It is not soft or weak, IT WORKS

Nothing about gratitude is "soft" and/or "weak."   Our minds frequently have been conditioned to change  or shift by the implementation of negative consequences for behaviors determined to be unacceptable.   Therefore  many struggle with accepting gratitude practice as a powerful mindset strategy which once implemented leads to massive POSITIVE transformation and delivery of more what we want in our lives.    

Many who lack the awareness of its benefits and how it works, view it as a soft  intervention with gender stereotype of gratitude being more for "women", and "kind of  "it does not really work" attitude.     

Why?  We have been raised in the culture where daily gratitude practice is done only by few and is essentially connected to a cursory thank you and being courteous.  

To see its impact one must implement it with commitment and dedicated focus,  and being open to allow the energy of gratitude to evolve and expand.  Once part of your daily ritual (equally important for your personal and work life), you will be in the experience of focusing on all the good you have at this moment. That energy or vibration is what creates more good in return.  

Why does that matter? 

Gratitude practice brings clarity to so many aspects of human experience and facilitates healthy boundaries.  Where gratitude delivers "big" is really in one seeing the new possibilities previously shadowed by the spectrum of negative emotions and in the way of fully experiencing gratitude at the moment.

Here is an example.. This is the story about John Kralik the author of book The Act of Gratitude and how this practice transformed his life as published in the Forbes Magazine.  

"It’s about a guy (John Kralik)  whose life was a disaster. He was miserable, broke, overweight, and on his second divorce living in a crumby apartment in LA with no air conditioning. He was an attorney and he couldn’t afford to pay his employees their Christmas bonuses because his clients weren’t paying their bills on time --- and sometimes not paying them at all."

He choose to write a thank you note daily - hand-written thank you note - 365 days a year.  

 

By embracing gratitude he was able to survive many hardships, position positive focus as a discipline and become a published author.  

One thing John points out "“Gratitude presses outwards and that creates good feelings in the universe. A lot of that comes back to you eventually,”

Here is the link to a complete article...

Frank Blake, Former CEO of Home Depot  was one of the leaders who embraced gratitude practice in his work.  He committed to weekly note writing to his employees.  This is further shared in the article by Chuck Toney,  Humble at the Top: Why These CEOs Still Write Thank You Notes.  Frank Blake comments this has had amazing impact on generosity and motivation.  

 

Gratitude ... simply works.  

So far in our blogs we have covered WHY gratitude is important and WHAT gets in the way of bringing gratitude practice in our lives, the next blog will focus on HOW we practice gratitude.  

To you and the alchemy of gratitude