A couple of days ago I was speaking to someone about gratitude, prayer and affirmations. They showed me all the things they were saying and using. I asked, “Are you just saying the words or are you practising it?”
What do I mean by this?
- Gratitude increases the vibration. Being grateful gives you more kindness, compassion, life, positive emotions, deeper relationships, healthier marriage, less envious, more friendships, makes you more spiritual, less self-centred, better sleep, more exercise, makes you more productive and a lot more…
- If you don’t believe in God then having a conversation with the universe can just about be called a prayer. If you’re using a mantra understand what each word means and feel them when you say them.
- Affirmations are better used starting with “I am”. They help to confirm the presence of the strengths and potential you have within you and to acknowledge them on the daily basis. They give you the encouragement to evolve into a better version of yourself. They affirm the presence of your power within you if you say them meaningfully.
So, how do you go about practising them?
The power of gratitude lies in the feeling and it’s quite normal to release tears while saying thanks. It’s simple to say:
- Thank you for my family.
- Thank you for my home.
- Thank you for my life.
- Thank you for my friendships.
- Thank you for my partner.
Now just imagine if you’re practising gratitude daily. The number of times these five points can be said in general loses meaning and feeling over time. Take gratitude on a new level.
- Keep a gratitude journal
- When writing in your gratitude journal go into the details of what exactly you’re grateful about. If you don’t have time to go into the detail look at your point say for example point number 1. Thank you for my family.
Think about what exactly you’re thankful for and take one memory and feel into that and seriously tears of gratitude will fill your eyes. (I’m sure you’ll come back and write a comment to me about how that felt)
- Incorporate your gratitude into your prayer which for me is a conversation with something greater than us out there which you may call God or another name in your religion.
- Don’t forget to be grateful for the smallest things. That’s where the magic really lies.
These are just a few ways I practise gratitude.
- Every morning I write down five things I am grateful for. I am left-handed but I write these five points with my right hand to train my brain at the same time. Writing helped me even when I studied for exams. It’s almost like I register in my mind when I write things down. This way I register my gratitude. I then look at each point for a couple of minutes and feel into exactly what part about it I am grateful for and go into the memory that hits me straight away when I wrote each point down.
- I often try and find five points first for the things I was grateful for yesterday and if I’m finding that hard I tell myself, “Hey, come on, you’re breathing, isn’t that already something. There are people out there that are ill and can’t breathe properly when they go to bed and have difficulty with just a simple good night’s rest.” I feel into that and those people and sometimes I even close my eyes and send them some blessings.
- There is always something to be grateful for and how many of us in the UK are so grateful to have one sunny hot day way before even spring has arrived… Now that is something to be grateful about ?.
Don’t take anything you have for granted, seriously anything…
Practising prayer
You might not believe in God or religion and for me while I went travelling my faith went from a religion to a belief that yes something much bigger than me exists. It might not be Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Vishnu but there is certainly something out there looking out for me. My belief has been strengthened and came about through my travels.
My prayer is more like a conversation. I feel into experiences and say thanks when having conversations. Having conversations is almost like communicating your deepest fears, thoughts, thanks, wonders etc. I look at it as a release, almost like journaling but releasing your desires, dreams and your unknown path out there and handing over what you can’t control into the hands of something greater than you and then letting it go.
Practising affirmations
Look out for a full article on this one from me. I will just go into it briefly for now. When saying your affirmations feel them. It’s so easy to run through each one so quickly. Sometimes less is more. You might even find over time you’ve already become some of the affirmations you’ve said to yourself a few years back. You will find on a daily basis that we are all self-critical in some way or another. During these times one often beat themselves up. Don’t beat yourself up instead write a new affirmation, say, for example, I am an inspirational manager if say you’ve made a mistake with someone you’re managing at work.
When you say your affirmations and come to the point “I am an Inspirational manager,” imagine and feel into that sentence like you’re already that.
Another tool you can use daily in case you’ve missed this article is The Power of Visualisation which you will find on this link https://tdenchpatel.com/the-power-of-visualisation-or-call-it-the-power-to-dream/
T. Dench Patel
Thank you for the comments and support. Thank you for offering to donate if there was a donate button on here. I prefer not to take donations. You can support by either purchasing one of my books (Paperback or Kindle), The South African: True Colours, The South African: Roamer or my children’s book Light. These books can be found on Amazon mainly and other sites in your country.
The audiobook for The South African: True Colours is available on iTunes, Apple and Audible. The South African: Roamer and Light will be released soon.
Note: Do keep referring back to this site as much as possible, as I grow, a more profound perspective may form and so I will always come back to each of these articles to reevaluate them.
