How to turn everyday items into a source of joy by being thankful.

How To Turn Everyday Items Into A Source Of Joy By Being Thankful.

You can turn even the most mundane items in your life into a powerful source of joy. Find out how in this article.  I also suggest a powerful exercise but exercise that will immediately change how you feel about your day.

Sometimes we may think that we have precious little to be thankful for, particularly if we are wrestling with challenging feelings.   However, even if you go through the motions of practicing gratitude for just 1 minute you will be amazed at how quickly you develop a lighter sense of being.  When you practice gratitude on a regular basis the results will be cumulative and self-fulfilling; as you develop a grateful heart you will find more to be grateful for and you will climb aboard a self-perpetuating upward spiral.

It does not matter what you feel thankful for

It does not matter what you feel thankful for.  The power of the exercises presented here are in the feelings of gratitude that are generated. The feeling of gratitude is the magic. The things you choose to focus on are just the vehicles.  You can be thankful for a lot of things; the air you breath, your nose, your arms and legs, your eyes, the clothes on your back, the car you drive, a place to sleep, the food you eat, friends, family, a job, whatever money you have, a blue sky and sunshine, rain, the trees around you, birds singing, music you enjoy, some one’s smile, cappuccino coffee, Facebook , flush toilets, soap, hot water.  Once you get into the flow of being thankful you will find the list is endless.

Practice generating the feeling of gratitude

The important thing is to practice generating the feeling of gratitude. Knowing that Gratitude works and how to do it is not enough. This is usually the case with knowledge; you have to do something with it to get the juice.  The key is in the doing.

Gratitude exercise # 4

Breathing thanks

You can do this exercise any time any place you have a few uninterrupted moments.

The instructions are as follows:

  1. Close your eyes and take a deep slow even breathe using your diaphragm
  2. Keep breathing and as you breathe out say “thank-you” to yourself.
  3. Repeat this for 1 minute
  4. Note any positive emotions this may be generating.
  5. Note where in your body the emotion seems to be happening
  6. Give the emotion a shape and a colour
  7. Now imagine spinning the feeling around until it is humming
  8. Let the feeling grow and intensify as it spins and hums until it fills your whole body
  9. Now smile as you open your eyes and come back to full waking consciousness

Remember we are constantly using our imagination, often in a negative way, to amplify uncomfortable feelings. In this exercise you are using your imagination to amplify positive feelings.  This is something you can do on a day to day basis.

Daily focus

Today you are invited to find things to be grateful for in the natural world.

As you go through you day, notice the natural world; the wind, the earth under your feet, the sun, the moon, water, the sky, things that grow, grass, shrubs, trees, insects, animals birds any component of the natural landscape. 

As you notice each one say thank you to it. Let the day be a deep appreciation of the natural world because it sustains us all.

Reflect at the end of the day on whether or not this focus made a difference to you day – if it do consider sharing this post with a friend.

You will find that as you focus on things that you can be thankful for your day will turn into a smile.

Post Series: The gratitude blogs
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