Photo by Eduardo Dutra on Pexels.

← CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Why a gratitude Practice?

Dear Creatrix,

I think we’ve all heard, that knowing how to find balance, or inner peace, is the highest good in today’s world.

It’s actually valued higher than money because no money in the world can buy you inner peace.

Yet, we can all have it for free.

All we have to do for it is to stop trying to please others and just be ourselves and listen to our heart’s desires.

I feel extremely grateful that I figured out a way for myself to live in balance and experience inner peace, if not at all times, then at least at most times.

And I’d like to share with you, today, how you can have that as well.

For it, it doesn’t matter how you feel now, what you’ve experienced in the past or what you believe in, all it takes is a desire to live a balanced and happy life.

I wasn’t born and raised to live in a state of inner peace, or be in balance – far from it.

I also had my reasons to go look for it, and it took me many years to get here. But it doesn’t have to take you as long, if you are willing to accept some help.

Why are our lives so busy and stressful?

If we take a low estimate, people say 60% of our diseases are caused by our lifestyle. Which means that those diseases can be prevented and healed if people change their way of life.

I would go even further and say that almost every disease can be healed by a change of lifestyle, as I had a chance to see myself heal diseases and my body in ways that no doctor expected or thought possible, simply by changing how I think about them.

We often think that this world is so complicated, when it is really very simple.

What makes life stressful and keeps us busy is that we don’t know what we are doing and why.

But we can take the time to figure it out, and once we do, we can come back to inner balance and peace with ease.

In the same way, what makes us sick, is fear. And fear comes from not trusting, not knowing and uncertainty.

So if we want to start living healthy and happy lives, find balance and come to a state of inner peace, strength and certainty, we have to begin to trust that everything is and will always be good – and do our part in making all decisions for the greatest good of all.

How far can you stretch your mind?

I know that when we look around, it often seems difficult to imagine that all is well.

And believe me when I say, that I did not always think this way.

I was so angry for most of my life. I couldn’t stand the fact that there was inequality, that there were people suffering, and I thought that I did not want to be happy as long as there were other people who were not.

A lot has changed since then, but I first had to reach a point in my life, where I felt so bad, that I did not want to continue in the way I lived, thinking, fearing, that if I don’t start treating my body better, it might give up at some point.

And this seems true for many. At some point in our lives, we realize that something has to change, or we ruin ourselves.

Constant stress, constant worry, trying to make ends meet or live a fulfilled and happy life, without really knowing how and seemingly too many balls in the air.

So, what can we do?
It is quite simple really.

Photo by Ryanniel Masucol on Pexels.

One of the most effective tools is to start showing gratitude for the things we have. You can do that with a gratitude journal, or with a friend.

For a while, I would exchange what I’m grateful for each evening with a friend. It was cute, it helps not only to find balance, but to create strong bonds as well.

Because to create balance, does actually mean to not be one-sided. We always have a choice: Do we focus on what’s wrong, or what’s right?

We did this in the last chapter when looking at our homes, and what we like and dislike about them – but you can really do that with anything.

Because we often forget to see the things that are good in our lives and only focus on the bad.

And a gratitude practice helps us to shift our perspective.

What convinced me to start shifting my focus from what is wrong in the world, to what is right, which was the first step to understanding that there is no evil and that even the things we see as bad (like death, or accidents or sickness) serve the purpose of leading us to well-being – was the practical difference it makes.

When we are sick, struggle, feel depressed, don’t have energy or time, don’t feel inspired, it is difficult and often literally feels impossible to change anything for the better.

But when we notice that this is where we are, we will now also be able to see that we have a choice here, and that is to complain or to do something about it.

Which one do you think will make a bigger difference?

From a place of complaining, looking at what, we think, is wrong, it is very difficult to start acting in away that creates positive change.

It’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of energy and force and, more often than not, causes a lot of damage as well: to relationships and also to our own mental and physical well-being.

But there are easier ways.

Fortunately or unfortunately, they all start with doing our own inner work and bringing ourselves in alignment with our inner knowing, our essence.

Once we begin to resource ourselves so well, that we can act effectively and gracefully, know what we are doing and can do it fuelled by joy, love and compassion, change becomes possible for ourselves and those around us.

When we feel overwhelmed, uncertain, have (self-)doubt, it feels difficult to even think about contributing to changing the world for the better.

But no matter where we are now and how we feel now, we can start crazy small, and this works for every change we want to create, by simply showing gratitude for what goes well in our lives and by beginning to pay a little more attention to that.

Because from here more energy will become available to take the next steps, and the next steps and the next to slowly but steadily move towards living a happy and healthy life and to find balance and possibly even inner peace.

And from there we can achieve anything we wish for.

To thrive, we have to feel useful. To feel useful, we have to express ourselves creatively, allow ourselves to be ourselves and not suppress our essence.

When we feel disempowered, unfree, limited, it is very difficult to come into balance.

So, we look around and see where we are at, what we feel, what we need to see, in which ways we need to grow, to level up, until we eventually get to where we want to be.

And for most people, that would be the place where they feel free to completely be themselves: live freely, love freely and enjoy their lives, while also uplifting and inspiring others.

We can all get there.

And we will dive deep into how to do this is in this chapter of the CREATRIX School.

Too often, we think that we want to arrive, that we would like to be done with all the work, but what we actually mean is we wish to stop struggling.

Because to find balance and inner peace, we still have to keep moving.

But we can move without struggling by tuning into our internal guidance system, by following our bliss, and by opening up to all the endless possibilities life presents to us.

What does it feel like to imagine spending the rest of your life in balance, expressing yourself freely and authentically, to enjoy your body, your life, your days, be grateful for all that is and contribute joyfully to this ever-changing world?

What does it feel like to enter into the flow of life and to joyfully thrive?

Let’s make that our new reality, starting today.

And today we start with being grateful for what we have.

Buy yourself a journal and share what you are grateful for each day. Or find a friend, or ask your partner to exchange what you are grateful about each day.

Maybe you also have other ideas – if so, please share them in the comments with the rest of us.

For now, I send you my love, and I am very grateful that you are here. 💖