Rumi said, “Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”
Gratitude has been front and center in my mind lately. My family and I recently came back from a trip to Europe. It was magical and honestly, a dream come true. The entire trip was a blessing from start to finish. I’m so grateful for the ability to be able to take such a trip. But, gratitude shouldn’t be an occasional emotion that only comes into play when something big happens to us that we’ve dreamt about for a long time. We need to practice gratitude every day.
Practicing gratitude starts building the path to making our dreams come true. The reason is that when we are truly thankful for what we have, our focus is on the things that make us happy and that will extend to our entire being: mind, body, and soul. What we focus on is what we become and what comes into our lives.
Humans are wired to look for what we don’t have and to focus on what’s missing. But, once we change that internal narrative to one that is grateful for what’s there and hopeful for what’s to come, we can finally find our authentic self and open our hearts and our dreams to all possibilities.
Here are some easy ideas to incorporate the practice of gratitude in your daily routine:
- Keep a gratitude journal: Start each day by writing down things you are grateful for. Spending as little as five minutes a day can be incredibly effective! At the end of the week, read back on that week’s list. It’s a great way to end the week on a good note and be ready to receive all the goodness in the week ahead.
- Use your meditation time to give thanks: Think about your gratitude journal and use this quiet time to give thanks for all your good fortune.
- Make every meal Thanksgiving: Don’t wait for the holiday table to share with your family. Take turns sharing daily gratitude with each other during mealtime.
- Be thankful for what you don’t have yet: This practice is so powerful! Allowing yourself to be grateful for something you’d like to have in your life, but don’t currently have might sound a bit strange, but believe me, it works! It allows us to be open to receiving what the universe has in store for us.
- Create a gratitude jar: Choose one of the daily items that you wrote in your journal, write them on a small piece of paper, and add them to your jar. On days when you are struggling, just pick one randomly out of your jar. It brings your focus back to one of thankfulness and changes the trajectory of your day.
When we commit to our dreams, they always come true.
