The Importance of Feeling Gratitude.
The importance of a daily gratitude practice.
How often do you practice gratitude? Like actually pause and think about what you are grateful for, at that moment….
Before my yoga/meditation practice, I never did so intentionally. At times I would be overcome with gratitude when things were really great or really beautiful, but those moments were few and far between. And I never actively practiced it.
But it is so important that we begin to make it a practice. Yes, actively work to connect to gratitude. Especially when it’s hard.
Emotions and The Body
Emotions are energy that moves through the body. In fact, the word ‘motion’ is in the word emotion.
We are energy, and energy is always in motion. Meaning, we vibrate. Some vibrations (like your heartbeat) are easy to connect to. Other vibrations (like the vibrations of our emotions) are harder to connect to!
All emotions are energy and all energy has a vibration. In fact, emotions have four main components:
Mind Component
Vibrational Frequency Component
Physiology / Biology Component
Behavioral Component
The emotions first begin in your mind, are then sent through your body as vibration and felt in the body as feelings (physiology) than trigger your behaviors.
Those thoughts that create emotions have a powerful ability to affect your behaviors!
Out of all the emotions, gratitude has some AMAZING that affects on the human body.
The Vibration of Gratitude
“Everything is energy. Your thoughts begin it. Your emotions amplifies it, and your action increases its momentum. ”
Feeling specific emotions has the power to increase your vibration.
When we are feeling sad/ hopeless/ angry we vibrate at around 200 or less.
When we are feeling love/ expansiveness/ hopefulness we vibrate around 200 or more.
When we feel gratitude, we can vibrate at or above 500! Some studies have people at a vibration of 900 when they focus on gratitude for an extended period of time.
Every cell is affected by your emotion (which starts with the thoughts in your mind). These emotions have voltages that work on a verticle frequency.
That vibration than causes the Law of Attraction to kick in. The level of which you’re vibrating attracts like to you. That is why on days when you feel great, good things seem to be magnetized to you. And on the flip side, that is why the saying exists “when it rains, it pours.”
Not Just Affecting the “Woo”
These constant, negative emotions not only affect what you manifest. Negative emotions (that are then felt as feelings and are generated in your mind) can get stuck on repeat. When on repeat, they can cause energy blockages in the body. These energy blockages can have physical symptoms like headaches/ GI problems/ heart issues.
That is why it is so important that we don’t get stuck in negative thought patterns. It is important to look for gratitude.
Side note, I am not saying don’t feel negative emotions. You can’t do that! It is extremely important that we are not unconsciously thinking about them. You can’t numb our emotions or they will come back to bite you in the long run. Feel all emotions but then have the power to release them.
Focusing on Gratitude
Choosing to focus on gratitude than has positive effects on the physical body and a lasting effect on the brain.
The four, main benefits of gratitude in the brain are as follows:
Rewires Neural Pathways to the Bliss Center (the Hypothalamus)
Boosts Brain’s Feel-Good Hormones (Dopamine and Serotonin)
Fosters Cognitive Restructuring
Helps to Regulate Stress Hormones
So not only does focusing on gratitude helps attract better things to you, it helps our brain regulates our mood and connect to good easier.
Easy Ways to Connect to Gratitude
Now comes the practical practice. The practice only works if you do. (meaning do the work).
Here are my tips and tricks to connect to gratitude. You may have your own, and if you do I would LOVE if you shared them with me (slide into my DMs on social media).
Before you get out of bed (or check your phone) list three things you are grateful for.
Keep a gratitude journal.
Every time you’re at a red light, list out what you're grateful for until the light turns green. This can also work when you’re waiting for your coffee to brew or water to boil.
If you live with people, share your gratitude list once a day (hello accountability)
Practice going out of your way to say “thank you”. It’s easy to say “thanks” when it’s convenient, but can you call up an old friend and thank them? Can you thank a first responder or military member? Can you remember to thank who raised you?
Do a gratitude meditation.
Before you go to sleep, list out what you were grateful for that day.
Making Gratitude Practice
It’s not going to be an instant shift, but as we keep returning to gratitude, we create new neural pathways that make us feel better and make the practice easier.
If you are totally lost on the gratitude practice, download my free gratitude journal here. It’s a 21-day challenge where you get to define gratitude for you and get to connect to gratitude in different ways!
Also, if you want to move, take the gratitude yoga class here.