Clean Thinking & Gratitude

One of the most profound gifts my mother and father ever gave me was teaching me about gratitude.

It started when I was about 7 years old. They gave me and my seven siblings a journal each. Every night before bed we were asked to write three things we were grateful for. For the first few nights the task seems extremely mundane and I wrote the same thing each night: shelter, food, family. However, it didn’t take long before I was getting creative. I began to think deeply about what was I grateful for. As the lists became longer, I started to draw pictures and colour in. Getting in touch with gratitude got me in touch with my heart. Each night when I would sit and write, I felt this enormous sense of safety and well-being. I felt completely held by the world and sensed my heart space opening in love and expanding beyond my physical body. It was incredible.

Soon enough my journal was full and then I started another, and then another. Filling books and books of gratitude allowed me to transform, and on top of feeling a deep sense of well-being from being in gratitude, I eventually was able to train my mind to be always in a perspective of gratitude. This in turn shut my mind off to any negative and unhelpful thoughts.

ENTER crisp, fresh, clean thinking!

By working for many years with gratitude and clean thinking (as I like to call it) – it also became a way of life for me. The negative self-talk that I know can persistently permeate the minds of many teenagers was never a part of my teen reality.

There I was sitting in gratitude at how marvellous and abundant my life was; although there were the regular teen struggles, I did seem to cruise through my teens without too much damage from the emotional and psychological rollercoaster that many experience. I was so grateful to be in gratitude and I constantly noticed the blessings that surrounded me, even when others would have thought that my life was tough. As I focused on my blessings, the law of attraction brought more blessings my way. Abundance flowed freely. It always does when you have clean thinking and focus on gratitude.

Being grateful has changed my life. It has transformed me in many, many ways. There is much literature now about how gratitude can change your nervous system and change how you feel!

I encourage you to try it for a month, write down 3 things you are grateful for each night, and even if you had a bad day just do it anyway. Fake it. Fake it as long as you need to and soon enough it will change how you think, change how you feel, change how you act and totally change your world.

I challenge you to 30 days of gratitude!