“Gratitude begins in the heart and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides.” Anne Lamott If gratitude is a habit, then it must be practiced each and every day. In your mind or out loud, you must repeat over and over again “thank you, thank you, thank you” until it rolls off the tongue like a beautiful operetta. Repetition of appreciation allows the mind and soul to refocus your life on the graces and blessings rather than the hardships and challenges. This process of ingraining gratitude into every fiber of your being becomes radical especially when things are happening all around you that cause your great discomfort, sadness or strife. May I suggest to you that in those times that is where the power of awareness in the moment comes in. Even if life deals you a particularly difficult hand yesterday, today, or tomorrow, when you are aware and pay attention to the something to be grateful for in the chaos you are liberated from the heaviness and delivered into the light. Gratitude for everything as it comes does wake up the heart muscle to feel love for everything that you experience, whether it is good or bad. That is why it is RADICAL because who would think there would be something to be grateful for in the bad! But there is, and when you allow yourself to believe that in the darkness there resides something beautiful, you can step back and repeat again – thank you thank you thank you. This act of loving kindness to yourself puts you in a place where you will want to take that feeling of gratitude and pay it forward in service to others who come into contact with you. And, when you open yourself up to serve, that is truly where joy is born. Thus, with this intense joy, you get to feel grateful for more and more. The attitude of gratitude habit is something that will guide you to a place of pure bliss if you let it. So remember to repeat over and over again – thank you thank you thank you- and what was once foreign to you will become a habit that you take that with you into each day!
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