One of the most powerful things that gratitude does for us…is that it opens our hearts.  When we practice proactive gratitude we open ourselves to experience more love:  more love for things and experiences in our lives, more love for others, more love for our planet and more love for ourselves.  Experiencing more love in all these areas of what life is about. It’s where we want to be. It’s who we want to be.  It’s our essential nature.  It’s an attractive energy that draws more and more good toward us.  It is also where some of us get stuck. 

Why do we get stuck? Why wouldn’t we want to experience more love in all of these areas?  Ah, why indeed?  I think it’s because most of us have, through painful experiences in our past, built walls around our heart.  We don’t want to leave our heart’s too open…we’ll be too vulnerable.  We might experience that pain again.  Uh oh. That pain of rejection, or disappointment, or events that don’t seem to make any sense. And so we’ve built up a defensive border as a precaution.  To protect ourselves.

Somewhere a little voice inside says, “you can practice gratitude and open up to love…but only up to a point. Don’t go too far.  Don’t leave yourself vulnerable.”  This is below the level of our conscious mind, of course.  That voice doesn’t really want you to hear it, or you might see what it’s doing and attack it with reason.  And so what it does is…causes us to lose our focus on gratitude little by little.  We kinda forget to practice gratitude one day, and then the next, and then suddenly it’s gone and it didn’t seem that important anyway.  Our minds and hearts fill back up with judgment and resentment and noticing what’s wrong with our life.  Suddenly we’re miserable again and we don’t know what happened.

Now that you know, you have a choice. Are you going to let that little voice prevent you from experiencing the life you really want to live…a life of love and joy, attracting more prosperity and success?  Or, are you going to stand up and say, “Hey, wait a minute.  Love is my essential nature. Love feels good.  Yes, I may experience rejection or disappointment. So what?  There is so much good in the world, there is so much possibility and opportunity around me, I can attract more.  But I won’t if my heart is closed. So, I’m choosing to keep my heart open. I’m choosing to practice gratitude on a daily basis and allow it to open my heart even further.”

It’s your choice. You are in charge.  Don’t let that little voice divert you from your commitment.  And you know you can always get support for your practice here at The Gratitude Experiment.  Bookmark this site.  Click the RSS Feed button. Check in everyday and get inspired to practice more gratitude and experience more love everyday.

Blessings.

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I am grateful for the skylights that are being put in today…how wonderful to have all that light!  How beautiful the sky is!

I am grateful for my immune system and how healthy I’ve been for quite awhile.

I am grateful for new opportunities to express more of my talents.

I am grateful for loving support from the members of PT.