The Gratitude Effect

Rod Suskin hosts an entertaining weekly talk radio slot in which he gives personal ‘readings’ using astrological charts. I tuned in the other day to hear him pronouncing on the fact that Jupiter was in an ‘angry phase’.

Of late our biggest planet has apparently been occupying a position in the heavens where it is not particularly happy to be – causing a somewhat destabilising influence on many people and situations.

For me, it had been a rather up and down and very challenging couple of weeks in many respects, so here was something to smile about. I was thankful for something to blame; something outside of my control!

My dear wife, though, wasn’t buying it. “Jupiter and it’s moods aside, I think you need to step back, reflect and go back to practising gratitude for what you have,” she coached me!

[box type=\”shadow\”]“Be thankful for what you have; you\’ll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don\’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

– Oprah Winfrey[/box]

Time Out

Those of you who follow this blog or who have purchased our new Introductory Course, New Insights Life Coaching 101, will know that I advocate a simple process for reconnecting with your life purpose, one that I call taking a personal \’Time Out\’.

I resolved to take some of my own medicine.

It immediately helped to calm me, remind me of how wonderful life is and how stagnant it would be without the challenges that bring about growth. I began to feel grateful … and not long after that I received some good news.

A powerful ingredient

Gratitude is without doubt a powerful ingredient in the ‘cake mix’ that manifests well-being and abundance in our lives.

What we think about most consistently is what we attract. This is the simple truth of the Law of Attraction. Things have been rather nicely set up for us to live the lives of our dreams simply by thinking the right thoughts and thinking them consistently.

Easier said than done

Unfortunately this is easier said than done.

In the biased, materialistic and highly competitive society that we humans have chosen to design for ourselves, it is far more natural for our minds to dwell on thoughts about what we don’t have and what we perceive to be the related injustices of our world.

Gratitude is a feeling or emotion that we tend to confine to special occasions or situations. For many of us it is a reactive response to things that are done for us or respect that is shown to us, rather than a proactive way of living our lives.

Removing obstacles to abundance

But gratitude is a potent tool that can help us to get the Law of Attraction working for us. By regularly practising feeling grateful for what we have, we relegate thoughts of lack – or what we don’t have – to afterthoughts, thus removing the obstacles to a natural flow of abundance as it was intended.

By focusing on what we do have (and let’s face it, most of us have an awful lot more than we realise if we take the time to think about it) and by deliberately taking time to feel real gratitude and appreciation, not only do we feel so much better about our situations but – guess what – we start to attract more of the things we are grateful for!

Try this…

Next time you’re feeling down about your life, thinking fate has dealt you a bad hand, or wondering why you’ve experienced such a run of bad luck, stop and think about what has been consistently occupying your thoughts.

The chances are you’ve been dwelling on exactly the things you don’t want or need in your life.

Utilising the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction doesn’t differentiate between good and bad thoughts. Whatever it is you focus on with enough consistency, you will attract in some form. It’s as simple as that.

By learning to live with gratitude, you can ensure that what you attract is really what you want to attract, in so doing utilising the Law of Attraction in the way it was intended.