Cultivating Gratitude

I realized a few years ago that no matter what was going on in my life, unless I trained myself, I’d wake up thinking about what was not working in my life. It was a wake-up call. I decided I must develop a discipline to wake up thinking about what’s working in my life and not what needs to be fixed. I tried many alternatives until I found one that increases my early morning time in the focused mode. Here is my first thought in the morning, it may help you to:

As soon as I wake up and become aware of myself and the world around me, I focus on gratitude. I start with a few deep breaths and think about five people in my life I’m grateful for. As I breathe in slowly and deeply, I bring the first person’s face in front of my closed eyes. I try to see this person as clearly as I can in the part of the world where he or she is right now. Then I send this person my silent gratitude while breathing out—again, slowly and deeply. I repeat this exercise with five people. I avoid rushing through the experience, relishing the few seconds I spend remembering each person.

Then he says this:

Waking up with gratitude helps me to wake up to what’s most important in my life.

That’s #thanksliving. That’s being thankful.