Why does gratitude work?
Gratitude is the gateway to manifest our dream life. According to the law of attraction, we will create more of what we think about. Whatever we focus on expands. This is why we want to focus on things we will be grateful for, so that we may attract more things we are grateful for.
Gratitude as a practice or habit
I strongly believe gratitude needs to become a practice or a habit. Oprah Winfrey has written in her gratitude journal for years and well we all know how her career has been. It has been a huge clue to her success. So why not imitate this simple and effective method to success?
But I’m already grateful
At first I thought the idea of gratitude seemed simple. A lot of us say, “I say thank you all the time. I am polite.” It actually goes a lot deeper than this. When I first started my gratitude practice I thought of myself as a grateful person always being appreciative of others and my surroundings. Until, I really put my beliefs to the test.
Gratitude in action
In June of 2021, I decided I was going to practice gratitude for 28 straight using Rhonda Byrne’s book “The Magic”. The book is divided into 28 chapters for each of the 28 days of gratitude. Each of the 28 days is explained in each chapter and focuses on a different area of your life. Each chapter explains why it is important to focus in a specific area of life. For example, one chapter focuses on health and another chapter focuses on relationships and so on. By the end of the 28 days you have focused and given gratitude for 28 different areas of your life.
What 28 days of gratitude felt like?
At first I was excited to read one chapter at a time and write my daily gratitudes. The book recommends writing 10 daily things to be grateful for. Ideally, they should be a bit different, but after a while some might repeat. I was pretty consistent at the beginning and found it easy and the as the days progressed some days got more difficult than others. It started to feel like trying to workout consistently at the gym. Some days you feel good, confident and strong (especially in the beginning) and other days, you just don’t want to do it. This is when I started to really understand the discipline of gratitude.
What helped me to stay consistent?
I knew staying consistent for 28 days of anything for me was going to be a challenge. So I decided to form a small community of like-minded individuals to practice gratitude with me. It was my community of gratitude writers that really supported me during the 28 days. It is like training for a half-marathon or marathon. It is so much easier when you are with like-minded individual helping each other stay accountable. We kept each other accountable through text messages and weekly zoom meetings. Some of us manifested pretty cool stuff like extra cash, improved relationships, more self-love and appreciated our loved ones more and overall we all appreciated our lives more. We all felt slightly happier after our 28 days.
Contact me to join our gratitude community. The true gift was in the community and the friendships we made.
Steps to Start Gratitude Journal Writing
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Get a journal and pen you like. For some reason this was a lot more important than you might think. It makes it personal and feels good to you.
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Think of a number of things to be grateful for each day. For example, Oprah talks about writing down five things you are grateful for. Rhonda Byrne recommends writing down ten things you are grateful for. How many things would you like to be grateful for each day. Any number is your right number. Even writing down one or two things you are grateful for will help you to become more appreciative and mindful.
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Set aside a daily time to journal. We are creatures of repetition and writing in my journal around the same time was extremely helpful.
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Be present and conscious throughout the day. When you are constantly thinking about and looking for thing to be grateful for it makes you more present and appreciative of the moment.
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Part of your well-being practice. The group and I experienced higher levels of happiness due to our gratitude writing practice. This has also been backed by recent researched by several universities including University of California, Davis and University of Miami. Start your practice and help improve your overall well-being and happiness.
I love gratitude!!
This was great, thank you Mayra! This was very well executed and articulate to readers. The way in which you chose to break up the blog into its respective parts also flowed very nicely.
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate your feedback.
I had read your blog a few week ago and I’m back to comment ! I really liked hw you put so much personal time into gratitude and acknowledging what you have in life. Particularly amazed by the 28 days challenge ! admirable.
Inbal
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate it 🙂
I love this post! I love going deeper into actual gratitude. Ever since I started doing that, I’ve appreciated life much more. Also smart idea to do it in a group to stay consistent!
Practicing in a group has really made me accountable and kept me consistent.
This is a wonderful post! I never really understood what others meant by practicing gratitude, especially because I grew up with a confusing concept of gratitude from my parents. This really opened my eyes and made me more interested in what it means to practice gratitude. I love the book recommendation as well as your own methods and advice when going through the 28 days of gratitude. Lastly, I agree, it is always so nice to have a group of like-minded individuals to help you towards your goals.
Thank you Allison for your reply. Yes, gratitude seems like a very simple concept but I think the actual practice of gratitude is quite different. It is a discipline and an art form because you begin to appreciate every little and big thing like you never practiced before.