What are you thankful for? Have you used gratitude affirmations lately?
In a year like the one we’ve just had, these might be hard questions to answer.
But here’s the thing: When you’re going through challenging or uncertain times, that’s when practicing gratitude matters more than ever!
Gratitude allows you to completely transform your mindset and experience in an instant — no matter what is happening in your life or in the world around you.
So today I’d like to share some gratitude affirmations that will help you change your perspective and stay focused on the positive, so you can attract more of what you want into your life and less of what you don’t.
What Is Gratitude, Really?
All right, now let’s take a moment to talk about what practicing gratitude actually looks like — and why it has such a powerful impact on your life.
Gratitude isn’t simply thanking whatever deity or divine force you believe in for everything that’s good in your life.
It’s about feeling a profound sense of thankfulness deep in your heart and realizing how incredibly fortunate you are to be alive, living the life that you have.
When you are able to feel this level of awe-filled appreciation in your heart and soul, something incredible happens.
A powerful sense of positivity bubbles up inside you, lifting your mood and spirits.
It awakens a sense of joy or even bliss that raises your energetic frequency and allows you to put more positive vibes out into the world.
These powerful vibes resonate with other people and things that are vibrating at the same high frequency as you are, allowing you to attract more high-vibe people and opportunities into your life.
Suddenly all of the difficult things in your life lose their power over you. They’re still there, but they’re no longer overwhelming or anxiety-inducing.
They’re just something to be dealt with. Something you know you CAN deal with and successfully overcome.
And all of this can happen in an instant!
How to Practice Gratitude
That’s the power of gratitude for you.
But wait a minute Jack, you might be thinking. How can I feel that kind of gratitude when there are so many terrible things happening in my life?
I just lost my job. My partner and I just broke up. I have bills coming due that I can’t pay and my kids aren’t talking to me! What do I have to be grateful for?
No matter how terrible your life may seem, there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for.
This isn’t just a self-help cliché … it is a very real and powerful truth.
Consider your life as it is right now.
You’re watching this video on some sort of electronic device. Your computer or a smartphone.
That’s something to be grateful for!
It’s incredible that we such powerful technology at our disposal.
Imagine traveling back in time 50 years and telling people in the 1960s that we would one day have hand-held computing devices that were more powerful than the building-sized ones they used in NASA back then!
We humans are incredibly skilled at making our most ambitious dreams a reality.
That’s something else to be grateful for!
Now consider where you are. Are you sitting in your own house or apartment? Do you have a roof over your head?
Do you share your home with people or pets that you love?
These are all incredible things to be grateful for!
Or maybe you’re sitting on a bus or a train. If so, aren’t you lucky that your town or city has a public transit system?
Again, that’s something to be grateful for!
Or how about the clothes you’re wearing. Are they keeping you warm and comfortable?
That’s something to be grateful for!
Someone worked hard to make those clothes you’re wearing right now. Which is something else you can be grateful for!
Now think about your body. Is it relatively healthy and pain-free? Does it have the strength and energy to take you where you need to go and complete the tasks you need to complete?
That is something to be HUGELY thankful for!
How about the community in which you live, or the natural environment around you?
Or the shoes that you own, the car that you drive, the food in your fridge, or the people in your life who love you and bring joy into your world?
Or the people who write the books and create the TV shows and movies and video games that keep you entertained?
Or the musicians who write songs that bring tears to your eyes because they’re so beautiful?
Or the hot water that allows you to take cleansing showers and relaxing baths, or the healthy drinking water and fresh and delicious food you have access to?
These are all incredible things to feel grateful for!
The fact is, no matter how many so-called “bad things” are happening in your life, there are countless things you have to be grateful for.
And when you focus on them and cultivate a deep appreciation for everything that’s good in your life, you will liberate yourself from negativity and feel much greater joy and contentment on a day-to-day basis.
And that joy and contentment will give you the faith and motivation you need to solve whatever problems are currently troubling you so you can get back to living your best life!
Your Morning Gratitude Affirmations
So now I’d like to teach you some gratitude affirmations that you can make part of your daily routine to help you cultivate a deep and lasting appreciation for everything that is good in your life.
Every morning, as soon as you wake up, and every evening, before you go to bed, I encourage you to repeat the following to yourself:
- I am grateful for this moment.
- I am grateful for my dreams, and for knowing that I can achieve anything I set my heart to.
- I am grateful for my challenges because I know they are helping me become the person I’m meant to be.
- I’m grateful for all of the people in my life who help me understand who I want to be in the world, as well as who I aspire not to be.
- I am grateful to be alive and experiencing my life exactly as it is, with all of its ups and downs.
- I am grateful for person I am becoming, and the incredible future I am creating.
Gratitude Affirmations for Success
If you repeat these gratitude affirmations to yourself at least once or twice a day, I guarantee you will find it much easier to maintain a positive attitude and stay motivated toward your goals.
You might also want to take the time every morning or evening to write down ten things you are grateful for that day, so you are better able to remember everything good that happen in your life.
For additional gratitude affirmations practices and resources, download my free Affirmations for Success Guide. You’ll discover guidelines for creating effective gratitude affirmations and easy-to-use templates for creating your own.
Remember, what you focus on grows.
So the more you focus on everything good that happens in your life, the better your life will be!
As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre—and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Jack is America’s #1 Success Coach and wrote the life-changing book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and Jack speaks around the world on this subject. Check out his newest book The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home. Follow Jack at www.jackcanfield.com and sign up for his free resources today!
Image courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio.
