Practicing Gratitude

It only felt natural to post something about gratitude during this week of giving thanks. I know we've all heard about the importance of cultivating an "attitude of gratitude" and I wondered if there was anything more that our friends on the other side would like to expound on here. What follows is their perspective on why it's important to feel grateful and how to cultivate more of that feeling in our lives. Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

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"Giving thanks is not just a periodic practice if you want to adapt a true attitude of gratitude. The real test is finding things to feel grateful for even in the midst of chaos and when all feels lost. Gratitude, like any other emotion, carries it's own vibration and as the law of attraction applies, like attracts like. Therefore, it becomes particularly important to feel grateful in times of despair.

As you are learning to become more conscious of your energy management--how you are using your energy to create your reality--it is important to see that you have the power to attract or repel certain experiences. Think of it like this--when you are caught up in fearful situations (worries about money, work, relationships, etc.) the tendency is to keep focus right here on what isn't working for you. As creative energetic beings, this focus serves to create more of the same. However, when you choose to pick a different vibration on which to focus, such as gratitude, love, or compassion, you begin to throw that higher vibration into the creative mix. When the higher vibratory feelings begin to predominate, you really start to change what you attract into your life and how you feel about your life.

And so, our advice to you is this: don't try to focus on gratitude only in those moments when you are grateful for receiving something desired, but in all moments. There is always something to be grateful for even if it's harder to find at times. One of the best ways to change your mood, your energy, and your physiology when you are feeling down and out is to focus your energy on an emotion with a higher vibrational resonance. This is precisely when turning to gratitude serves you best. From a spiritual perspective you can even choose to feel grateful for that very situation that is distressing you because it is serving to make you stronger and wiser. The more you keep focus on how bad things are or how bad you feel, you will stay exactly in that space.

We suggest building a practice of gratitude into your daily thought stream. Especially notice when you are focused on something that makes you unhappy and in that moment switch the thoughts to what you are grateful for, for what does make you happy. This 'attitude of gratitude' not only changes your physiology for the better, it begins to build new neural pathways in the brain. The more and more you 'light up' those neural pathways of love and gratitude the more habitual they become, to the point when you go to reach for a thought when times are tough it will automatically be a more uplifting and healing thought rather than a negative thought that perpetuates the negativity.

This doesn't have to be a big production. You don't need to stop what you are doing and meditate or whip out your gratitude journal and spend ten minutes on entries. You need only change your thoughts. If you are in a meeting and you find yourself thinking negative thoughts about the others present, grab a different thought. Think of one thing for which you are grateful and focus there. You don't have to try to love the people who are disturbing you. You don't, in that moment, need to analyze why they are pushing your buttons and try to overcome. Simply grab a thought of gratitude and let it fill you. When you hold gratitude for something, even just one thing, you will see it begins to fill you with a sense of well-being. That will travel outward and soften your perspective towards those in the unpleasant meeting. It will cause you to see what is really important and that the differences you were just focusing on really aren't that important. It can pave the way for a more harmonious and mutually beneficial outcome to that meeting.

So start paying attention. What are you perpetuating with your thoughts? Start bringing focus away from thoughts that bring you down and towards the thing or things in your life for which you are grateful. The more you practice gratitude, the more you start to align with other 'high vibration' feelings like love and happiness and compassion. The more you align with these feel good vibrations, the more you start to change your brain chemistry, your habit and reactionary patterns, and the overall quality of your life.

In closing, we would just like to say that we are grateful for YOU. Each of you are working hard on your soul's agenda here in the earth plane which is a very difficult place of learning! Thank you. Thank you for continuing to grow, and through your growth bringing more light into the world."


For more information about Heather's work as a medium please visit www.heatherwallace.net