My manifestation success was greatly influenced by gratitude. At that time, I was searching for ways to express my gratitude and tips on how to be grateful. You can use a gratitude journal (or gratitude list) as a powerful law of attraction tool and definitely accelerate manifestation.
That’s why I wanted to know how I could boost my gratitude list’s effectiveness. Let me share with you what I found.
A negative thought is the source of all evil, while a positive thought is the opposite. When you make a gratitude list, you can easily shift from negative to positive thinking, while concentrating on the good things in your life and for what you are thankful for.
Let’s take a quick look at how to get started with a gratitude journal, and why it is so effective as a manifesting tool before I get into the five tips.
How To Start Your Gratitude Journal
We’ll start by doing a little exercise if you’ve never made a gratitude list before or just don’t know where to begin:
Make a list of five things you’re grateful for right now. I mentioned above that it doesn’t matter how big or how small they are. Next, think about how things went.
You should feel great about the five things you wrote on paper because they came to you just naturally. You can jump ahead to the next step and learn how to implement a gratitude list.
However, maybe you struggle with those five points, and it just didn’t feel right to you? Or maybe you didn’t come up with five things to be grateful for?
There is nothing to worry about, this happens to many people. Consider how we live these days, when you watch the news, you most likely see only pain and suffering throughout the world. In a world filled with negativity, it is difficult to focus on the positive.
If you are having trouble coming up with five things to be grateful for, here is an exercise I found helpful; take a piece of paper and write down everything in your mind that is negative. Whatever comes to mind.
We should not dwell on the negative, but sometimes just writing it down can be helpful. Write it down and put it behind you.
Tear the paper apart and throw it away after you have finished writing. Negative feelings will no longer be needed; you can let them go.
You might repeat this a few times, that’s ok, it’s a helpful ritual. When you are ready, think of five things you are grateful for.
You may repeat this as often as necessary. Don’t worry if it takes you days or even weeks. Growing as a person and changing your mindset is a process, and it will take time.
Some changes will occur sooner than others.
Why Keep A Gratitude Journal?
Many studies have shown that expressing gratitude has a positive impact on your mental or physical health.
There is always something in life to be grateful for because when it comes to a gratitude list, nothing is too small to be added.
The most important thing is feeling grateful.
There is no way for the universe (or subconscious mind) to figure out if it’s for the new shiny car you have waiting in your garage, or if you just found a penny on the street.
It does not matter if you say thank you for just being able to eat breakfast with your family, or if you have breakfast at the beautiful Four Seasons in Maui (one of my favorite hotels, by the way).
There are many small things I’m grateful for, like living near my gym. While for some people the gym may be a hassle, it means the world to me because I can go up there whenever I feel like it and start working out, or have some relaxing time in the wellness center.
Start looking around you and find something every day to be grateful for.
Next, let’s talk about my five top tips for making your gratitude list bulletproof.
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Here’s How To Implement Your Daily Gratitude Journal
There are many ways you can integrate a gratitude list into your daily life. There is no right or wrong way; you should choose what feels right to you. It should be something you can keep up with on a daily basis.
It is essential to do things regularly, at your best every day, to build a habit. The most important thing is to get started.
Still, I would like to offer you some suggestions on how to make your gratitude even more powerful by implementing a gratitude list into your daily life.
Write it Down By Hand
You can make this more powerful by writing it by hand. Because it slows down the process, every word you write has more time to sink into your subconscious.
Writing by hand makes the learning process stronger, according to a study conducted by the University of Stavanger. By writing by hand, your brain receives some sort of feedback from the writing itself (motor action) and from touching the materials such as paper and pen.
In addition, they discovered that this feedback was very different when touching or typing on a keyboard, like on your computer or phone.
Nonetheless, if writing a gratitude list on the notepad on your phone is the only way you can do this on a daily basis, go for it.
Maybe you don’t see how you can fit a gratitude journal into your busy schedule, and your commute into work is the only available time? Not a problem. It’s more important to do it than to figure out how.
Make It a Never-Ending List
Make sure you have a beautiful notebook beside your bed, ready to be picked up every morning.
Maintain an ongoing gratitude journal. Of course, you’ll repeat some of these points, but always be on the lookout for new things to include on your gratitude list.
It’s likely that more of these things will appear over time. In the law of attraction, the universe is fast in giving feedback!
Reiterating some points is totally fine. Every day, I thank God for the dream job I have, giving me the opportunity to travel the world all year long. There are some things in your life that are just too good to only write about once, how grateful you are for them.
Check Your Gratitude List Regularly
Occasionally, you may struggle with showing gratitude, and that’s ok. The ritual of writing down negative thoughts and tearing it apart whenever you feel this might be helpful is always available to you.
Re-reading your list or a few points on it is also an excellent way to get you in the right frame of mind, especially if you read them out loud.
For me, it’s a little ritual I do during the day. Being grateful for what you have is so nice, and it will lift your spirits immediately.
It’s a good idea to re-read what you wrote down in the morning at the end of your day if you write your list in the morning as part of your morning routine. It may also be helpful to add a few more points here.
Turn It Into A Story
Describe the perfect life you have and how grateful you are for it. Your gratitude list should be written as if you were telling a story.
Also known as future scripting, this technique activates the law of attraction through a powerful journaling exercise.
Spend as much time as possible on your list. This is one of the reasons why I get up at 5:30 in the morning every day.
Don’t just write, “I’m glad the gym is close to my house.”
Instead, write: “I am thankful to be able to go to the gym whenever I like. I’m so thankful for my gym being just a 2-minute walk from my home. I sometimes spend half an hour there relaxing in the sauna or doing a short workout. It’s so nice to walk around my neighborhood along the little park”.
Perhaps you could add some illustrations.
You can be creative with this; it is your reflection on your wonderful life; the more attention you give to it, the more intense the emotion.
Write Down Your Reason WHY
When you write down what you are thankful for in your life, it’s always a good idea to mention why you are thankful.
Why are you thankful for those things?
Reflecting on your life in this way is an excellent way to make the whole process more meaningful.
Whenever I write on my gratitude list that I’m grateful for the gym next door, I may also say that it saves me a lot of time that I would otherwise spend in the car to get to the gym.
And thanks for saving me this time, I’m able to exercise more often, despite a busy and tight work schedule.
Can you see what I mean? By writing down reasons, you will gain more power, and your subconscious mind will see the importance of this point and attract more of it into your life.
When she gets ready in the morning, my fiancee, likes to tell herself what she is grateful for. Since she has a very busy job and travels a lot as well, this allows her to do her gratitude exercise wherever she is and get ready for work at the same time.
Our usual method of doing this together when she’s at home is to have a cup of tea and talk about the wonderful things in our lives.
I hope this post motivated you to make a gratitude list. Or maybe you have been keeping a gratitude journal for quite some time, but want to get some new ideas?
Please check out my post with 10 powerful ways to practice gratitude every day if you liked these five tips on how to create your perfect gratitude journal.
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