This holiday season replace your wish-list with a gratitude-list. It’s easy to focus on all the things you would like to have, or think about how you would like to change yourself or your life, but instead consider what you have now and celebrate who you are now. As Dr. Michael Beckwith often says, “cultivate an attitude of gratitude.”

Many of us are blessed with the truly important things in life such as good health, family, friends, freedom, and relative peace. It can be easy to take these blessings for granted, but it only takes a moment of realization that any one of these things could be taken away (such as hearing of another’s loss or illness) to feel a flood of gratitude for what really matters in our lives. Cherish these gifts at all times.

Also cherish your own unique self. We are all a work in progress, but celebrate all that you are today. We can even strive to be grateful for the challenges or seeming misfortunes in our lives. While we may not be able to recognize it in the moment—often these challenges are filled with opportunities.

 

If you are in a place where it is difficult to feel grateful, each night before bed find one thing in your day that you can be thankful for, even if it’s as simple as the sun shining or a smile from a stranger.

Living from a place of gratitude not only makes us feel better, but ironically the things we wish for, may come to us sooner. Like attracts like, so what we are thankful for, tends to multiply in our lives.

It has been said that the highest form of prayer is giving thanks. Instead of praying “for” things, give thanks for what you already have. And have faith that what you still desire is already within you—that as you ask, it is given—and your prayers are already answered. On some level, what you desire is manifesting in your life right now, you just may not see it yet. But you can still be grateful that you know it is unfolding right here and right now.

We wish you a Happy Holiday and a New Year filled with peace, love, and joy!