I love November because of Thanksgiving.

What other holiday allows you to be grateful and enjoy a bunch of good food with hopefully some good family and friends around the table?

Thanksgiving needs to be a holiday all year long.  No, not all the pigging out and eating till your stuffed part of it, but the gratitude part of it.  Gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to shift your life experiences. If you are not enjoying your life for whatever reason and you want it to change, gratitude is your key!

What we need to remember is what we focus on expands.  This is part of the law of attraction where the universe gives you more of what you focus your attention on.  So, if you are complaining and negative about anything or everything, you will only continue to get more of what you are negative about.

Dr. Swart talks about this in her book The Source.  She talks about an inner battle going on in most people’s brains between abundance and lack.  Abundance is the positive mindset and the lack is a negative or fear-based mindset. I like to think there are only two energies on the earth, FEAR and LOVE.   We can only be in one at a time. So, when we are being negative or feeling lack we are in the fear mode, when we are feeling positive we are accessing the abundant and love mode.  There are studies that show the cells, the actual DNA strains contract when in fear and expand when in love. Understanding this concept helped me to realize I’d rather be in expansion mode than in contraction mode.  Gratitude is the fastest and easiest way to shift from one state to the other.    

There are a couple of things you can do to help you refocus from negativity to positivity.

Whenever you catch yourself being negative, PIVOT!

Focus on one positive thing you can be grateful for right then and there!  You can wear a rubber band around your wrist and whenever you think of something you are grateful for, however small or tiny it might be, move it to the other wrist. Whenever you notice the band think about something positive you are grateful for.  As you focus on the grateful thing, feel into how it makes you feel. Allow it to warm your heart and feel your body expanding instead of contracting.

Start a gratitude journal.

Another thing you can do is start a gratitude journal. Before you go to bed at night write down 10 things you are grateful for.  If you have a hard time with this again, start small and work on expanding it. If you are a practitioner, read your positive patient reviews and reflect with gratitude on the opportunity to be a part of that woman’s journey.

Start a gratitude circle.

Get some friends that you can text or email and send each other your lists of gratitude.  Being held accountable is super helpful for keeping at something new. Plus when you get your friends list it can inspire you!

Over time you will have strengthened your gratitude muscle and it will become easier and more automatic to find the good in things instead of the bad.

Everything happens for your good.

I like to think that everything that happens to me is happening for my good.  Whether I label it “good” or “bad”, it is still happening for my growth and experience in this world.  This helps me to keep a more positive, grateful attitude for all that comes into my life. Sometimes after an experience, I figure out the meaning and purpose of it all and it makes greater sense but not all the time.  Sometimes bad things are just bad, yet I’m a stronger person because of it. I do my best to deal with it but not get stuck in it and instead find something to be grateful about. 

As you become aware of how you are experiencing your life, with whatever filter you are choosing, whether one of negativity or positivity, know you have the power within you to focus more on what you do what in your life.  Choose love and expansion, you can’t go wrong. 

You can do it!