Most books about the law of attraction agree that gratitude is the number one ‘state’ to practice when we are trying to manifest our desires. The Secret (Rhonda Bryne) Â talks about how we hold ourselves apart from that which we desire by unconsciously practicing the ‘state’ of desire or ‘wanting’. When we want something too much we can put a huge emotional load onto it, putting ourselves into a state of discomfort and even emotional pain.
This state is the opposite to how we expect to feel when we have received that which we desire. Instead of practicing the mental state of gratitude, we often get stuck in the ‘wanting’ state, wanting things or circumstances so much that we practice this state continuously – to the extent that we make ourselves miserable. We perpetuate our situation by constantly giving our attention to that which we are unhappy with.We get caught up in focusing on what we don’t have that we’d like, rather than on what we already have which we appreciate. We create our lives through our perpetual thinking processes and the circumstances which we are surrounded with are the result of this thinking. Our dominant mental thoughts help to create our beliefs over a long period of time and our lives manifest around them.
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.†— Abraham Lincoln
So if we become more aware that our thinking minds create our lives, it is a good idea to choose the best possible thoughts. Gratitude puts you in the state of mind which we often attribute to having, once our goals are met. We aim for certain things in life because we expect to feel great when we have attained them. Focusing on gratitude is simply a means to focus in on this feeling from the outset and create our lives from the inside out – rather than from the outside in. More often than not we instead try to get to this feeling only on a physical level. We put ourselves though a lot of pain and suffering in order to ‘climb the ladder’ to ‘get’ to where we want to be.
“…you may be able to make far more effective changes in your live (through creative visualization) than you would by thinking, worrying and planning and trying to manipulate things and people.” Shakti Gawain – Creative Visualization
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So by focusing on the appreciation of what we already have with gratitude, we create more of this feeling. By doing so regularly for long enough it can become our dominant mental state. When we consistently and persistently practice this, the universe lines up events, circumstances and situations which are in line with this vibration. Conversely, when we are continually focusing on what we don’t have, feeling unhappy with the results of our lives, we perpetuate this feeling and things line up in our lives to reflect it back to us.
Ask and it is given is a great book on learning how to manifest your desires. One chapter called ‘the storm of appreciation’ explains how by writing a journal of the things you are grateful for and going into detail, you are activating your vibration of gratitude and by doing this regularly you are making it a more dominant attitude or ‘state’. Being in a state of gratitude is much more pleasant than being in a state of ‘wanting’. It will immediately benefit your levels of happiness together with creating more in the future.
