The Power Of Gratitude

When You’re Up Against The Wall, How Being Grateful Can Transform Your Life

Table Of Contents

• Intro
• Theory
• Resources
• Steps
• Summary

Intro

Gratitude, so what’s all the hype? Why should I start a practice of gratitude? Does it really work? What’s in it for me? Is this another one of those “woo woo flower child” moves?

Do all of those questions swim in your head just by reading the title of this blog? Well, that’s okay and I’m writing this blog to help teach about this powerful process. How do I know? I’ve done it for years and it works, it changed my life. You see I’ve had my back up against the wall in more ways at once than you could possibly imagine. When I was in my dark night of the soul, everything around me was falling apart, I had two choices.

• Give Up
• Or
• Awaken the Giant within me

I chose not to quit, little did I know at the time there was a sleeping giant within me. Although I had no plan for what to do next, the only thing I did know, was I was not giving up and I was not going to be another statistic. I knew God had bigger plans for me. How? Well, I knew my life and my heart. I knew God knew my heart as well. In all of my years of living I never did a thing to intentionally, hurt, betray, or steal from anyone. I lived a good honorable life. So I knew deep inside I was not being “punished” for something I’d done (perhaps that mentality came from my catholic upbringing), but I knew there had to be a reason my life was collapsing. There had to be a great lesson here in the midst of all the adversity for me.

So what did I do? What was the first thing I did? Keep reading….

Are you ready to start something new? Have you felt stuck in your life and no matter what you try you just spin your wheels. You want more, you can’t get more, but you see everyone else getting more and you’re wondering why the universe hates you right? (Just a little bit?)

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with negative news and stressful situations, it’s easy to lose sight of the positive aspects of life. However, practicing the power of gratitude can have a profound impact on our overall well-being and transform our lives in incredible ways. The power of gratitude goes beyond just saying “thank you.” It is a mindset that shifts our focus from what we lack to what we have, instilling a deep sense of appreciation for the present moment. Scientific studies have shown that practicing gratitude can improve mental health, increase happiness levels, and even strengthen relationships. In this blog, we will explore the various ways in which being thankful can transform your life. From boosting your emotional resilience to attracting more abundance into your life, we will uncover the true power that gratitude holds. Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, this blog will provide you with compelling reasons to incorporate gratitude into your daily life. So, if you want to experience more joy, fulfillment, and emotional well-being, join us on this journey of discovering the transformational power of gratitude.

So what did I do? I had read a dozen books prior to these series of adversity. events. (Coincidence? I don’t think so). Many self-help books by Louise Hay, Gabby Bernstein, Wayne Dyer and Abraham Hicks to name a few. From those books, I knew the power of gratitude was important, so I tried it.

I started with “thank you for this sunny day.” I remember this clearly, because at the time I thought, if this shit really works, I’m going to remember I was thankful for the sunny day and I’m going to tell people some day. Well, here we are! It worked!

Every day, when my life was in shambles and I didn’t know where I was going to live, where my next meal was going to come from, how I was going to pay to move my family’s belongings out of our house the bank took, how to buy boxes to pack, if I had enough money for gas in my car, pay for the lights to stay on, and major medical bills for my ex, I was thankful, truly thankful, for the sunny day. That’s all I had that was positive. That was it. Sunshine.

You see it was January, 2012, freezing cold winter (and winter is my least favorite season), so I was thankful it was sunny, not dreary and grey. I repeated this appreciation daily and grasped for anything that I could be thankful for to my core. I “truly” was happy for this thing, sunny day, the bed I woke up in, my car, my clothes, etc. Slowly, things started to turn, ever so slightly, but little by little, things were moving in my favor instead of against me and I took notice, said thank every single time something positive happened.

People started letting us “borrow” (can you imagine? Now when I look back they really expected us to pay them back, but I focused on the gift in the moment) $500 here and there which ended up paying for our movers. They bought boxes to pack up our 4500 sq ft house (and then asked for items they could take from our house in return for those boxes, (can you imagine?) yet again, the pain was unbearable, but I kept focusing on “we’ve got boxes”).

As I packed my dream home in those boxes with tears running down my face, panic attacks trying to breathe, I knew that it was for a reason deep down inside. I knew these material things really didn’t matter in the big picture of life. At one point, I thanked God for taking the house from us, that it was a burden to hold onto while the economy crashed in 2008 with no site of recoupment anytime in the foreseeable future. Yep, I was thankful for the mess.

Theory – Universe Test

There’s a known practice that what you focus on grows. I don’t know if it’s one of the laws of the Universe, but it certainly seems that way to me. Have you ever noticed if you focus on why do I always see my favorite car everywhere I go? It’s because you’re focused on it, so the Universe brings it to you. If you don’t believe me, try a little experiment yourself.

Try to focus on let’s say a cup of coffee, maybe a specific coffee in a specific cup. If you focus on seeing the precise thing, Vente Starbucks cold brew in a clear cup. Notice how many you’ll see on your path. Or maybe you want to focus on seeing yellow shoes, maybe yellow high tops, notice how many will appear. If you need proof. Try this test and then come back to this blog to read the rest once you’ve been convinced by your own little test.

Everyone else, let’s go!

Resources

There are plenty of resources available to research the topic of what you focus on grows, like “The Power Of Now” by Eckhart Tolle and “7 Habits of Highly Successful People” by Stephen Covey. Many people have written articles, produced podcasts and social media posts related to the topic of positive thinking. But this is really something very different, The Power of Gratitude.

You see God (I’m a Christian, so I’m going to use the term God, but whoever your higher power is) and your relationship with your higher power actually helps you personally. Yes, we can pray and should, we should also meditate, where we just sit and listen. Mostly, either practice is a practice and should be done daily. The more you’re in tune with your higher power and have clarity on the things you want in your life, the more you’ll be able to stay focused. (Therefore what you focus on grows). Why gratitude? How does gratitude matter?

Well, let’s just pause and talk about your personal perspective of life. Do you believe life happens to you or you create it? Because to some degree we’ve all been in the place of life happening to us until we started taking notice. This is key. Gratitude matters when you take notice of every little thing in your life. That you acknowledge everything where you are in this very moment of reading this blog. The power of gratitude is an energy, it’s a way of communicating with your higher power. It’s saying “I know you’re looking out for me, thank you.”

Below are some books I read that truly helped me understand the power of gratitude.

• :Books
• The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
• 7 Habits of Successful People, Stephen Covey
• The Power of You, Louise Hay
• Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Wayne Dyer
• The Universe Has Your Back, Gabby Bernstein
• Podcasts
• Attitude of Gratitude-nancybinspired
• https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vqVObpzqCbNDPo6MyQHot?si=MO1D_dklS-6ymmiFZ9mStQ

Steps

Let’s say you’re sitting in a chair, on your work break, eating your lunch outside on a beautiful day. If you don’t take notice, life just happened and you’re doing what you always do at work, take a lunch break and read. What if you looked at it through the lens of the power of Gratitude matters?

1. NOTICE:

Want to try? Here’s how it works. Same scenario above except as you sit down to eat your lunch you take notice of the beautiful day, and say “thank you for the beautiful day that I get to eat outdoors today”. Then you take notice of the specific table you’re sitting at. “Thank you for this table being available so I could eat outside today”. Then, thank you for this delicious lunch I’m eating. (Whether you packed it yourself or purchased it). Notice and give thanks. Next, thank you for this job that allows me to buy my lunch or buy the food to make your lunch. Gratitude Matters. In every little thing take notice and be grateful.

Now I’m not saying you have to stop and do this all day long, but it’s about when you have time to be thankful, then pause and say “thank you” to God, The Universe.

2. BUILD A PRACTICE

This is more about building a practice at first, then you will have a default and understand how it works because you will start to see a shift in your life. The practice is to understand gratitude matters and there’s always something to be thankful for in our daily life.

There’s a saying to take time to “Stop and Smell The Roses” or you’ve probably heard “Enjoy The Little Things”. That is another way of saying gratitude matters. The power of gratitude returns to you significantly. (That’s been my experience and why I’ve never stopped)..

Perhaps you’re on the other side of this topic where you life is a huge challenge and nothing seems to be going your way. You’re in a terrible relationship, have a terrible boss, horrible ex, no money, life just seems to suck for you. Okay, here’s the antidote. The Power of Gratitude matters.

This is what you are going to do, you are going to purposefully find something to be grateful for even if just the weather, shoes on your feet, roof over your head, you’ve got something to be thankful for, so notice it and be thankful. When you’re down on your luck, it’s a place of growth (but we’ll talk about that in another blog), here is where you really need to start this practice. Because when you shift your mind and your energy from anger, frustration and fear, to gratitude, your energy will start to shift. Now, I’m not saying this going to be easy, or that change will happen overnight (which it could), but it can be done because I’ve done it myself. I’ve been there myself, so I know for sure it works. (My back was against the wall with no way out, so it seemed).

Here you go, every single day you are going to purposefully make a thank you statement to God (The Universe) for something anything. People in this place do need to acknowledge more to be grateful, so your shift can come sooner.

3, BE CHARITABLE

Also, these folks should also include being charitable in some capacity, perhaps just giving your time to a cause or to a person. Do something for someone else without any expectation of something in return. This will also raise your gratification vibration. When you help other people, you become empowered, when you’re empowered you have hope, when you have hope anything is possible. All of these steps are moving you away from where you are and up into another level where you want things to be better. I taught Zumba classes free, I volunteered at food banks, and I donated money to causes I believed in and when I was asked. I never said no, or ignored the request. Never.

4. PATIENCE KNOWING EVERYTHING IS WORKING OUT FOR YOU

In this next phase it might also be a struggle, but the struggle is for your higher elevation. You have to continue to move up through onto a different set of struggles to land where you need to be. We can talk more about this in another blog or podcast, but for this blog, let’s stay with creating the habit of being grateful, truly grateful from your heart and then pay attention to your life and what happens next. This might be the hardest part because everything happens in God’s perfect timing. I’ve noticed some things turned really quickly, while others took a few years, but I was on a path upwards and for that I was grateful. I could see I was moving out of the place I was and that was progress.

SUMMARY

So now what? What do you need to know and do regarding the power of gratitude?

Just be grateful, make it a practice, every single day. Pay attention to your life. When you get a parking space with ease, notice and say “thank you”. When someone lets you in during traffic, notice and say “thank you”. When someone offers to buy you lunch, just say “thank you”. Someone opens a door for you “say thank you.” Remember, there has to be a true sense of thanks at your core, not just words spoken.

The more you notice, the more you’re grateful, the more you’ll have to be grateful for. This is how the power of gratitude works.

Let’s not forget to be charitable too! When you lack finances sometimes, it may seem difficult to spend money, but when you give from the heart, it will come back to you. Treat someone to a cup of coffee, buy someone lunch or if someone asks you to donate to their cause, say yes. Gratitude and Charity go together like PB&J. If you do both, you can expedite the process for receiving and moving you upwards from your current situation.

I cannot tell you how much I gave away when I was at my rock bottom dark night of the soul. I donated to Goodwill, I donated to charities I believed in and gave to whoever asked me and I had nothing! I did without sometimes, so I could help someone.else and believe it or not, I felt empowered by doing so. But, you can give with your time as well. I offered many free Zumba classes during my season of climbing out of the rock bottom, it doesn’t always have to be a monetary charitable donation, but I gave in all forms.

Fast forward to today, I’ve asked friends and acquaintances to donate to a wonderful organization National Angels https://www.nationalangels.org/ from my entrepreneurial training sessions and no one, I mean no one other than my children and myself answered my call. . That says everything you need to know about your close circle. How willing are they to really help you? (Which is the crux of the exercise so you can be awakened by the people you think support you, this lesson is for you to see who is truly invested in you and who is merely watching) Most often they’re not, the people you think are there for you and would do anything for you are not and you have to rely on strangers, it’s the sad hard truth.

Again, I experienced this first hand at my rock bottom dark night of the soul days. My sisters were elated that I had fallen so far down, one even said to me when I moved into the tiny little rental home “Nancy, this is how American’s live, you think you’re better than everyone else.” Could not have been further from my truth and when I was hurting so much, that comment was just another punch in my gut.

Back to today and my donation exercise. I heard every excuse, I didn’t see your message, I don’t want to click the link, I thought it was a scam, I didn’t see it in time, I was watching sports, or no response at all. It’s all okay, but I was clear about the exercise (as this was the second time for me with this particular fundraiser and I learned from the last time). it wasn’t any of those things, I explained clearly it wasn’t a scam, it was me and even posted a video about it. So, understand that you can only do your part in life, you cannot make people want to help you and you cannot rely on anyone other than yourself and your higher power, for me it’s God. In knowing that to my core, I know that God will always see a way for me because he knows my heart. It’s the same for everyone. Yes, people will definitely disappoint you, but that just means you have to keep looking for your tribe, the people who will support you. The test just helps you sort them out, that’s really it.

Most people enjoy seeing people fail sadly, but when you’re on the rise, they will not support you and just know that’s okay. What I said above, God knows you and God knows your heart and that’s really all the matters, ever. I experienced this too, my (so called) very best friend and neighbor completely dumped me when my life was falling apart. She thought she could catch what was happening to me and instead of supporting me she ignored and abandoned me, truly shocked me to my core. When I share I had no one but God on my side, it is the truth and only HE saw me through, gave me a bridge when I was on the ledge of despair and hopelessness. How? When I showed Him despite all that’s happening to me right now, I’m saying thank you for what I can and that was the sunny day. In return, fast forward he catapulted me out of that place onto higher ground that I never thought would be possible again, but this time I did it alone. My unwavering faith and determination to create a better life for myself that I could create with my Creator.

Have peace, be thankful, give with an open heart and watch your life transform, I did, I’m living proof. I can teach you how to not only survive, but how to thrive in life! I’ve been there, I know the way out. Feel free to DM on social media to join our live zoom call where you can ask me your question.

Remember, you are stronger than you think. There is a sleeping giant within you that needs to be awakened and once you awaken it you are the most powerful person on the planet because your power is coming from your higher source. When the giant is awakened, it is relentless and unstoppable. It is a force. It knows where to lead you and it does. I know this force and can teach you how to find it within yourself. Once you’ve awakened your inner giant, you will NEVER be the same, look at life the same or ever feel defeated again. You are empowered beyond measure. My interpretation is that it’s the equivalent to an anointing . Profound.

Let this inspire you today!

*disclaimer this isn’t a perfect science and all recommendations/practices are based on my personal experience. No promises or results guaranteed by the practices in my blog, This blog is a resource of information only.