Includes beautiful quots on the power of gratitude
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Taken from my very first book: Thankfulness, Appreciation Gratitude
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Where we are in life is made up of the sum of our habits. Our physical, financial and mental health is the total of the little things we do every day. Instilling a daily habit of writing in this diary will change your life in ways you cannot imagine. The simple act of expressing gratefulness and feeling it takes away all negativity – ear, stress, guilt, lack and sadness, and you will feel awesome, even the good feelings only lasts for the few moments that you are writing in the journal, this daily habit and the positive vibrations will add up and help you manifest a life full of joy and happiness.
Think for one moment of the thousands of people in Leh who were rendered homeless overnight in August 2010, do you have a roof over your head? Are you dry? What about the Northwestern Chinese who also suffered due to the rain triggered mudslide. Imagine losing your family and friends overnight. Did you know that in Vietnam, the per capita income in 2008 was just over $1,000 a year. That is only $2.80 a day, how much did your lunch cost today? 1.6 billion people are living in darkness, 400 million are from India and many of them use wax candles, dung cakes and firewood to illuminate their homes. Do we even give it a second thought when we hit the light switch in our homes? Are you grateful? A huge percentage of the world’s population is illiterate. Can you read? A portion of the world’s population is less than physically or mentally whole. Can you see? Can you hear? Can you walk? Is there anything you have that others don’t? A phone? An internet connection? A motorbike? Is there anything you can do that others can’t? Do you have a talent? Have you – in actuality – been blessed with anything for which to be grateful?
When you are feeling grateful and thankful for being healthy and alive, that is the purest form of prayer. In those moments of feeling thankful you are in a natural state of abundance. You are focusing all your energy on what you already have in your life. The polar opposite of which is complaining. When you complain, about the weather, the traffic, your bills, people around you, you are magnifying what is lacking in your life.
I started to practice gratitude by writing every night in a journal. This practice changed my life. Having ready countless self-help and personal development books and attended so many workshops, the one constant message that I received and decided to instill as a habit was to write down the things I am grateful for, every night. Some nights I struggled, when everything seemed to have gone wrong, and I could not think of being grateful and some nights I was just too lazy to put pen to paper, then it started to work in reverse, I went about my day, noticing things I was grateful for and made mental notes and sometimes, would type text messages to myself on my phone, so I did not forget. A cup of tea with just the right amount of sugar. An umbrella handy when it started to rain, a parking spot, a smile, a gesture from a shopkeeper, or a waiter. Someone giving me way in traffic. The flavour of the food I ate, the almost fender bender that did not happen, because I braked my car in time. A sale tag on the dress that I intended to buy anyway. Tissue paper handy when I needed it, 5 cent pieces on the ground, my daughter’s health and happiness, soft cotton sheets on my bed, the music playing on my ipod, the beautiful art that surrounded me.
The Swedish pop-group, ABBA so aptly said in their song “Thank you for the Music” in 1973 – “Thank you for the music, the song I am singing, thanks for all the joy their bringing, who can live without it, I ask in all honesty, what would life be, without a song or a dance, what are we?” Beauty surrounds us all the time, in architecture, people, music, art but to actually stop, live in the present and appreciate our surroundings and to remember the moment again later in the day and write thanks for them is a practice that will attract more and more beauty in your life.
As time went by, I stopped looking for things or events, or anything tangible, but rather found myself listing names of the people who touched my life that day. In hindsight, I even realized that I was grateful for the people I met who seemed to rub me the wrong way or disappoint me in some way, for those meetings led to a learning or a new opportunity. Feeling gratitude and then writing it in my journal at the end of the day became second nature. I formed a very empowering habit. In fact, thinking about things to be grateful for every night will help you even sleep better, this is simply because you will think less negative and more positive thoughts as you put your head on your pillow.
Yes it is easy to be grateful when things seem to be going well, practice being grateful for even the challenges in your life, look for what is still good and what you still have even when things seem really bleak. This is not new, I did not discover the power of practicing gratitude, however with this diary, I am hoping that you will make it a habit to practice what you already know.As it is what you do a little of every single day that will add up to create a bank of abundance in your life.
Look for the beauty and joy in life, the simple things like waking up on a soft bed, your family and loved ones around you healthy, beautiful sunrises, and inhale as you acknowledge it all. Being able to stop the noise of your worries and stresses of the day for a few moments and to focus on the present and your breathing will encourage you to feel good and happy about all the things you have. When you have your meal, savour the taste, the colours and aroma of all the ingredients. When you have a shower, savour the water temperature and pressure, the fragrance of your soap. Training your mind to truly appreciate everything that you have will help you create a constant attitude of gratitude. Remember these things you are thankful for and write them down in here at the end of the day. On challenging days, when things just did not seem to go your way, these are the times when it would be most helpful to look for the silver lining in the clouds and find some things that you can feel grateful for.
Stop for a moment and observe your surroundings right now and notice three things that you did not even notice you are using till I asked you to have a look, that make your life so easy. Is your air conditioner or heater on? Are you in a comfortable room or a sofa or a bed? Do you have music or the television on in the background? Did you just have a lovely meal? Can you think of one person in the world who cares where you are and how you are today?
Any time I feel like I have some reason to feel sorry for myself, I look around me at all the tools and privileges I have in that particular moment, and I imagine what it would be like to be missing one of them right now.
Things could be worse, imagine being stuck in the same traffic jam, but having to go to the bathroom really badly? Imagine losing your wallet at the airport when you are just about to travel. We only notice what we have around us when it is taken away. This diary is meant to help you cultivate the habit of noticing what you have around you while you have it.
I am not a scientist who has studied Quantum Physics and I am not here to quantify anything I say with statistics, percentages and researched or surveyed proof, what I can say, is that I have seen it work, for me and people around me. Being grateful, creates a feeling, an almost overwhelming feeling, which causes a vibration on a deep level. I believe that these vibrations connect us to the Universe and attract like vibrations. Simply put, the more grateful you are, the more you will have to be grateful for.
On that note, I have been writing in my Gratitude Diary for the last two years and everyday, I have more and more to be grateful for.
Everything I want and need makes its way to me. At the risk of sounding like a nagging mum telling her children to eat their vegetables, because she knows that they are good for them, please start writing in here every night and get all the people you love to do the same. It is just that this works and I really want you to experience what I know you will. There is immense power in words and putting your appreciation for someone or something into words that are expressed can change your life.
My invitation to you is to take it on as a “90 day challenge”. Start tonight, find today’s page and start. I have carefully compiled quotes, short stories, poems and tips in between the pages to inspire you to write.
With Thankfulness, Appreciation & Gratitude,
| Malti Bhojwani Professional Coach (PCC – ICF) l Author l Facilitator l Speaker | Life Coach trained in Ontological Coaching & NLP
Skype : malti.bhojwani |
1
Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
—Henry Jackson van Dyke (1852 – 1933)
2
Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude
—Denis Waitley
3
It isn’t what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful, but what you have in your heart.
—Unknown
4
If you realised how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.
—Peace Pilgrim
5
Sincere, heartfelt appreciation is pure love, and is the strongest message to the Universe that this is more of what you want to experience. Feel grateful and attract more reason to be grateful for. It works like magic.
—Malti Bhojwani
6
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.
—Charles Dickens
7
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.
—Karl Barth
8
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
9
Some people complain because God put thorns on roses. Others praise God for putting roses among thorns.
—Unknown
10
Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue.
—Prophet Muhammad
11
When you express thankfulness, even the almost empty tank of petrol will go the extra mile; it changes challenges into opportunities, mistakes into experiences, disappointments into celebrations, doubt into faith.
—Malti Bhojwani
12
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
—François Marie Arouet de Voltaire
13
The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
14
Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
15
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
—The Buddha
16
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
17
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
18
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
—Kahlil Gibran
19
Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
—Hausa proverb from Nigeria
20
A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even in paradise.
—Baha’u’llah
21
As life becomes harder and more threatening, it also becomes richer, because the fewer expectations we have, the more good things of life become unexpected gifts that we accept with gratitude.
—Etty Hillesum
22
Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
—Jalaluddin Rumi
23
I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet simple things of life, which are the real ones after all.
— Laura Ingalls Wilder
24
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
—Marcel Proust
25
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
—Henry Ward Beecher
26
Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
—Jean Baptiste Massieu
27
Praise the bridge that carried you over.
—George Colman
28
Let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
—Henry Ward Beecher
29
If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.
—Verni Robert Quillen
30
Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.
—Estonian proverb
31
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
—Epictetus
32
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
—Seneca
33
There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude.
—Joseph Addison
34
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton
35
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
36
Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices.
—Thomas Fuller
37
THIS CAN’T BE USED SINCE IT IS A CYNICAL STATEMENT
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
(1613 -1680) INSTEAD Yes you are right.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero
38
When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.
—Chinese proverb
39
Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.
— Unknown
40
Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart—a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water—I accept with joy.
—Bhagavad Gita
42
Gratitude is a twofold love—love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest.
—Henry Van Dyke
43
Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.
—Aesop
44
Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.
—Edwin Arlington Robinson
45
The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.
— Richard Bach
46
See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.
—Seneca
47
God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart.
—Izaak Walton
48
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
—Charles H. Spurgeon
49
If the only prayer we ever said was ‘Thank you’, that would be sufficient.
— Meister Eckhart
50
There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude.
51
I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton
52
Take full account of the excellences which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
— Marcus Aurelius
But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are.
— Wallace D Wattles – from The Science of Getting Rich
54.
Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting.
– Princess Elizabeth Asquith Bibesco
55.
Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.
— John Henry Jowett
56.
Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude.
— Wallace D Wattles
57.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles and they can become your blessings.
– Author Unknown
58.
All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
– Daniel Defoe
59.
Cherish yesterday,
Dream tomorrow,
Live today.
– Richard Bach from Jonathan Livingston Seagull
60.
Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
– Henry Van Dyke
61.
Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
62.
Tolerate, change, or be grateful.
– Unknown
63.
We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, “Why did this happen to me?” unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way.
– Unknown
64.
I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.
– Jewish Proverb
65.
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
66,
Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles.
– Maltbie D. Babcock
67.
The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.
– Gilbert Keith Chestrson
68.
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it
– William Makepeace Thackeray
69.
Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
70.
Oh, Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
– William Shakespeare
71.
When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?
– Gilbert Keith Chestrson
72.
There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.
- Joseph Addison
73.
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
– Joseph Addison
74.
Difficulties are opportunities to better things; they are stepping stones to greater experience. Perhaps someday you will be thankful for some temporary failure in a particular direction. When one door closes, another always opens.
– Author Unknown
75.
If you can’t be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.
– Author Unknown
76.
If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.
– Author Unknown
77.
I was crying because I have no shoe, until I saw a man with no feet
– Persian proverb.
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Malti Bhojwani
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues but the parent of all others.” Cicero
CLICK HERE & Watch these 10 Videos now and give yourself a strong dose of Attitude Gratitude today
