Why a Daily Gratitude Practice will Change Your Life [complete with a special gift from me to you]

Several years ago when my business and life coach shared with me that a gratitude practice would be life changing, my immediate response was to question her professional advice (yep, that's me!).

Isn't gratitude simply to have a 'good feeling' for the day and nothing more?

Does it really matter if I practice gratitude on a daily basis? If yes, why?

And then the excuses kicked in...

I don't have time to practice gratitude every-single-day around everything else I've got on my plate!

Only the woo-woo people practice gratitude. And I'm not a woo-woo kind of gal.

And, besides, I don't even...

My mentor stopped me mid-excuse-sentence, rather rudely and forcefully I might add!

'This is exactly why you need a daily gratitude practice', she exclaimed!

She then went on to list the three primary reasons why:

1. It's Biblical (now that woke me up!). There are 30+ passages in the Bible about gratitude and thankfulness. One of my favorites is from Psalm 20:4 'May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed'. I don't know about you but if I can receive the desires of my heart and have my plans succeed by a simple gratitude practice, I-Am-All-In because there is nothing to lose and everything to gain!

2. It will improve you overall sense of well being and more. According to this article written by Gretchen Lidicker of MindBodyGreen, Gretchen states that a gratitude practice can also help prevent disease long-term and heal your mind from emotional trauma. [Okay, so I'm starting to become *a little* more convinced that I need to add this practice into may daily.]

3. It doesn't have to be difficult (yep, now you're talking my lingo). In another article in MindBodyGreen written by Kathleen Ventura, she provides a list of 25 ways to practice gratitude. Simple things like sending a thank you card, to praying, to giving compliments genuinely. Trust me, when you read this list you will be like, hey, I can do that! More thank likely you'll discover that you're already doing many or most of the 25 things on her list.

It didn't take long for my mentor to inspire me into action. I started my daily gratitude practice immediately and have been reaping the benefits since. I created a gratitude practice guide for you called '31 Days of December' that you can get access to by clicking here. And if you happen to download this guide in a month other than December, no worries, it's still fully functional. And simple. My mantra. 

Here's to a life filled with daily gratitude and a life completely changed as a result. 

You rock.