One question that I’ve been getting a lot during this time of unprecedented disruption, of rapid change and the uncertainty that we’re all dealing with is “ how can I bring more gratitude into my life?” Why?
Because one of the keys to driving innovation and creativity to solve the complex, critical problems we are facing today is to manage our emotional state.
We will never be our most creative or innovative in a state of stress or negativity. We can never solve a problem in the same emotional state with which it was created. So I’m going to share with you today how to practice gratitude and then three exercises to be able to practice them on a daily basis.
3 Steps to Practice Gratitude
1) Visualize a moment of something you can appreciate in your life
2) Find the feeling that is associated with that moment
3) Let that feeling just flood our body from the top of our head all the way through our toes and let it intensify as deep as you possibly can.
The third step is the part that most people miss, but probably the most important. According to neuroscience, the deeper we feel the emotions, the deeper the patterns get wired in our brains.
3 Exercises to Practice Gratitude
Meditation
We can do it at the end of a meditation practice. I like to bring in moments from the past, present AND future because it helps me live with a sense of certainty that the moments will happen. They might be simple things like a pet or a place. For me one place is the ocean and being able to get my feet in the wet sand with the waves just flowing over the top of them. That’s a moment of appreciation for me. This doesn’t have to be complex. Whatever comes to mind works. Evoking the emotion is what’s most important.
Gratitude Walk
The second way you can do this is with a gratitude walk. The easiest way to do this is with a free app called Insight Timer. On the Insight Timer, it gives you an option to set reminder bells every 1-2 minutes over the course of a 20-30 minute walk. These bells are just reminders for you to bring in a moment of gratitude. You can even use things on your walk like the sun or air.
Letters of Appreciation
The third way to do this is probably my favorite, and that is writing letters of appreciation. We all have somebody in our life that has inspired us to do more, become more or to achieve more. This exercise is just writing out a letter thanking them, reminding them, of the time that they spent with you in order to help you become who you are today. Remind them of how they made you feel and what you were able to accomplish because of the decision they made to mentor you. Make sure you drop it in the mail!
Remember, whatever you focus on you feel. When shift our focus to gratitude, we change our emotional state and in turn, elevate our capability to attack the challenges in our life or business.
If you want to dive deeper these are some of the strategies I teach my Rise Coaching Program. If you’re looking for a quick easy fix, this is definitely not for you. But, if you’re looking to put in the work and create real, lasting changes drop me a note and we can see if it’s the right fit to help you create the breakthroughs you’re looking for.
