of gratitude, you repeatedly energize the emotional states of your manifested desires, and your subconscious mind will get working on matching your outer reality with your inner state of being. If you are trying to magnetize abundance, for example, then being grateful for all your abundant blessings puts you in the fulfilment energies of abundance, which is the perfect attractor energy for increased abundance.

But gratitude works in many varied ways. For example, being grateful for what is, including all your areas of lack or dysfunction, empowers you as an attractor force further. But how can you be grateful for your lack and dysfunction? And won’t that attract more lack or dysfunction? No it won’t—not if you’re grateful for what the lack is revealing to you. If you can feel grateful for the lack because it helps you to appreciate the sense of abundance, which is what you desire more of, then you’ve managed to be grateful for the full spectrum of experience. Without the lack, you likely would not be able to consciously appreciate and therefore choose abundance. From that state of acceptance, your choice for abundance will be met with far greater ease than it would if you were still energetically resisting lack. What we resist persists. What we resist, we create an internal polarity to, which fixes it in place. So gratitude for all experience is a very powerful means to dissolve the inner polarity and allow free movement, by choice, on the full spectrum of experience (in this case, the desired movement would be towards the abundance-end of the spectrum).

Dave Cameron explains, “…gratitude completes the cycle of knowing… What you like and what you hate are two ends of the same thing. For example, if you like being with your spouse and hate being separated from them, realize that you are working within the same essence, which is your spouse. It is because of the moments of absence that you appreciate and recognize the moments of presence. When you are grateful for both what you like and what you don’t like, you complete the knowingness and you are released from having to experience what you don’t like. …Some very significant shifts occur in your mind and soul whenever you are genuinely grateful for all things, even the ones you don’t like. Gratitude will speed you through your growth and success more than any amount of hard work ever can. Gratitude completes the lesson, and as a statement of completion rings that tone of success, pulling to you the end result desired.” 1

When you can be grateful for the things you don’t like, you speed up the learning and hence, the need for those things in your life. “You cannot leave a situation permanently unless you appreciate the gifts it brings you, and all situations bring a gift, no matter how terrible the situation may appear to be.”1 In the case of lack, the gift may be the conscious appreciation of abundance and ease, which is necessary for sustaining it in life.

Life as God’s Love in Action

Without you, your consciousness, your life would not be. All the interactions with others and what is created out of that simply would not exist. Life arises out of you, through you, and for you. It is entirely dependent upon your consciousness. It shapes and moulds itself around you in a perfect fit, like a glove over a hand. The animated, gloved hand is you in life. The glove shifts as you shift. Take your hand out, and the glove collapses and is no longer animated.

The animating principle of this thing we call life (the glove) is the love of God for each one of us—it is God in action through the formless Substance. Imagine you are an invisible hand—invisible at the level of matter. The glove is there to allow you to see yourself and others, in order to enable experience. As fine-substance consciousness (invisible hand) in an ocean of consciousness, you cannot experience yourself apart from the ocean, and so you cannot encompass larger portions of the ocean, as you have no means of distinguishing anything consciously. The glove (i.e. matter, or the earthly realm of life) is there to enable distinction, contrast, and ultimately the experience of self and the possibility of encompassing larger portions of the ocean substance that is God, consciously. The loving embrace of the universe is your life.

The universe, upholding evolution by its love-imbued laws, hugs you tightly in a glove of life, which is love in action. Where you feel the pressure are the ‘places’ that need attention. The pain you feel, is you shrinking away from life’s embrace. This pain alerts you to where you have forgotten who you are and are resisting remembering.
Life hugs you tightly, always. You are moving consciousness—both awareness and life. You’re all of it, albeit, at different levels of consciousness. The god-you wishes you to remember who you are, the ‘small you’ is the vehicle through which that remembering process is focused. Resistance is what causes pain and delays learning. When you can be grateful for all experience, you release resistance and begin to yield and surrender to the process. The process (life) can then change from pain, to being benign, and then soon becoming a wondrous adventure.

When you are grateful for unwanted conditions that appear in life, you accept them with the faith that somehow they are for your highest good. Acceptance is a prerequisite to change. But also importantly, by your faith that the condition is somehow for your highest good, you become a commanding presence to ensure an outcome that is preferred (you choose either lessons or blessings) —and that outcome of blessing will occur far more quickly than if you resist and are embittered or dissatisfied with the condition. So be grateful for it all—the tight hug is for your highest good, and the pain is there so long as you resist. Engaging gratitude releases the resistance and enables you to move forward with the necessary learning, bringing completion and releasing the need for life to move in on you in that manner.

Rudolf Steiner2 explains that it is our consciousness that enables immortality; in unconsciousness, we do not know that we exist and so cannot speak meaningfully of immortality. Everything of your past has contributed to your current point of consciousness, and if you will be grateful for consciousness then you can be grateful for all of your past. When you can do this, you will successfully disengage from your past and be able to move resolutely forward with whatever new stories you wish to create for yourself.

In the Science of Getting Rich3, Wattles explains that there is one intelligent Substance from which all things proceed which gives you everything you desire. In his chapter on Gratitude, he states that the best means to relate to this intelligent Substance and be in a harmonious relationship with it is through profound gratitude. Failing to acknowledge our blessings “cuts the wires connecting” us to God. Energetically, failing to acknowledge creates imbalance, as there must always be a fair exchange of energies in all ‘transactions’. The universe will not be put off-balance.

Our soul lives in constant gratitude for all experience, and in this regard, lives closer to its source. When we emulate the soul we too shall live in close connection to the source of our abundance. Wattles explain the power of gratitude at accelerating manifestation because it “draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the blessings come.”

Further he points out that gratitude always reaches what it addresses and there is an instantaneous reaction of a movement towards the person who is grateful. This is an experience we all can validate. Think of giving a gift to someone who is profoundly grateful to you for it. You are drawn closer to that person. Contrast this with gifting someone who does not acknowledge the gift, or worse, refuses it. You will feel antipathy towards that person, which draws you away from them. Hug somebody who stiffens or shrinks away, and then hug somebody who hugs you back warmly—which person is more inviting? This is another important aspect of the Law of Gratitude in action.

“Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you. That is a statement of psychological truth.”

It’s important that you ponder on the power of gratitude in all aspects discussed, and see where you can work these principles in your life. Gratitude is one of three keys of manifestation; these are:

• Imagination/Desire

• Gratitude

• Faith

Imagination and desire are needed to direct the formless Substance—this constitutes our engagement in life, whereby we become increasing consciousness by exerting choice and experiencing the effects of those choices. Desire is the level at which we work with the gift and power of free will as the means to come to know the self as love.

Gratitude releases our blocks from their locked-in positions, speeds up full learning, and gives back to the universe to maintain balance and harmony, and the universe in turn responds with the joy of greater giving. But these are its effects. The essence of gratitude is love, and the highest form of gratitude is unconditional love.

If you’re not sure what unconditional love feels like, try being grateful for all that is in your life that you tend to resist…be grateful for all those in your life who trigger you into less-than-love behaviours…be grateful for all past experiences that caused you pain…be grateful for all present conditions you’d rather not experience. Apply the principles discussed above, in which gratitude completes the spectrum of experience and thus the cycle of learning. Be grateful for the contrast and the resistance, for in letting go of the resistance, you gain conscious awareness and greater freedom to access, by will, the good end of the spectrum. In doing this, you will feel your heart expanding and will begin to glimpse unconditional love, and the state of being love in life. Furthermore, gratitude brings wholeness, which confers healing. As gratitude opens the heart—which is the province of miracles—, the effects of developing an attitude of gratitude in life are far-reaching.

“Wholeness is Holy; wholeness is healing. That is the essence of all miracles—physical, mental, financial, and social. Whatever has been torn apart comes back together into a state of wholeness. Love supports wholeness and wholeness support love. Through that common bond, love can heal anything.”4

Many people wonder how to operate from love in life, and the answer is by way of gratitude. Gratitude is the energy that connects us to the love that we are. Gratitude is love; gratitude for everything is unconditional love. Gratitude is the surest way to merge with the source of creation and to wield its power.

“…for this is the universal law of command. Love commands the universe, the adamantine particles, the one spirit, the heart, and all of life.”4

There is no energy or healing process that is more powerful than the application of gratitude, for gratitude is love. As a force of unconditional love, gratitude will activate the hidden workings of the cause and effect of love that operate in the universe, which is expressed in life as being in the grace of God. This force is separate from the usual cause and effect of effort and operates at a higher level of Intelligence referred to as the Holy Center of existence.5 In addition, as Wattles points out, faith is born of gratitude. Faith increases the more we dwell in the love that we are. Faith brings you deeper into the fulfilment energies of what you desire, which confers complete certainty that allows you to surrender the how-to of life and flow in divine guidance and synchronicity. All three energies generate a connection to life that is teeming with vitality and passion, and with passion, you are easily spurred to take bold action when opportunities appear.

Manifestation is an interactive dance with the Creator, and at each step there must be an exchange of energies in order to remain in balance and harmony with the laws of creation. That exchange is powerfully achieved in continuous gratitude.

If you will ponder on the power of gratitude, you will certainly understand the importance of nurturing a habit of gratitude. Not only does it aligns you to attract your god-given resources and dissolves all the blocks to receiving them, but it also restores your wholeness so that you operate from greater personal power. Gratitude is the keystone of manifestation; gratitude brings you closer to the source so that you can easily imprint your desires on the formless Substance, and it begets faith, which keeps you in a vibrational match to your desires. What you do towards increasing a grateful mind will have the largest repercussions for you in manifesting your dreams.

The next article in this series continues with this important topic, and provides a set of affirmations to support you in developing an attitude of gratitude.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to practice gratitude when you are following your path to personal development growth.

Think of it not only as a tool for transformation but as a way of life.

Now, if you have wrapped your mind around the fact that we are all energy then you realize there is no separation and we are all connected. Everything is energy with it’s own rate of vibration that attracts things of like vibrations to it. That of course includes our thoughts. And thoughts, feelings and words of gratitude are some of the most powerful and they allow for great positive shifts to occur.

THE TOP 2 WAYS TO PRACTICE GRATITUDE

#1. BE THANKFUL IN ADVANCE: It has been said that the most powerful form of gratitude is the kind which you express in advance of your actual experience. The expression of faith that this requires allows for the most effective type of vibrational shift.

#2. FIND THINGS TO BE GRATEFUL FOR IN BAD SITUATIONS: Focus on someone you have a conflict with or on a negative emotional situation in your life. You then look for things to be grateful for in those situations. They may not be obvious, but they are ALWAYS there.

Be grateful… that you only have to deal with this person once a month, that if it weren’t for this situation – you wouldn’t have met a new friend, that this situation now offers an opportunity for growth…

A newer, more positive energy will be come from this especially since you had to look deeper into yourself to find the gratitude.

OTHER WAYS TO PRACTICE GRATITUDE

KEEP A GRATITUDE JOURNAL: It’s a good practice to take 10 minutes a day to write down things you are grateful for and that bring you joy. They can be big or small as long as you tune into the feelings of gratitude for having them in your life right now.

Be grateful for: a stress-free commute to work, a call you got from an old friend, a delicious meal, a hug from your child, a compliment you received from your boss, a great night’s sleep, an invigorating workout…

DO A GRATITUDE WALK: As you’re strolling with the kids, walking the dog, or doing your chores, look around and rattle off as many things as you can think of to be grateful for. Tell the Universe out loud what you love about your life.

HAVE A GRATITUDE ROCK: This is something I first saw in The Secret movie. Find a small rock and keep it with you throughout the day and let it remind you to state something you’re grateful for whenever you touch it.

WATCH A GRATITUDE AFFIRMATION VIDEO: Go to Wealthvibes.com or YouTube.com and watch free affirmation videos.  Make it part of your daily ritual and a powerful gratitude exercise.

WRITE A GRATITUDE LETTER: Write a mock letter to someone very important in your life who would be excited for your news. Tell them how grateful you are about this wonderful thing that has happened in your life. Doing this exercise will bring about intense emotions and will put you in a joyful, grateful vibration.

“Hi Julia, The most exciting thing happened to me… I couldn’t wait to tell you about it.  I went to the gym a few weeks ago and was working out and got to talking to the girl next to me.  I told her about the new web business that I just launched and she was so interested that she interviewed me for a local newspaper article.  It created tons of traffic to my website and I made some big sales too.  I am SO grateful that I met her that day.”

TIP: You can even write this “as if” that something happened to try and attract it into your life.

DO THE MIRROR EXERCISE: Talk to yourself out loud while looking into a mirror. Express your gratitude and appreciation. If you use EFT, tap around at the same time. Later on, you can use this image of yourself tapping in a visualization for a quick, enhanced gratitude refresher.

Just make sure you practice gratitude every day. Create a routine that’s easy and sustainable.

When it comes to creating and experiencing the kind of life you want, it’s a law of the Universe that it will always deliver in the right time for the right vibration of your body.

So if you practice gratitude, you will energetically raise your vibration and speed up the process of attracting what you desire.

There is truly NO BETTER WAY to do that than when you have an attitude of gratitude.

To summarize all the powerful effects of gratitude, these are:

–Puts you in the vibration or energy of your desires fulfilled, making you a stronger point of attraction for their manifestation

–Brings completion in advance, convincing the subconscious mind to deliver this imagined reality (recall that the subconscious mind makes no distinction between the actual and the imagined)

–Dissolves internal resistances that lock in dysfunction and what is not wanted, so that change is made possible

–Confers inner freedom to your being, as you are accepting and a fluid energy able to move easily with life

–Speeds up learning so you can move on in life

–Puts you in vibrational harmony with the best outcomes in all situations, so that you’re choosing blessings rather than lessons

–Harmonizes you with the Thinking Substance and the Mind the God, drawing you near to the source of all blessings

–Gives back to the universe so that balance is maintained at all times (leaving you free of involvement to restore balance, i.e. karma)

–Confers wholeness and a state of inner peace, which promotes healing

–As a force of unconditional love, it activates the hidden workings of the cause and effect of love that operate in the universe, which is expressed in life as being in the grace of God

Below is a set of gratitude affirmations that will help you develop an attitude of gratitude, which can accelerate the manifestation cycle for you. These affirmations may be enhanced with the Affirmation Enhancer Tool, which is like etheric software that contains clearing and rescripting protocols that clears all that stands in the way of integrating an affirmation energetically and awakening to the co-creative power inherent in the divine self and to a deep understanding of our divine right and our responsibility to manifest our life according to our true desires. The Tool enables a person to embody the energy of the affirmation instantaneously, at deep levels of being. It does this by dissolving the back-wash of opposing thoughts, hidden agendas and unmet needs that often underlie affirmations, cleansing the subconscious mind of all memories, programs and patterns that do not support the affirmation, releasing emotional and mental body patterns and programs that support the denial of the affirmation, and infusing the body, heart, mind and soul with divine ideal traits that will support deep integration of the truth of the affirmation. Accelerated manifestation is further enhanced by the creation of an imagination in the auric field that acts as future potential drawing a person to that affirmed reality that has been purified of hidden intent.  For more details on the Tool, visit www.affirmationenhancer.com.

Empower your Affirmations to Clear All Resistance

If you would like to get a version of this article that has all the affirmations rendered into trigger statements that will activate the Affirmation Enhancer Tool for you, you may sign up to the Inner Mastery Tools list on the website, and send an email to the contact email address on the Affirmation Enhancer Tool website, or the Spirituality of Wealth website, www.spiritualityofwealth.com, with the subject “Enhance Gratitude affirmations”, as verbal consent. As soon as I get this, I will activate the statements for you so that they are triggers and send you notification. In this manner, you can experience the wonderful clearing and awakening power of this Tool.

Gratitude Affirmations

1. I AM blessed in so many ways and am deeply grateful

2. I AM grateful for my life and growing consciousness within it

3. I AM profoundly grateful for the power granted me to command the formless intelligence all around me.

4. The more grateful I am, the more my soul may live in close touch with God.

5. My soul continuously rejoices and unites with my experience as I engage in gratitude.

6. Gratitude opens the door for my essence to flow through my life, and spirit blessings to pour into all that I choose to create.

7. Gratefulness is how I return energy to the universe for the bounty I am blessed with.

8. The more grateful I am, the more blessed I am.

9. The more grateful I am, the more connected I am to the source and power of creation.

10. I am deeply grateful to the Creator who wants me to thrive in life.

11. I now immerse in gratitude and cultivate it as a habit.

12. In profound gratitude, I am in a harmonious relationship with the formless Substance out of which my life emerges.

13. By my gratitude, I am close to the source of abundance.

14. My subconscious mind is continually finding things that I am grateful for.

15. In my sleep, I am continually fed inspirations to support me to develop a habit of gratitude in life.

16. I am able and willing to embrace all experiences and derive the gifts they hold for me.

17. I am grateful for life hugging me in a perfect reflective way.

18. I release all resistance to any part of my life and accept it all, knowing it is there as “love in action”.

19. I release all bitterness, resentment and dissatisfaction that I may see the blessings I’ve missed.

20. In gratitude I am at peace with my life and able to withdraw from non-serving energies and focus wholly on creating wonderful things in great joy and expectancy.

21. In gratitude I am fluid energy able to move easily with life and direct it according to my desires born of love.

22. In gratitude I am inwardly free and unattached to specific outcomes; everything that comes to me is imbued with divine wisdom.

23. With a grateful heart I see opportunities for growth and joy everywhere.

24. My gratitude reaches God and God moves towards me.

25. My gratitude reaches the source of abundance and the source rushes towards me.

26. In gratitude, I love unconditionally and become infinite being with infinite potential.

27. I am capable of doing what I do because others have come before me. I am grateful for the world I see.

28. I engage and enjoy the luminous divine Essence in all who enter my life.

29. I am grateful for all the players in my life. Everyone in my life is “love in action”.

30. I appreciate all people in my life, for each one brings an opportunity for learning to me.

31. I now experience being fully supported by everyone in my life.

32. I am strongly and constantly grateful for all that is in my life.

33. Gratitude keeps me connected to the power of the universe.

34. Gratitude is love, and my heart opens to receive all the blessings coming my way.

35. The grateful mind focuses on the best.

36. I focus on the best in everything and everyone, and the best appears abundantly for me.

37. My life is the image of what I give attention to. What a wonderful experience!

38. I am thinking Substance taking the form of what I think about.

39. I am a lucid dreamer, dreaming wonderful possibilities and potentials.

40. The grateful mind expects the best.

41. I continually expect the best in everything and everyone who enters my life.

42. I am profoundly connected to the source and power of life through the love that I am.

43. I am profoundly connected to the source and power of life through continual gratitude.

44. I breathe in the beauty, abundance and goodness of life; it abounds.

45. I see only abundance and supply all around me; how wonderful to be alive.

46. I am loved my God and in deep gratefulness, I allow myself to take this love in deeply.

47. Before going to sleep, I release all idle thoughts and focus on all my blessings.

48. As I count my blessings, my blessings grow.

49. As I am grateful to others, they are gracious to me.

50. In gratefulness, I give back to the universe and I am fulfilled.

51. Being in gratitude is heavenly.

52. In gratitude I am in harmony with the creative energies of the universe.

53. By continual gratitude, I am open to receiving God’s grace.

54. I am deeply and continuously grateful, and thereby I align to the outcomes of greatest blessing.

55. I am grateful and thereby allow more supply into my life for which to be grateful!

56. I release all concern as to how to feed, clothe, or supply my world, and turn all my thoughts to expressing the love that I am in freedom and joy.

57. The grateful mind expands to embrace even more of the blessings of life–I am continuously grateful and expanding.

58. I dwell only on the best and the blessings, and I become the best, blessed, and a blessing unto others.

59. Faith is born of gratitude; I have faith and am filled with joyous expectancy.

60. I continuously expect great things and am deeply grateful in advance.

61. I am so grateful to be alive!

The dictionary tells us that gratitude is “the expression of gratefulness and thanks” but this doesn’t begin to convey its real effect. Here are an alternative set of definitions.

Gratitude stops you taking your life for granted and helps you realize how many good things you have in your life.
Gratitude makes others feel better.
Gratitude makes you feel better. In the words of an Arabian proverb, “The hand that gives the roses always keeps some of the scent.”
Gratitude raises your awareness of things around you.
Gratitude is easy, quick, and simple.
Gratitude is an instant blues-breaker and stress-reliever.
Gratitude changes your view of so-called “bad” things.
Gratitude frees you from petty annoyances.
Gratitude inspires you.
Gratitude puts your thoughts and feelings on a high vibration level that in turn attracts back to you more things to be grateful for.
Gratitude nourishes the soul.
Gratitude is like compound interest on money in the bank: the more you put in, the more you get out.
Gratitude is a spiritual act because it acknowledges that the origin of all good things is a source outside ourselves.
Gratitude puts you on a direct line to God.

That’s the “what” of gratitude. To show you the “how”, here are three things you can do to make the Gratitude Attitude a firm fixture in your life.

1. Create a Thank Bank. A Thank Bank is simply a place where you can jot down all the things that you are grateful for in your life. You can split the bank into different accounts such as Family, Surroundings and Work, and then simply start writing out your thanks until you stop. Put your list somewhere safe and pull it out when you’re feeling down and you’ll instantly change your mood.

2. Show Gratitude Quietly. Don’t turn gratitude into a promotional or motivational tool. Too much thanks is as ineffective as too little. Instead, express your thanks in quiet ways: a thought, a prayer, a one-on-one word, a note of appreciation. Give people gifts of thanks that aren’t bought at shops: a bit of your time, a sacrifice, something valuable to you. Remember the story in the Bible of the widow, who gave a small money gift in thanks even though it was worth everything to her.

3. Always Replace the 3 C’s With the 3 A’s. If you work or manage others, and sometimes feel the need to use one of the 3 C’s – complaining, condemning, and criticizing – replace them with the 3 A’s of Accepting, Acknowledging, and Appreciating. Accept people for who they are; acknowledge them for what they do; and appreciate them for just being around. Remember that when you appreciate others, your reputation and respect appreciates too.

There’s nothing complicated about gratitude. It’s something we can all do. We so often don’t do it because we forget, because we focus on the few so-called bad things in our lives, and because we take the wonderful things for granted. So change your life. Put gratitude just below your level of consciousness, and every day will become one of joy and delight.

I’m sure you have heard of this word before and you probably know that it simply means a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. Gratitude may be a mouthful to pronounce but the act of showing it is actually rather simple and effective to implement. Knowing the power and potential of showing gratitude and subsequently applying it accordingly can be the single most decisive factor in ensuring better degrees of success for yourself.

Let’s dwell a little on exactly what gratitude can do for you and subsequently your success. Gratitude instills a positive feeling in you and the people you show it to. It alters your perspective of negative feelings, thoughts or beliefs you may have of yourself or others by alerting these feelings, thoughts and beliefs to the things you are grateful for. Gratitude raises your awareness and focus and it can inspire you to achieve better for yourself and the people around you.

In fact, there are numerous other benefits of gratitude. Yet, many people still do not or refuse to shower themselves or the people around them with gratitude. Instead, they put themselves and others down by criticism and condemnation. To see if you fall under this category, take the next few seconds to ponder over the following questions:

1) What exactly are the obstacles that are holding you back from showing gratitude to yourself and to others?

2) How can you overcome these obstacles?

3) How can you unleash an onslaught of gratitude to yourself and to others?

The obstacles stated above are mainly negative thoughts, emotions and beliefs that you may possess that are probably not only hindering you from showing gratitude but they are most probably also hindering you from success. However, the chief aim of my article is to show you the importance of showing gratitude and how you can go about doing it. As such, I will not touch in depth about how to overcome these negative thoughts, emotions and beliefs. But if you would like to find out more, please refer to resource box below.

Now that you are clearer about the benefits of gratitude, let’s first talk about how you can start showing gratitude to yourself. To start doing this, you must first be appreciative of all your achievements – be it big or small – that you have experienced so far in your life. Ask yourself: when was the last time you actually rewarded yourself for those achievements? If you have constantly been doing so, then good for you and keep it up. If not, then it’s about time you start indulging or pampering yourself with some simple or extravagant (whichever is appropriate) rewards for all your past achievements and the future ones.

Next be appreciative of the things you have – your job, work place, house, wealth, family, food and surroundings. I know it can be rather impossible to directly show gratitude to these things but don’t fret. You can actually list down these things and write down thank you notes for each of them to express your gratitude. Keep referring to this list when you’re feeling sad or depressed and you can instantly feel a surge of happiness or positive emotions.

So far, I have covered on how you can show gratitude to yourself and the things around you. Now I will touch on how you can show gratitude to the people around you. There are many ways you can express your gratitude to the people around you but I will only list down the few I feel are important and simple to perform. You are however, free to find out or think of others of your own and implement them as you deem fit.

1) Instead of putting down, insulting and complaining about the people around or working under you, try complementing, praising and appreciating them for all they have done for your well-being and your achievements. By doing this, you gain their respect and trust and they are more likely to continually assist you to achieve better.

2) Make a thank you list of all the people you are grateful for and constantly refer to this list to give yourself a better and greater feeling.

3) Give a simple verbal thank you, note of appreciation or even a thank you e-mail to express your gratitude to the people who have assisted you in achievements.

4) Shower the people you are grateful for with small or big cards, gifts, presents or rewards to clearly show them how much you appreciate them.

5) Or simply provide the people around you with gifts that cannot be bought with cash like your valuable time, your sacrifice or something that is of utmost importance to you.

Gratitude. The word may be a little complex to pronounce but there is actually nothing complex about performing the act of showing gratitude. Always bear in mind that when you show gratitude to yourself, the things and the people around you, you will definitely hold the key to unlocking your personal growth and ultimately your success.

In fact, most LOA experts will tell you that feeling grateful is essential to attracting the very things you want to feel grateful for.

Which can be a little confusing.

The problem is, a lot of people just getting started with the Law of Attraction feel like they don’t have a lot to be grateful for right now.

Maybe that sounds like you.

Maybe you’re out of work, or your relationship just ended, or you’re feeling overweight, underappreciated and just generally depressed.

If you’re going through a rough time, it’s probably difficult to feel grateful.  You may have a lot of feelings – anger, sadness, resentment – but gratitude is probably not one of them!  After all, what can you possibly have to feel grateful for?

The answer is, a lot more than you think.  But we’ll get to that in a little while.

The thing is, especially when you first get started, the Law of Attraction may take some effort.  After all, it’s hard to feel good when things are going wrong.  So the idea that no matter how bad things in your life may seem, you need to focus on positive feelings to attract positive things into your life may seem next to impossible.

But it’s not only possible – it’s essential.

Why?  The number one principal of the Law of Attraction is simple – your thoughts become your reality.  Dwell on the negative, and all you’ll get is negative, because negative thoughts create negative energy.   That’s where the term “vicious circle” comes from.  You think negative thoughts, so more negative things happen to you.  So you think MORE negative thoughts…

…and you can probably guess what happens next.

This is why gratitude is so important?

Feeling gratitude is one of the easiest possible ways to break this cycle.

When you’re going through a rough time, it can be difficult to truly believe that it will get better, and that you have the power to change things.  It can be difficult to believe in yourself and believe that you have the power to attract good things.

Training your subconscious mind to think positive thoughts on that level can be too big a leap at some points in your life.

But feeling grateful something else entirely.  Because no matter how bad things are in your life, chances are you have SOMETHING to feel grateful for.

It can be someone you love or a good friend.  It can be a talent or a skill that you have.  If can be something about your appearance, or your personality.  It can even be about the world around you – the music you love, the scenery, even the air you breathe.

When you focus on those things and give thanks for them, and really allow yourself to feel grateful for them, at that moment, you can’t feel negative. You can only feel positive.

And at that moment, your mind opens up to the possibility of MORE positive things happening to you.

And when you get to that point, the Law of Attraction can start working in your favor.