Gratitude has the power to change everything. It certainly has for me, and I’m confident that it can do the same for you. How often do you pause to acknowledge all of the beautiful blessings in your life? Unfortunately, we have been conditioned to give our attention to the challenges and struggles in our lives instead of the victories and high points. While the holiday of Thanksgiving serves as an immensely important yearly reminder for us to be grateful, practicing the art of giving thanks everyday is imperative for us to create a life filled with joyful moments, peace of mind and optimal health. Gratitude is the most effective tool that I use with my clients because it is always accessible and can be used to ground us and shift our energy in the face of personal struggle and strife. Introduce active gratefulness into your life and observe the profound impact it has on your your energy, your relationships and how you choose to interpret your experiences.

Create Your Own Gratitude Practice:

There are a myriad of meaningful ways to introduce gratitude into your life. Make sure to choose a practice that is available to you at all times and simple to integrate on a daily basis. A gratitude journal is one of the most widely used forms of practicing this paramount principle. I always recommend carving out a few moments at the beginning or end of each day, to write down some of the reasons you are grateful in that moment. The longer the list, the more impactful this exercise will be for you. Helping children to create and use a gratitude jar is a fun and stimulating way to introduce the practice of gratefulness into their lives and set them up for a bright and joy-filled future. The anticipation of writing in your journal and/or contributing a note to your gratitude jar each day will intuitively keep you in an active pursuit of noticing the blessings in each day while infusing a sentiment of positivity and light into everything you do, see and feel. Be sure to document each reflection — writing your grateful thought down implants it in your subconscious mind and makes it a permanent part of your reality.

Reflect on the Abundance:

Gratitude puts us in a position of having instead of wanting. We often get caught up in this idea of not having enough and not being adequate in some way. Operating from a place of gratitude cuts through our lack mentality and reminds us that we live in a world filled with abundance and possibility. Transforming the lens through which we view the world from one of scarcity to one of prosperity, profoundly impacts the quality of the experiences that we call into our lives. Give power to all that is positive in your life, however small you think it may be, and your capacity to experience more light-filled experiences will multiply. There is more than enough of everything on this planet for each and every one of us. This includes successes, resources, love and anything else you ever thought was limited in nature. It is our confined belief system that so often blocks us from attracting this abundance towards us. Start taking notice of the thoughts that precede your feelings of scarcity and choose to immediately reframe those thoughts by introducing a higher level thought rooted in gratitude. Bringing your attention to this cue will support and prompt you on your quest to understand and recognize when you are caught in any web of poverty thinking and remind you to choose again.

Witness the Transformation:

Gratitude is your pathway to reigniting the meaning and value of this very moment. Once you truly become a witness to all of the beautiful ways that practicing gratefulness colors your world, you will become motivated to operate from this place of peace and happiness in every corner of your life. One of the most challenging assignments for the human race as a whole, is learning how to live fully and freely, in the now. Notice how connecting to your blessings and celebrating your successes has inspired you to live mindfully, and in a true sense of honor and respect for all that is good in your life. Know and understand that this very moment is the point at which you have the capacity to harness your innate power to live a life of your own choosing. Actively searching for reasons to be thankful today and everyday, will attract so many more blessings into your life. Take the time to notice and show reverence for each and every one of your blessings and watch how they multiply reshape the course of your life.