Gratitude

When I accepted the free invitation for the three-day world gratitude summit organized by author and speaker, Sha Nacino (https://www.shanacino.com/ or info@shanacino.com), I did not realize the magnanimity of the gift I was receiving. The euphoria you get after immersing yourself in three full days of interviews, anecdotes, advice and experiences of seasoned gratitude practitioners cannot be expressed in words.

As an act of gratitude, I decided to summarize the learning from the summit into this article so that people who did not attend the summit discover the power of gratitude.  The content in this article are from pearls of wisdom shared by the speakers I listened to at the World Gratitude Summit organized by Sha Nacino between August 13-15, 2020. I dedicate this article to each one of them and say thank you for their gift from the bottom of my heart.

I practice gratitude daily in my life. One is to write all the reasons to be grateful for every morning in a gratitude journal, which I switched to app recently. At the end of the day, we as a family have a ritual to pick three reasons to be grateful for each member of the family and say it out loud. It has to be a specific act of kindness and not blanket statements.

Regular practice has actually fostered a positive attitude within my family members who have stopped complaining and have actually found reasons to help each other, just so they can easily quote examples during thanksgiving in the night. Saying “thank you” and “I love you” to your loved ones without thinking about past or future and only living in the present brings loads of happiness to them and you as well. After all, it is happiness that we all seek in life. Why not gift it today by practicing Gratitude!

What is gratitude?

Answer: It is simple act of saying thank you but with genuine emotion and earnestness.

Why should we say thank you?

Answer: When you say thank you or express gratitude, you will be in a positive state of mind, and it will help remove the negativity inside you. You cannot be both.  So, practicing gratitude will make you happy and when you are happy, you will perform to your best and attract all that you desire. 

What are the benefits of practicing gratitude?

Answer: Benefits include many, but mainly it helps to attract love and happiness into your life including many things like health, wealth, prosperity and help manifest your desires.  

What are the different ways to say gratitude?

Answer: Many practitioners and gurus in this field advised many ways to practice this simple task.

1. Gratitude Box: Write at least one reason for gratefulness in a piece of paper, date it and put into a gratitude box every day. You can write many, but always start with one. If you have this in your work place, and you do this, it creates a positive vibration that you take back to your house and thus it insulates your family from work pressures and tensions. If you have this in your home, you can do this either in night before you sleep or in the morning. You can save the pieces of paper every year as a souvenir, memory or legacy for your children.
2. Gratitude journal: Write out every incident or example that would make you grateful for that day in a journal on daily basis. Think about simple things like being alive, your heart is beating, sun rising as reasons for being grateful.
3. There are many gratitude apps available that can log your thoughts on phone
4. Gratitude Board: You take up any type of cardboard, piece of chart and stick pictures of memories, events and milestones in your life. It could be pictures of family and friends too. Anything that will bring you happiness and feeling of accomplishment in life that will bring forth feelings of gratitude for who you are and what you do.  Place this board in a place where you will glance at it at least once a day, even if it is your bathroom mirror.
5. Gratitude rocks: this method was given in The Secret book by Rhonda Byrne. Here rocks are kept in pockets or purses. Whenever you touch them you have to say grateful for everything you have in life.
6. When you get up and start your day, say thank you every thing in life like feet to stand up, smile in the mirror while you brush and say thank you for the sun to rise up in the sky.
7. 3 Reasons to be grateful about:  I do this ritual in the night before bed time, where in my family say 3 things that we are grateful about to each other every day, explaining the why behind it. It started out with none of them having anything to say to each other. However, over time, unconsciously they spread kindness over the day that becomes a reason to shower gratitude on each other.  There are less fights and more peace and love in the household.
8. Smiling is an act of gratitude. Your smile is actually a gift you give to someone and if they don’t smile back, it is ok. But if they do smile think it as a bonus.
9. Best of the Best: Of all the accomplishments you have done, think of the best of the best memory or incident to feel grateful
10. A gift for the kindest: If you travel and meet new people, take a wrapped present with you to gift the best travel companion every time you make that trip.
11. 1:3:5 act of giving: Write 1 note on gratitude, recommend 3 people in LinkedIn and inspire 5 people to practise gratitude and kindness
12. Another speaker talked about giving away new $2 Bills he gets from the treasury department exclusively as gesture of Thank you for helping him out in his talks or tours. Many have treasured it over time and reflected on the moment when they meet him again.
13. When in distress and with no words for gratitude, think of your heart and be grateful for it to beat in this world. For you to be alive at this moment thinking about gratitude.  
14. Get up early morning and spend 30 min on gratitude and list all the things you are grateful for in the peace of the morning air.
15. To get up early, use an old school alarm clock without snooze and once you are up,  get up from bed,  go to the bathroom and splash water on your face to wake up. Spend the rest of the morning (3 h) on self-improvement, may it be gratitude, yoga, pranayama, meditation or reading a good book. No phones or electronics to be used during this time.