Have you ever said to yourself, “I’m grateful for…”? There’s so much about that phrase that can be so powerful. What’s interesting is that you can’t be in gratitude and have other emotions at the same time. So for example, if you’re in gratitude, then it pushes away fear.  Or if you’re grateful, you can’t be angry at the same time. Amazing how that works, isn’t it?

By being in that place of gratitude, it also raises your energetic vibration and improves your health. And by now, if you know me, I’m always talking about how it’s all about those ‘good vibrations’!  Now remember, the important thing to know about gratitude is that it’s not just about saying it, you want to feel the positive feelings of it.  So focus on the things you really are grateful for. You don’t want it to be something that brings you a negative feeling.

Often before going to sleep, I write down every ridiculous thing I’m grateful for. I’ve been grateful for toenails because it’s really painful to have someone step on your toe when you don’t have a toenail. Ouch! I’m grateful for emory boards, soap, towels, spoons — you get the picture.  It’s important to remember all those little things that we can be grateful for, no matter how silly they may seem at the time. At least it’s raising your vibrations and helping you stay away from negative emotions. Here’s an extra added benefit.  When you write down all you’re grateful for before you go to sleep, you’ll have better dreams and wake up feeling better! Worth a try, right?

Since we can all get too busy or tired at the end of a long day to write down all that we’re grateful for, it’s important to have other ways to bring gratefulness into your day. When you do, you’ll start to see really cool things coming into your life.  You can do it while driving, when you get frustrated, while grocery shopping, etc. Just paying attention to all the things that we are blessed enough to have at our convenience, things we’re able to experience and the people we have in our lives is a great place start.

In my house, we’ll go around the dinner table and ask each other five questions. First, “What was your favorite part of the day?” Next is, “What are you most grateful for today?” Sometimes just answering these two can go on for 10 minutes with each of us, especially with my girls, my chatterboxes, because they had interesting days. Then we ask, “What is something you love about yourself?” And also, “What is something that you love about someone else?”  We then move on to “What’s a good deed or something nice you did for someone else today?”  We even do it if my daughters’ friends are eating with us.  It always makes for interesting conversations and opens up communication about how we’re feeling.

It’s pretty awesome when you’re the recipient of hearing what someone else loves about you — a gift worth giving and receiving.  It will feel good both in your own heart and also make someone else feel good.

That’s just one aspect of gratitude that winds up having a big impact when you do it consistently. The more and more you focus on gratitude, the more wonderful things you attract into your life.  So now it’s your turn:

What are you grateful for today?