Why Gratitude Affirmations are Important | Jack Canfield

I'd like to ask you a question. What are you thankful for? What are you truly grateful for? In a year like the one we've just had, this might seem like a hard question to answer. But here's the thing. When you're going through challenging or uncertain times, that's when practicing gratitude matters more than ever. So what I'd like to do today is talk just a little bit about the power of gratitude and then share some gratitude affirmations that that you can repeat that will help you change your perspective and stay focused on the positive so you too can attract more of what you want into your life and less of what you don't want. Gratitude is so powerful that it can completely transform your mindset and your emotional and physical experience in an instant, no matter what is happening in your life or in the world around you. One of the things I do in my Breakthrough to Success trainings is I send people on a 15 minute rampage of appreciation exercise where they walk around inside and outside just practicing gratitude for everything they see. They will be thinking to themselves, I'm grateful for the other people in this group. I'm grateful for the beautiful art on the walls of the hotel lobby. I'm grateful for the running water in the restroom, and grateful for the Starbucks and the coffee they are serving. And grateful for the people who grew the coffee beans, for the people who transported them, for the people who roasted them, and for the barista who just made my cappuccino. I'm grateful for the sunny weather today, and so on and so on. And when people return to the room or during these days when they return back to their computer to watch me on Zoom, many of the participants report having been so moved that they cried tears of gratitude. And they all report feeling different, more joyful, more loving, more connected themselves more connected to each other and to life itself. And gratitude doesn't just contribute to you feeling better, it also contributes to your creating more things and experiences to be grateful for. You see, the energy of true gratitude acts like a magnet to attract to you more of the same of what you're expressing gratitude for. It's literally the greatest secret of so many successful people. If you've seen the movie the Secret, and if you haven't, I recommend you watch it as soon as possible. You can find it online. I'm talking about the original documentary film the Secret produced by rhonda byrne in 2006, not the newer Hollywood movie by that title, although that's a great movie as well. But if you did watch the original movie. You know, from all the successful people who were in that movie that talked about it, how important gratitude is as a precursor to to manifesting what you want in life. Now, interestingly, Wahei Takeda, one of the richest men in Japan, who is also known as the Warren Buffett of Japan, told my friend Janet Atwood that the secret to his success was to always live in a state of appreciation and gratitude. He would literally repeat the word arigato, which is Japanese for thank you, all day long, as a silent mantra. Now you can read about him and his approach to life in Janet's book, Morrow Up. The secret to success begins with aragato. Now, one thing that I teach every one of my students is to write down a list of 10 things you're grateful for every single day. And I suggest doing it as soon as you can in the morning and get emotionally involved with each thing you write down. Don't just do it as a quick intellectual process to get out of the way, but take the time to really feel the gratitude for each item and make writing this list of 10 things you're grateful for a daily ritual. I do this every single day. And things that were on my list this morning were my wife Inga, the three new cats we just inherited. They're really cool. My incredible staff, the gardeners who work on my property two days a week, my three sons and my grandson Ozzie. The fact that the weather has been so nice lately, my vibrant health during the pandemic, the 3,000 trainers that are teaching the success principals all around the world, and all the students that are currently in our coaching program and our mastermind groups, and the person who invented the Zoom technology that allows me to teach people all over the world during the current lockdown situation. Now let's start by taking a moment to look at what practicing gratitude actually looks like and why it has such a powerful impact on your life. Gratitude isn't simply thanking whatever deity or divine force you believe in for everything that's good in your life. It's about taking the time to slow down, slow down and actually feel a profound sense of thankfulness deep in your heart and realizing how incredibly fortunate you are to be alive living the life that you have. You know, when you take the time to do the work, to feel this level of awe filled appreciation in your heart and in your soul, something incredible happens. You'll experience a powerful sense of positivity bubbling up inside you, lifting your mood and your spirits. It will awaken a sense of joy or even bliss that raises your energetic frequency and thus puts you in a more positive energy vibration that you then put out into the world. And these powerful vibrations are going to resonate with other people and the things that are vibrating at the same level, the same frequency as you are, thus attracting them to your life. More high vibration people, more high vibration experiences and opportunities to actually achieve what you want. And all of this can happen in an instant. That's the power of gratitude for you. Now you might be thinking, wait a minute, Jack, how can I feel that kind of gratitude when there's so many terrible things happening in my life right now? I just lost my job, my partner and I just broke up. I have bills coming that I can't pay. I'm struggling with trying to homeschool my younger kids and my teenager isn't talking to me. What do I have to be grateful for? Well, no matter how terrible your life may seem, there's always something to be grateful for. This isn't just a self help cliche, it's a very real and powerful truth. So consider your life as it is right now. At this very instant. You're watching this video on some sort of electronic device, your computer or your cell phone, your iPad, smart tablet, and you have the time to do it. Those are both things to be grateful for. Think about it. It's incredible that we have such powerful technology at our disposal. Imagine traveling back in time 50 years and telling people in the 1960s that we would one day have handheld computing devices that would be more powerful than the building sized ones they used at NASA back then. We humans are incredibly skilled at making our most ambitious dreams a reality. Now that's something else to be grateful for. Now consider where you are. Are you sitting in your own house or apartment? Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have heat or air conditioning? Do you have furniture? Do you share your home with people or pets that you love? These are all incredible things to be grateful for. Or maybe you're sitting on a bus or a train as you're listening to this. Or if that's the case, aren't you lucky that your town or city has public transportation? It has a transit system that you can use anytime you want. And again, that's something to be grateful for. Or how about the clothes you're wearing? Are they comfortable? Are they keeping you warm? It's simple, but it's also something to be grateful for. You know, someone worked hard to make those clothes and you're wearing them right now, which is something else you can be grateful for. Now think about your body. Is it relatively healthy and pain free? Does it have the strength and the energy to take you where you need to go and complete the tasks you need to complete? That's something to be hugely thankful for. How about the community in which you live? Or the natural environment around you? Or. Or the shoes that you own? The car that you drive? The food in your pantry or your cupboards? And the people in your life who love you and bring joy into your world? Or the people who write the books and create the TV shows and the movies and the video games to keep you entertained? What about the musicians who write the songs that bring tears to your eyes because they're so beautiful? Or the hot water that allows you to take cleansing showers and relaxing baths? Or the healthy drinking water and the fresh and delicious food you have access to? These are all incredible things to feel grateful for. You see, many, many people in the world do not have all these things that so many of us take for granted. Now the fact is that no matter how many so called bad things are happening in your life, there are always a countless number of good things that you have to be grateful for. And when you focus on them and cultivate a deep appreciation for everything that's good in your life, you will truly liberate yourself from negativity and feel much greater joy and contentment on a day to day basis. And that joy and that contentment will give you the faith and the motivation you need to solve whatever problems you're currently challenging you or troubling you so you can get back to living and enjoying your best life. So now what I'd like to do is teach you some gratitude affirmations that you can make part of your daily routine to help you cultivate a deep and lasting appreciation for everything that's good in your life. What I'm going to recommend is every morning for the next 30 days or longer if you want, as soon as you wake up and every evening before you go to bed, I want to encourage you to repeat the following affirmations to yourself. I am grateful for this moment. I am grateful for my dreams and for knowing that I can achieve anything I set my heart to. I am grateful for my current challenges because I know they are helping me to become the person I am meant to be. I'm grateful for all the people in my life who inspire me and help me understand who I want to be in the world. I am grateful to be alive and to be learning from all my experiences. I am grateful for the person I am becoming and for the incredible future I am creating. If you repeat each of these affirmations several times to yourself out loud if you can, silently, if it's not appropriate, at least once or twice a day, I promise you will find it much easier to maintain a positive attitude and stay motivated toward working on your goals. And also make sure you take time every morning or every evening to write down 10 things you're grateful for that day. Remember what your focus on grows. Whatever you appreciate, you will attract more of into your life and the more you practice gratitude, the happier you'll be and the better your life will become. And let me know what you think in the comments below. And thanks again for watching. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it and and please subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one and for additional mindset practices and resources, visit jackcampfield.com and check out the links in the description below.