Do you have a gratitude practice?

Pretty much all the experts agree, that having a specific gratitude practice is an important tool for keeping ourselves regulated. The human brain naturally defaults to worry and comparison, and that often leads us to wallow in feelings of inadequacy and 'not enoughness'. Even billionaires often focus on what they do not have instead of what they DO have. This can be a motivating factor to help us drive forward towards what we want, but it can also be a great barrier to feeling satisfied and fulfilled with our lives.

Life itself has a lot to be grateful for. The sun shines without asking for a thing. The sky and the earth support us. Our bodies go on breathing, hearts beating, microbiome digesting...it really is a fantastic thing to contemplate.

If you find yourself focusing on lack, and feeling a sense of what you do not have, welcome to the natural human experience. I suggest spending at least a few minutes every day contemplating/focusing on the feeling of gratitude for all you have in this life.

This can be done by writing things down or simply thinking or speaking out loud, but the real key is to FEEL the feeling of gratitude for the things you are grateful for.

I have been practicing heart coherence for a few years now, and it still amazes me how much more coherent my Heart Math sensor shows me that my heart and brain are more coherent when I focus on feeling grateful. For me, this also includes a deliberate relaxing, letting go of tension, and smiling, internally and externally.

I challenge you to make your gratitude practice more deliberate. If you don't already have a deliberate practice, try seven minutes a day (or more) for the next 7 days. You can simply close your eyes, breathe deeply and steadily, and focus on feeling love and gratitude for this life. If your brain starts to overthink or wanders to what you lack, simply smile and relax and come back to a feeling of love and gratitude. If you can, do a little journaling about your experience (and especially practice listing the things, people, experiences and feelings you are grateful for), and notice the difference it makes to your nervous system.

Let me know how it goes.

In Service and with Much Love,

Gabrielle/ZGala

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Do you have a gratitude practice?