Gratitude Is The Essential Practice Of Now

Whether you’re working the Law of Attraction, practicing Buddhism, becoming an Eckhart Tolle groupie, aspiring to be a yogini, or just seeking happiness in the simplicities of life, there’s one place all the teachings promise to take you and one place that holds the riches of consciousness and that’s the present moment of NOW.

So how do you get to NOW, the sweet spot of bringing your desires into physical reality? This question alone can keep you in a non-NOW existence forever. The minute you make living in the NOW something you need to “do” in order to get something, you’re pushing yourself further away from NOW. For the most part, NOW sneaks up on you when you least expect it or stop “thinking” thus leaving you in a state of being by default. Living in the NOW often feels like nothing or seems too simple leaving you to think this couldn’t possibly be what all those Gurus are talking about, it’s too easy!

There’s one simple practice that bypasses all of the wondering and analyzing,; placing you directly in the heart of NOW. Gratitude is the essential practice of NOW and the ideal practice for those of you who prefer taking action toward a desired end or have difficulty just “being” or “letting go”. Gratitude not only naturally takes you to NOW but also simultaneously tells the Universe what you want and creates the feeling of having what you want, two key factors in activating the Law of Attraction.

So what is it about gratitude that is so powerful? I began observing my own practice of gratitude and this is what I found:

• The energy of Gratitude is dynamic; taking you inward first and then outward. It takes you straight to your heart and what brings you joy then expresses simultaneously outward. Feeling abundant and powerful inside gives you a magnetic vibration drawing what you desire to you.
• Gratitude is the cherry on the sundae and tops what’s sour or has left you with a bad taste with something sweet and desirable.
• Gratitude completes a cycle or event. Gratitude is the opposite of resistance, which tends to perpetuate the undesirable. Gratitude completes a vicious cycle by diffusing the negatively charged energy around it. In doing so, space or an opening is created for something new to occur.
• Gratitude says I am here NOW with open arms and an open heart unattached to the past or future and ready to receive.

These insights allow you to understand why gratitude is so powerful, Yet the truth is, we can all become a little complacent with our gratitude practices or diffuse our practice by looking for results or questioning whether or not it really works. If you haven’t taken the time to express gratitude or have a hard time thinking of what you’re grateful for, it’s a red flag that you’re living everywhere but NOW. Here are some tips that will rejuvenate your gratitude practice and allow you to live in the NOW.

1. Commit to a consistence gratitude practice even if it’s 1 minute in the morning or at night. For more benefit, challenge yourself to feel and express gratitude as much as possible throughout the day. Eventually gratitude becomes a seamless habit or your natural way of being.

2. Practice gratitude not because you want or need something but because you want to live in an optimum state of being. Nothing you could ever receive from the Universe in material form can compare to the feeling of being truly grateful without attachment to outcome. The more you believe this, the more your gratitude will harness the abundance of the Universe.

3. Before you express gratitude, presence the source with whom you are communicating and feel the connection whether it’s the Universe, God or otherwise. Then, express your gratitude as if you are truly sharing with someone who is listening.

4. First visualize what you are grateful for; allowing yourself to embody it within you. See and feel what you’re grateful for expand in your life and feel the sensation of gratitude and joy expand within you as well.