There is something magical and unique about the felt experience of gratitude.  I have come to believe that  it is as close as we get in our daily lives to an ecstatic connection to the divine. Experiencing the goodness surrounding us viscerally with the practice of feeling gratitude awakens and opens our heart, while simultaneously creating the lightness of joy.

For many years, in fact for most of my life,  I had no idea or access to this deeply  personal experience of deep gratitude. When I would express gratitude, it was in words only,  a formality that was returned after a kindness offered. What I learned when I began to actively study how gratitude works within us  is that  you have be able to receive to feel grateful.

The more attention we give to our capacity to receive, the more we see all that there is to be grateful for. It’s kind of a chicken and egg phenomenon, which feeds on itself, but can be hard to begin the cycle and practice gratitude. Our attention is key, and wanting to know and believing we are worthy to receive is necessary for gratitude to develop. As the scale tips towards witnessing all that is coming towards us, and our capacity for practicing gratitude expands, something magical occurs. We tap into a flowing abundance that is only visible to the grateful eye.

I often think of this flow as a parallel universe, because truly, when you are outside of this gratitude reception, if someone told you how it could be different, it would sound like fiction. And for the ungrateful heart, all that there is to receive is fiction. But let me assure you, from one formerly ungrateful convert, there is an amazing flowing abundance waiting for your discovery. Veritable treasures are surrounding you, but you first have to find the mechanism of receiving what is already being given gratefully.

Trust me. These positive self affirmations are worth the effort, because, in the flow of abundance that originates in deep gratitude, you can’t tell the difference between giving and receiving. They feel like one in the same. Start with these positive self affirmations – I am in the abundant flow of gratitude.