Gratitude is the new black, or so it seems.
No matter what it is that you want to create in your life, it seems like gratitude is the answer.
Do you want to live a happier more fulfilling life? Be grateful.
Do you want to manifest the life of your dreams? Be grateful.
Do you want to create an unshakeable mindset that leads to success for years to come? Be grateful.
Gratitude is no doubt, one of the most powerful practices you can use to transform your life. It’s a practice that has been around for ages and everyone from Oprah to Deepak Chopra recommend developing a regular daily practice to turn what you have into more than enough.
Unfortunately, the whole gratitude thing has never really worked for me (and believe me, it’s not from a lack of trying).
I’m generally a very grateful person and when it comes to gratitude, I’ve done it all. I’ve tried everything from writing 3-5 things I’m grateful for each night in a dedicated gratitude journal to creating a list of 100 things I’m grateful for each day as part of a 30 day challenge. Unfortunately each time I tried, I only managed to keep the practice going for a few days. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get the practice to stick and I felt like something was wrong with me.
Why couldn’t I just be grateful? After all, I had lots of great things in my life to be grateful for. Surely, I could spend some time each day listing them out and reaping the fabulous benefits everyone else was experiencing.
The problem I kept running into time and time again was that this magnificent, seemingly life-changing practice felt more like a chore than anything else. Instead of floating on cloud 9 (as promised) I would sit for what seemed like hours trying to come up with new things I could feel grateful for each day and just end up more frustrated and stuck than before I began. I often felt like a robot simply transcribing words on paper and trying desperately to find that grateful feeling. Because isn’t that the whole point of the gratitude practice, to truly feel grateful and raise your vibration?
No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get into the feeling place of being grateful and I realized a very powerful lesson.
You can’t force the feeling.
For me, gratitude is an organic emotion that cannot be forced and while I wanted desperately to create a ritual and practice around gratitude, it just wasn’t happening for me. After a bit of trial and error, I finally ditched the gratitude practice for something far more powerful, something I call my Love List.
The truth is, I’ve always been more attuned to the emotion of love and found that I could easily make a list of all the things I loved about my life and actually feel the emotion behind it. Creating a Love List became my alternative to writing a gratitude list and it has done wonders for my mindset and vibration.
To create a Love List of your own is simple. Simply make a list of all the things you love in the world. It can include things you love about yourself, your spouse, the world, food, nature etc. There truly is no limit to what you can list here.
What I found really amazing about this practice is that after writing just a few things on my list, I felt instantly lighter and overall happier. With every new entry, I’d imagine what I love about that thing and I would feel my vibration get higher and higher. By the end of my practice, I was literally buzzing with good vibes.
Since then, I’ve used this practice with virtually all of my clients and they’ve had similar results. If you find yourself going through the motions with your gratitude practice or it’s just not working for you the way it used to, here are three reasons to consider trying the Love List method instead.
1. Love is the highest vibration of all. If we are talking about manifesting and raising your vibration, you can’t get much higher than love. You know that dreamy, high-flying feeling you get when you realize you have fallen in love with someone? That is the kind of high vibes you get from this practice. Gratitude is great, but there’s no better feeling than the feeling you get when you focus on all the things you love.
2. Love is magnetic and contagious. Like attracts like, so when you turn your attention to the people, places, and things you absolutely love, you also magnetize more of the same to you. What could be better than that? I’ll tell you what…sharing that love with others. Love has a contagious and infectious energy unlike anything I have ever seen before and I think we all can agree that we could use a bit more love in the world right?
3. Love is simple. My absolute favorite part of the practice is how simple it is! You don’t have to fake it to make it with this practice. All you have to do is imagine your spouse, dog, child, favorite wine, or vacation spot (or whatever else you love) to tap into that feeling. Remember, your brain doesn’t know the difference between what’s “real” and what’s being visualized, it responds the same either way. When you combine this practice with a bit of visualization, the sky is the limit!
If your gratitude practice is feeling a bit stagnant and isn’t giving you that loving, high-vibe feeling anymore, give the Love List a try and watch the magic and miracles unfold!
I want to hear from you! What do you think of the Love List Method? Would you be willing to give it a try?
Lamisha Serf-Walls is an empowerment coach for soul-centered women who are tired of trying to fit into lackluster beige boxes and crave the freedom of standing in their truth and living life from the heart. Her mission is to create a community of empowered, free flowing, lovers of life who live a life of freedom with ease and inspire others to do the same. You can learn more about Lamisha and what she offers by joining her free community, visiting her Online, on Facebook, or Twitter or grab her free audio 5 Ways to Break Free From Stuck.