The Power Of Gratitude

Last week I gave myself a resounding reminder of the power of gratitude. It is something I practice daily already but I had situation that really tested my ability to tap into it.

I lost my purse. It had both my bank cards, for my personal and my business account, in it plus £100 in cash. I thought that I had left it in my unlocked car overnight and hey presto, not surprisingly it was gone the next morning.

When I realised, I felt SO stupid and obviously annoyed and upset that I had lost the cash. I allowed myself to feel annoyed and then I sat and asked myself if I wanted what had happened to ruin my whole day. The answer to that was obviously no.

So I sat and had a cry and felt sorry for myself for a bit. I allowed myself to feel the relevant emotions, I did some journaling to help myself rationalise the feeling annoyed and stupid. And then I decided to give gratitude a go.

I sat down with my notebook, took a deep breath, asked myself what on earth I could be grateful for out of this situation and out came the following things:

I’m grateful that I had a hundred pounds in cash to put in my purse in the first place

I’m grateful that losing it doesn’t leave my family destitute

I’m grateful that my bank cards were easy to freeze, just a button on each banking app

I’m grateful for the wonders of technology

I’m grateful that nothing extra had been taken from either account

I’m grateful that the cash will help someone who needed it in some way

I’m grateful that the whole thing made me release emotion

I’m grateful that it led me to journaling

I’m grateful that it made me use gratitude

I’m grateful that I won’t hold on to it all day now

I’m grateful that I realised my sense of abundance comes from within me

I’m grateful that I feel better from having followed this process

I’m grateful for this opportunity to grow

I really didn’t expect to get so much gratitude out of it all. The whole process took me about ten minutes. Before I did it I felt rubbish. Afterwards I felt calm, peaceful and grateful for everything I have and have learned from the experience.

And every step of that process was important. I couldn’t have reached the gratitude part if I hadn’t allowed myself to feel and release the annoyance and sadness. It is all part of a process, allowing how we feel to be there, allowing ourselves to release that emotion so that then we can move forward into gratitude. When you allow the whole process then you will find it easier to bring yourself through to the gratitude.

Gratitude is magic, it’s amazing and powerful. It can turn situations around, it can make difficult emotions and circumstances easier to cope with.

My example is obviously just about me, my gratitude for a difficult situation. But when we take the time and make the effort to show our gratitude to others for the things they do to help us? It can help to transform their day too. And that, my friends, is what you call a win-win. We feel great because we have gratitude flowing through us and they feel great because now they do too. Hoorah.

Oh and my purse? I found it a couple of hours after I had made my gratitude list, all safe and sound, not stolen, simply mislaid, which made me even more grateful of course!

Go, enjoy.