[Podcast] 8 Sacred Ways To Practice Gratitude

What are the best ways to practice gratitude?

Why is being thankful so powerful?

How can being grateful transform our lives and help us attain what we truly desire?

Why are so many people depressed when they have so much?

What is the magic word that when spoken from the heart instantly makes us feel richer?

What is the one thing that destroys gratitude and is a major problem in today's world?

Today we'll be exploring why gratitude is so powerful,

How to practice gratitude every day in various ways.

The unexpected deeper ways we can double our good feelings of gratitude or triple and the spiritual psychology behind gratitude.

This is Ariel.

I'm here with our host Michael McIntosh and it is our deepest honor to be with you here today.

Welcome.

Thank you,

Ariel.

Many blessings.

Thank you everyone for your beautiful presence.

So let's just start with a few wonderful breaths,

Nice big smile and just breathing in,

Giving thanks and as we breathe in just remembering that you are the light.

You are that smiling beautiful light,

Infinite peace,

Eternal consciousness and just allow yourself to feel that beautiful shining light within.

And as we dive into this beautiful topic today just ask your heart,

Are you willing to experience more gratitude in your life?

Are you willing to experience more joy,

More success?

And are you willing to live from a different state of consciousness,

A new state of consciousness?

So gratitude is a fascinating topic.

There are so many gratitude journals and people talk about gratitude and you know the usual advice is create a gratitude journal which of course is a good idea,

It's a good start and we're going to talk about that a little bit today but there's so much more than just the gratitude journal and we have to ask ourselves why is it that some people who have so little are actually very happy?

And why is it that there are many other people who are very wealthy and have so much and have houses full of stuff and they buy everything they want and yet they're very depressed?

So what is it that makes the difference?

I have many clients in our business,

This is all free service we're doing here,

Spiritual recharge but we have a company where we do coaching,

Life coaching.

Many of my clients are very wealthy,

I've worked with multi-millionaires and even a billionaire and multi-billionaire and I can tell you that these people are not more happy than anyone else.

In fact,

Oftentimes they're less happy.

Doesn't that seem a bit strange?

You know this idea that if you have more money and more success you should just naturally have everything you want but I know from personal experience that it really does not in and of itself bring joy.

And on the other hand I remember back in 2005 I'd just finished college and I wasn't sure what to do with myself so I got a loan from the bank,

Thank you very much,

To the bank and I went to India for five months on my own.

Went to Bombay and I travelled around different places and I went to a meditation centre there in Bombay.

Bombay,

Mumbai is a very busy city,

It's where Bollywood is and I remember I used to cross this road,

This really crazy busy road and then I'd go to the centre,

Meditation centre.

I didn't know anything anyone was saying but it was good vibes so I went there in the morning and I came back and I used to get sugar cane juice and one day I met one of the brothers from the centre,

He saw me drinking a sugar cane juice and he said in broken English,

I want to show you my house.

So I was walking home,

I thought why not?

So I went on the back of his bicycle,

It had like a little rack on the back for carrying bags and things so I sat on that rack and he rode me on his bike through these crazy streets and the slums and all these people avoiding cows and donkeys and rickshaws and scooters and other bicycle people.

And finally we arrived at his house and what it was,

Was a little shop underneath,

If you've ever been to India you might have seen this,

A tiny little shop with lentils and rice and a few little plastic things or whatever people wanted and then you had to climb up a ladder,

There wasn't a staircase,

You had to climb up a ladder to get to the top floor and his house is smaller than the room we're in now,

He's upstairs,

It was him and his wife and his two kids and they had this tiny little kitchen and they had this one room with a mat and a bed and they all slept on the same bed and they wanted to give me something to eat and just as we were sitting there one of the people walked past selling mangoes so he went and bought a mango and I said no I'll buy it and he said no no let me buy it you know.

So he bought the mango and we sat there on his little plastic mat in this tiny little room and he had so much joy,

So much joy,

It almost brings me to tears actually thinking about this because here he was,

Here we are sitting in this slum in India on this tiny little mat in this little house and he we really felt like we were kings eating this mango and having his dal and rice or whatever they made for me and I felt so rich and I felt he is far richer,

Far richer than all these millionaires and billionaires because he had spiritual wealth,

He had eternal jewels in his soul and he had so much happiness on his face and that really told me so much that when we have these inner experiences of gratitude we were so grateful for the little things we had.

While I was in India I literally went there for mango season and ate about 1,

500 mangoes I'm not joking I counted them,

Different about 50 different varieties because they have different varieties but that one mango in his house was by far the best because it was eaten in that consciousness of having attained everything and so if someone in the slums sitting there having a mango can feel like they're the king of the world then what about us?

So you might have travelled around different places and seen this happen.

In America there are many people,

What don't we have in the Western world?

You've got constant access to entertainment,

Constant access to basically buy anything you want,

You go to the supermarket and you can buy almost anything you can think of.

This is completely unheard of and yet people are more depressed and anxious now than they were in the 1950s.

Four times more depressed and anxious than when people had way less wealth in these countries.

So what is going on here?

What is going on here?

We need to really understand this.

How is it people can have so much joy with less and yet having so much doesn't guarantee any happiness?

Now I'm not saying that there aren't wealthy people who are also happy because there are.

And there are also people who don't have anything who are unhappy right so there's something else going on.

When I was working with one of my clients,

Wealthy clients,

Who usually has,

If you know very wealthy people you notice that they have a very extravagant lifestyle a lot of the time,

Not everyone but a lot of them.

Everything just right,

Everything's just spot on,

You know,

Everything.

Just how it should be,

How they want it to be.

And one day he went down to a different part of where he was living on a little mini vacation and he got this little Airbnb that was not up to his usual standards because there wasn't anything else available.

And he actually told me that he had such a wonderful time because it was less,

Less to worry about,

Less space,

Less of everything.

And they had a wonderful,

Wonderful time.

And then when he came back to his house,

He appreciated it a lot more.

So he felt more joy in his heart when he went and had less.

Right,

So I'm just giving you a little secrets here of psychology.

We'll explain this in a bit more detail.

When we have everything all the time,

We actually normalize that situation.

When we have less and then we get it back again,

Then we start to feel very grateful.

It's such an amazing feeling to have that shift in perspective.

And I just loved hearing Michael's story just now.

That was so amazing.

And I can relate as well,

Having come back from India,

Having even I was like in the jungles of Costa Rica and it was like coming back.

I was just so kind of shocked and in awe of how much we have and how much we barely notice it and how little,

You know,

We're really,

Really deeply grateful for it.

And it's such an important thing,

I think,

To bring to our awareness every day.

Because otherwise we just can take so much for granted.

And ultimately that depletes our happiness.

We stop seeing,

We stop appreciating.

We might even start complaining.

And the richness of the human spirit is so vast,

Is so abundant.

There's so much beauty inside of us that anything outside is a blessing,

You know,

Is a gift.

Yeah.

So we're going to dive deep into this topic.

We're going to go through seven things,

Seven ways you can practice gratitude.

And the first thing to understand is why do we need to practice gratitude?

What's the point of doing it?

Why bother at all to have gratitude?

The thing is gratitude,

Another word for gratitude is appreciation.

Appreciation.

And appreciation has two meanings.

One is to appreciate something or someone.

I appreciate you for listening to this.

I appreciate,

Alright,

For being here as well.

So we're very grateful.

So we can appreciate people and that makes us feel good and them feel good.

But there's also another meaning,

Which is that assets,

Certain assets,

Like houses or potentially stocks and various different things can appreciate in value.

Appreciate in value.

In other words,

The value of something can go up.

It can appreciate.

Can also depreciate and go down.

Right?

Now,

We can use this in our understanding of gratitude that when we have anything in our life,

If we appreciate it,

Then it appreciates in value.

So for example,

I'm sitting here in my office,

You know,

With Ariel,

Here we are recording this.

And,

You know,

I've got lots of fun little things around here.

I can ignore them and then they don't really have any value or I can appreciate it.

Like I've got a record player here.

If I appreciate the record player and the records,

Then they immediately increase in value.

If I appreciate Ariel,

She immediately increases in value.

Do you know what I mean?

Not that she has a value,

She's priceless.

But that feeling of gratitude and appreciation increases immediately.

It's raining outside,

Which is a bit unusual for the desert,

But I appreciate it.

So instead of being complaining about it,

This is a wonder,

You know,

It makes everything green.

So when we look around our life and we appreciate things,

The things in our life actually go up in value,

In perceived value.

And when we take them for granted,

They depreciate,

They lose their value.

So we're wandering around in the same world,

But in one alternative reality of appreciation,

Everything is far more valuable and we're far richer.

And in an alternative reality,

Everything else is the same,

But we're far poorer internally.

So the more we pay attention and the more we notice what we have,

The more it appreciates.

It's such a symbolic morning that we're recording this because in the desert in Sedona,

We really don't get much rain.

We had a drought the past few years and it's raining and it's so beautiful.

And you know,

In our hearts,

I'm sure hopefully everyone who lives here,

The plants,

The creatures,

We are all in such deep appreciation because it's so sacred.

And you know,

I know in other places that maybe rain all the time,

It might be different.

They appreciate the sky being blue and the sun being out.

And so it's fascinating how when we're not used to having something all the time,

It's a great example of that natural appreciation,

That natural gratitude that flows from our hearts.

And there's a great quote here that Michael collected for today that's so beautiful.

Happiness is wanting what you already have.

Happiness is wanting what you already have.

It's appreciating falling in love with your life as it is.

And because you're in that consciousness,

It appreciates.

It just becomes more and more rich with beauty and light and abundance.

Ah,

Isn't that beautiful?

Sometimes we get what we want and then we want something else.

So if we can appreciate what we have,

We've become very blessed.

So let's talk a little bit about what is the kryptonite for gratitude?

What is the thing that destroys gratitude?

This is a very common problem.

Superman has special powers except when he's exposed to kryptonite.

And we have special powers except when we are exposed to this particular type of kryptonite,

Right?

Do you know what it is?

Can you guess?

What is the thing that destroys gratitude?

We live in a world where we have so much,

Most of us,

Right?

And relative to previous generations,

We're extremely rich.

Even the poorest people in today's world are far,

Far richer than a hundred years ago.

Enormously more rich.

I mean,

Even if you go to the most backward places in the world,

You'll see that they all got smartphones nowadays,

Pretty much.

You go to the desert in the middle of the Sahara or something,

You'll find someone with a smartphone.

It's remarkable.

I've had people go into the middle of nowhere and they go to this village where they think it's like remote.

And there they all are on their phones.

You know,

It's incredible.

So what is the thing that destroys it?

The thing that destroys gratitude is entitlement.

Entitlement.

We live unfortunately in an entitled society where everyone,

Not everyone,

But most of us have been programmed to feel entitled.

That we should have this and everything should be on time and we should get this instantly.

And if the Amazon packages are a day late,

Then that's just not acceptable.

Or if our plane takes off five minutes late,

Then that just won't do at all.

Or if the shop doesn't have our special,

Special,

Special,

Special,

Then it's just absolutely awful.

You know,

The most extreme example of this is,

I was told this by one of my meditation teachers years ago,

That there's this very wealthy woman.

She went to the hotel,

Top floor of the penthouse,

And she went in the bathroom and it wasn't gold plated taps.

And it completely spun her out.

She had a temper tantrum and had to leave the hotel because they weren't gold taps in the bathroom.

Right?

Now,

That might seem ridiculous to us,

But are we doing this ourselves on some level?

If something is a bit late or if we don't get exactly what we want all the time.

Disentitlement is actually the cause of enormous amounts of suffering.

Because when we have these extremely high expectations about what we expect the world to give us all the time,

Then inevitably we get disappointed.

What are the chances of this world being able to deliver to all of us,

Every single one of us,

Everything we could possibly imagine all the time?

And we live in a society where the marketing companies,

Of which there are many,

Many,

Many,

Do an exceptionally good job of making us feel we haven't got things,

That we need things,

That what we have now isn't good enough,

And what we can get from them is going to be even better.

You know,

We don't use a cell phone very much,

But I got texts saying you can upgrade to the latest iPhone.

I'm like,

What's the difference?

Do you know what I mean?

They're just all the same nowadays,

You know.

But I'm sure that a lot of people will go,

Oh,

I better get it.

I used to do that myself until I realized it was a scam.

But do you know what I mean?

This is what we're dealing with.

And this entitlement is destroying our happiness and destroying our gratitude.

It's fascinating.

I think it's spread probably to everywhere in the world.

I mean,

Growing up here in the U.

S.

,

It's everywhere.

I mean,

I just grew up in that energy field where there's just more and more and more and more and more and every and there's always more.

There's always more to get.

There's always more to buy.

You know,

It's in the energy field that that kind of consumer culture.

And what struck me and I think what really started me on my spiritual path was the emptiness.

It's OK.

So everyone has everything and more.

But it felt it just feels so empty.

And I think the other issue with too much is that we aren't able to recognize the inner riches because our focus is outwards and there's so many things to focus on.

So that drains our focusing power.

And we don't have energy left for the inner richness.

And some of the greatest spiritual teachers had nothing on purpose for a reason.

For a reason so that their mental and their mental capacity,

Their heart,

Their whole being could be focused on the presence of the divine,

Could be focused on the glory of their being and the shining light and each person they connect with because they were available.

They weren't cluttered with so many things because every thing we have,

Every extra thing is something to sustain.

It needs attention and so forth.

So it's just so interesting for us to be in touch with the value of simplicity and the potential emptiness that can be created when there are so many desires and so many things,

So many things to have this,

That and the other,

Whether it's physical,

Technical,

Whatever it is.

When we come home to that simplicity,

We experience the natural overflowing beauty of life.

So the first thing we can do to increase our gratitude is to reduce our expectations and reset our baseline for gratefulness.

Reset the baseline for gratefulness.

As I was sharing earlier with one of my clients,

When they have less temporarily and then they go back to what they already normally have,

They're very,

Very blessed.

They feel very happy about what they have.

But when they have it all the time,

They take it for granted.

The most extreme way of doing this,

Which I learned many years ago from Dr Prashant,

My first meditation teacher,

Is he used to tell us that we need to come back to zero,

To zero.

Reset the baseline to zero.

Right?

It's a bit like drugs,

Actually,

If someone takes various different drugs,

When you initially take a drug,

You go high,

You go up higher,

So you feel a kick,

Right?

Any kind of drug.

But then the experience comes back down again and it goes below the baseline and then you do it again and it goes up and it goes down.

After a while,

If we're addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever it is,

When we take the drug,

We only go back to our previous baseline,

So we're back to nothing.

So what we can do spiritually is we can say to ourselves,

Let me imagine that I have zero.

I've got no body,

Because the soul is just light,

No body,

No relationships,

No name,

No money,

No projects,

Nothing.

No things.

Just imagine dying.

When we die it all gets erased.

You imagine being dead,

Having nothing,

Zero.

And then you come back here,

Then you go,

Oh wow,

Look at all this fun stuff.

This is what I do with my wealthy clients.

I say,

Imagine being dead and then they come back and they go,

Oh my God,

Look at this cool house I've got,

Look at this cool stuff.

So if we want to increase gratitude,

We've got to reset the baseline to zero,

Because what happens is everything is a bonus for us.

It's almost like we're winning the lottery again and again.

We go,

Oh,

Look at this,

Look at this,

Look at this.

What a wonder.

So instead of thinking that everyone owes me something,

That if I go to the store,

Everyone should smile at me and I should be given special treatment and all these sorts of things,

We say,

No,

If someone says hello to you,

That's a bonus.

If someone smiles at you,

That's a bonus.

You know,

So if we want to feel better,

Have more gratitude,

More joy,

Then the first thing is reset everything to zero.

Such a powerful practice,

So liberating to come back to that place of zero.

And you know,

I even see it,

We have a rabbit and I've helped him set back to zero a few times because there's times when he'll get into these routines that are kind of entitled and spoiled,

Like he's getting all these carrots and he's getting pieces of fruit and he's getting all these greens.

And then he expects it and he doesn't appreciate his hate.

You know,

He doesn't appreciate the basic things and it's also not good for his health,

So it makes him sick.

And so I've noticed from time to time,

I just bring him back to zero,

You know,

Cut all of those things out,

Clear it up,

Let's come back to the baseline.

And now when he does get a green or something special,

He appreciates it.

He's so happy,

He runs around my legs in circles and he just can't contain his joy.

Whereas before when he just would have everything all the time,

He really didn't do that.

He was in a different space.

And he was sick.

And he was sick.

This is such a deep thing.

You know,

We live in a society that doesn't ever talk about these things.

You never hear this on marketing messages.

How many times have you heard Apple say,

Keep your phone,

We'll give you a new battery.

You don't need a new one,

You'll be all right.

No,

No,

No,

It's never like that,

Is it?

You always need the new thing.

So gratitude,

Wonders,

You know,

Less,

Less,

Less,

Cut it back to zero and you'll be profoundly blessed immediately,

Right?

The second thing you can do is space clearing.

Space clearing leads to gratitude.

This is a physical thing that you can do.

I've experienced this many times that we all have a lot of stuff and if you don't,

Then good for you.

Being minimal is actually a lot of work,

I've realized.

So most of us have quite a lot of stuff.

And we can take it for granted because it's around the house.

And unless you're practicing being dead and being free and being late,

Being spiritual late and not having anything on a regular basis,

We can easily take it for granted.

So one of the best things we can do is do a space clearing twice or three times a year,

Or at least once a year,

Where you go through all your stuff,

Everything you own,

Clothes,

Books,

You know,

Electronic equipment,

You know,

Whatever,

You know,

Furniture,

Anything.

And you consciously remove the lowest quality 20% of your stuff.

So you just think,

Does this bring me joy?

You can use that method.

Does it bring me joy?

Does it spark joy?

Or you can just say,

You know,

Do I even like this?

Do I even need this?

You know,

You know from your heart whether you need something or not.

And give all those extra things to the thrift store,

To charity shop,

Right?

I guarantee we have an expression,

The bigger the pile of stuff going out your house,

The bigger the pile,

The bigger the smile.

Yeah,

It's very true.

I've done this so many times.

The more I let go of the bigger my,

It actually brings me at least five times more joy getting rid of things than buying them at least five times more,

Maybe more.

And what happens is that you will realize how profoundly blessed you are because you go through everything you own and you go,

Oh wow,

Look at this cool thing.

I didn't even remember I had this.

Oh,

This clothes at the back of the cup.

I didn't even remember I had this.

Oh,

This is a cool book.

I should read this book.

Right?

So you wander around and you end up realizing that you're supremely rich,

Supremely blessed.

This is a practice that anyone can do and the funny thing is the more you let go of the richer you'll feel and the lighter you'll feel.

So this is a very important practice.

If you want to feel tremendously more wealthy,

Remove things from your physical space.

The next thing is the magic word that when it comes from the heart makes us richer.

Do you know what the magic word is?

It's a basic word,

But it has to come from the heart.

So when we say thank you,

Thank you from the heart,

From deep in the heart,

Thank you,

Then we are acknowledging our wealth and our blessings.

If we say it superficially,

Oh thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you,

Whatever,

It doesn't do anything.

It's the same word,

But you can even change it.

You can say things like,

I'm grateful for you.

I'm blessed for this.

So you don't have to say thank you specifically.

I'm supremely blessed.

I'm grateful for you.

I appreciate you.

Yeah,

I just talked to my dad.

He's going for surgery tomorrow.

Bless his heart.

And I just wanted to give him appreciation.

Do you know what I mean?

He said,

Oh,

The more appreciation,

The better.

I appreciate that you appreciate me.

So you can give thanks and it makes everyone feel better.

It makes everyone feel richer as long as it comes from the heart.

Energy of gratitude,

Of thank you,

I value you,

I appreciate you.

There's a spiritual energy.

Gratitude is a spiritual energy that expands,

That grows as we share that appreciation with other beings,

With other souls.

Even if we place our hand on a tree and say thank you,

I feel there's a spiritual energy,

A spiritual exchange.

And then that consciousness of appreciation lifts us up.

It lifts up everyone we connect with and it lifts up all of life around us.

And there's a natural happiness,

The fruit.

What is the fruit of gratitude of appreciation?

His happiness,

His joy,

His contentment,

His love.

And the more we nourish and nurture these energies and grow them,

The more beautiful our lives and our world can become.

Yeah,

So beautiful.

And we can take it one step further by giving appreciation and regard and being very specific with people of what we appreciate about them.

Everyone has specialities,

The things that they are good at,

That they like to do.

And when we specifically appreciate somebody for what they're doing,

It touches their heart.

And when we say things that touch someone's heart,

We feel very blessed.

We feel very grateful in ourselves.

Because just in the same way as if we send out bad vibes,

We're the ones who are poisoning ourselves with negative energy first and foremost.

And we give out good vibrations,

Then it amplifies that energy throughout our whole body.

You'll be surprised if you go to the store or if you're talking to some tech person.

I was talking to someone from Google the other day about some technical thing.

And I just at the end of the call,

I said,

I really appreciate you taking the time to explain how this whole thing works with these various systems.

And he was a bit surprised.

I could tell he was taken off guard with sincere appreciation because most people just take it for granted.

But I thought,

You know,

He spent like half an hour with me trying to walk me through different things and different options and save money and things.

I thought,

No,

He should get respect for that.

But that's just someone I don't know.

I talk to randomly.

But there are so many people in our lives who say thank you very much for your beautiful presence and for your kindness and for your cooperation and for your beautiful smiles.

Yeah,

And good vibrations,

Right?

So we can specifically notice the good in others and then share it.

Yeah,

And if you get it just right and you share that thing that is special about that person,

It's such a wonderful thing because you're focusing on where is the speciality?

What is it about this person that is unique?

And it might not be something they're particularly good at.

Some people have a lot of skills,

But they're not really bothered about that.

They're more touched by the love or the kindness or the dedication or something like that that they put into it is more important to them than the actual thing that they do.

And if you share that,

That appreciation,

That gratitude,

It's like lighting someone up and you feel profoundly blessed by doing it.

You can always find the virtues in every soul.

Each of us has our own unique energy,

Our own way,

Our own virtues.

And as you recognize that in others,

You help bring those to the surface and you make them smile.

You make them feel the joy.

My parents were recently here and I was doing that.

I was finding like,

Wow,

There are these beautiful virtues and gifts in this person and acknowledging that and emphasizing that and appreciating how beautiful,

How valuable those gifts,

That way of being,

That perspective,

That consciousness is that that one just naturally has and is.

And it's so beautiful because it makes you feel good and it makes them feel good.

And everyone around feels good too.

So you know,

This practice is a way of instantly making all of our lives more rich.

And as you know from the law of attraction that whatever the energy is that increases.

So the more we practice these things,

The more wealthy we feel,

Nothing else has changed,

But we are experiencing wealth.

And that wealth then creates more wealth because it's coming from that space.

The fifth thing you can do,

A way of practicing gratitude,

Is to understand and be grateful for the secret benefits in life.

This is a very interesting secret right here.

Life oftentimes,

Let's be honest,

Throws us something we don't particularly appreciate.

Yeah,

There are things that we want and there are things we don't want.

Sometimes we get things we don't want.

We think we don't want them.

We think,

Oh my God,

It's not what I wanted.

Why is this thing happened?

Why do I feel like this?

Why is this person here?

What about,

You know,

There's all sorts of things and they're no doubt going to carry on happening.

So we have a list of things that we tend to want to have and to experience.

Then we have another list of things that we want to avoid and things we want to resist.

And then life gives us these other things we didn't want.

And we tend to think,

Oh my God,

What am I going to do about this?

Why is it here?

What's wrong with me?

This shouldn't be here.

But when we go deeper,

We realize in many,

Many cases that there are secret benefits to those challenging situations.

In fact,

I would say that many of the most unpleasant things that I've ever experienced in my life turned out to be huge blessings.

Huge blessings.

I remember one of the most obvious examples of this was when I was back in England and I was heartbroken over a relationship and I felt like I didn't have any friends.

My whole like,

Got back from India and it felt like everyone just moved on and I was abandoned and left on my own.

I was very lonely and heartbroken with what was going on in my situation.

But that pain catapulted me into my new life,

Which has been much better than it was before by far.

So actually that was a huge,

Huge,

Huge blessing,

Although I didn't particularly appreciate it right at the beginning.

So we can practice gratitude for the secret challenges,

The hidden benefits.

To have that openness that may I recognize,

May I see the gift in this,

May it be revealed to me.

Sometimes we can see it.

Sometimes it takes us some time to see it.

But there's this deep surrender and level of trust in the unfolding of life.

In our devotion,

Our dedication is to God,

To the divine,

And to the highest good.

And when we have that intention in our hearts,

Even if it doesn't look good,

We can trust that it is.

And we can appreciate,

We may even find that the situation enables us to grow our appreciation when we're sick.

We realize how much we appreciate wellbeing and being able to do things,

Just little things,

You know?

So sometimes even these adverse situations are a force to break us out of a trance,

Help us come back to zero and really appreciate what's right in front of us.

Yeah,

Such a blessing.

And when we've had issues in our business and our work and everything's a mess and things are not working the way we want them to,

We can say,

You know what?

This is great.

This is great.

I'm grateful this happened because it's giving me an opportunity to do this thing or fix this thing or to upgrade this thing or to change something in myself or whatever it is.

So when you have a seemingly negative situation,

If you say,

Thank you,

I'm going to take the hidden benefit from this,

Then you can shift your consciousness away from the problem into the solution and actually get the benefit from it.

And it really will be something that you're tremendously grateful for later on.

The sixth thing way of practicing gratitude is to have gratitude for the divine,

For the source,

For the highest being.

Many spiritual teachers have said they wish they had more time just to give thanks to God.

Praise the Lord,

You know,

Giving thanks and praise.

Because,

And I can say this for myself,

That if it wasn't for divine love and divine lights,

My life would be a total disaster.

Total disaster.

And the more we give thanks and praise,

The more we feel that love and that support,

Divine support,

Spiritual power.

This is Spiritual Recharge podcast.

And we get spiritually recharged from the source of all the power,

The source of all the bliss.

And the more we give thanks for that light,

If you give thanks,

Thank you for the light,

Thank you for the love,

Thank you for the bliss,

Thank you for waking me up so that I'm spiritually sane and coming from a place of ease and grace.

Thank you for the power.

Thank you for recharging the battery of my soul.

As we feel that and we give thanks and direct our heart in that direction,

Then it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

So just even writing a list of all the thanks and praise will put a big smile on your face and give you so much good feelings.

And even though we have this as number six,

It's really number one.

It's number one.

This is connecting with the source of all gratitude,

Light,

Love,

All things beautiful,

All things abundant,

All things full of grace.

And as we connect with this being the ocean of love,

The divine,

There is an unlimited flow of the highest,

Most beautiful energy.

And when we connect,

I think we cannot help but feel endless appreciation and gratitude and love for our connection to the beloved,

To the highest one.

And we all have it,

We all have our own personal connection across all locations,

All religions,

All everything.

Each of us has this direct line to the highest one.

And the more we connect and be in that relationship of love,

Gratitude overflows and then gratitude overflows for the rest of our lives,

Our entire lives,

Because we're connected to that source of all light,

Love and appreciation.

Yeah.

And if you haven't had that feeling yet,

For whatever reason,

You know,

Neither of us or myself were into God and religion or any of these things growing up or anything like that.

But we really discovered there's a source of divine love and divine power and bliss.

There really is.

And you can tune into it and you can receive it.

And when you do,

Then you really do genuinely feel profound gratitude because it changes everything.

And everyone has a right,

An eternal birthright to that love and that bliss and peace.

And then the final thing we'll talk about is the Gratitude Appreciation Journal,

Which we talked about a little bit at the beginning.

This is normally where people start.

But we wanted to add these other things first,

Because then once you're wandering around your life and thinking about things on these other levels,

Then you realize there are endless opportunities for gratitude and appreciation all the time.

So you can be grateful almost every moment of the day.

I remember going to get a tooth pulled a couple of years ago.

And I was extremely grateful that they got rid of that tooth.

So you can be in the dentist on getting a tooth pulled out,

Feeling gratitude,

You know.

So the journal,

The appreciation journal,

Is a beautiful thing that every day just to write down what you're grateful for.

And what it does is it sets your mind in the direction of noticing things to be grateful for.

Because once we start writing down everything we can think of,

We realize that the list can go on and on and on and on.

And then it sets the tone for us to move into the day with that energy.

And then as we go about our usual day,

We start noticing,

Oh,

I'm grateful for this as well.

And I'm grateful for this because we've set that,

Set the stage.

So writing your gratitude list in the morning is a beautiful thing to do.

And studies have shown that people who do this are significantly happier in general than people who don't.

So this is more effective than a lot of other things you could do to feel happy.

You just write down,

I'm grateful for my hands and my feet and my body and this chair.

I'm grateful for the,

You know,

You could just whatever you're,

Wherever you're sitting down,

You would look around and go,

I'm grateful for then there's people and there's the sunshine or there's the rain.

And a little bonus tip is if you're writing a gratitude journal,

Then what you can do is you can be grateful for things yet to come.

So you might say I'm grateful for my exceptional health that you may not have right now,

But you're giving thanks for it coming to you.

And when you sneak those things into your gratitude list,

Your subconscious mind will accept it as real because you're writing about things you're grateful for in your life now.

So it kind of allows that to drop into your being as if it's already achieved today.

And with that,

Just being in the vibration of gratitude will continue to bring things you're grateful for in your life.

And another thing is you can listen to the morning gratitude meditation that goes with this podcast.

Just having that meditation practice,

That focus every morning will set your mind and heart in the feeling and abundance of gratitude.

So here's some homework.

What is one thing you can do today to feel more blessed and grateful?

We've talked about many things,

Mental habits,

Emotional habits,

Practices.

What are you taking with you?

You can pick more than one if you want,

But at least one.

You pick one and do that.

And you can always come back and listen to this again.

Share this with the people in your life who will benefit,

Who will flourish.

And the more you practice this,

The more you will really feel so blessed.

You will feel so wealthy and rich no matter what.

And then you'll attract more wealth,

More blessings,

More beauty.

You'll feel happier,

More alive.

And by appreciating other beings,

You will make them bloom with so much love and beauty.

It's a great gift.

It's a great donation to give gratitude.

May you be a soul who has attained everything through the deep practice of gratitude.

Thank you for listening,

For your beautiful,

Beautiful,

Beautiful presence.

We appreciate you so deeply.

We would not be sitting here sharing this right now if it wasn't for your presence.

So thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you for being the beautiful being that you are.

Thank you for your beautiful presence and big smiles.