How Gratitude Leads to More Abundance

posted 7th December 2010 Written by: Doniree CATEGORY: Doniree, Life Lesson, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 3, What I've Learned

abundance, busy life, gratitude, joy, manifest

Books to read. Blog posts to write. Clients to please. Calls to make. Calls to take. Relationships to maintain. Love to give. Love to receive. Family. Friends. Business. Work. Yoga. Physical health. Spiritual health. Mental health. Emotional health. Happy hours. Brunch. Potluck Sunday. A night to myself. A night out with friends. Dinner. Text messages. Emails. To-do lists. Blog business. New ideas. New year. New projects. New. Everything.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, right? To buckle under the weight of it all, whatever it all is for you. How did I get to this place where there is SO MUCH TO DO? People to please, deadlines to meet, expectations to live up to. I frequently say, “I’d rather be busy than bored,” and while that’s true – how true is it also that just once, just right this second, just for a day… we’d like to remember what bored feels like.

We are living the abundance we demanded

Chelsea and I have discussed these crushing moments more than once. 20-Something Women who juggle life, work, dreams, love, emotions, the QLC, wine, cheese, and living – just like so many others. And in one of those moments, she said something that I’ve never forgotten:

Isn’t it funny? How we’re exactly where we wanted to be, exactly where we asked the Universe to put us, and yet we’re frustrated and tired and overwhelmed? We’re living the abundance we desired, the abundance we demanded — and yet, where is our gratitude?

How true is that? I asked for this. I asked for clients that were interesting and whose work I believed in. I have them. I asked for deep relationships and friends that are like family – in cities across the country and scattered around the world. I have them. I asked for a lover and a best friend who shared the same dreams and direction as I did. I have him. I asked for creative opportunities, and here I am.

Life is abundant. Opportunities are abundant, and when I can remember that I’m exactly where I wanted to be and instead of sighing in exasperation, I cry out in gratitude – suddenly I can handle it. Suddenly, the unmanageable is manageable. The hurdles are jumped. The edge is pushed and changed.

For this, I am grateful.

As I write this, it’s Saturday night. I have a glass of wine next to me, and BoyfriendMan works on his laptop at the kitchen table next to me. For that, I am grateful. For a relationship that supports my creative bursts at 10pm on a Saturday night, I am grateful. I have a to-do list a mile long, but for that, I am grateful. I have steady income and work for clients who challenge me creatively and whose mission I support with every ounce of my being. For that, I am grateful. Tomorrow is Sunday, and I’ll attend a yoga teacher training class, have some time to spend at home packing for my upcoming move, and will spend tomorrow evening with friends-like-family at our weekly potluck. For the chance to further study yoga and the opportunity to soon teach, I am grateful. For a lifestyle that allows me the freedom to pack up and move across the country in the name of exploration and adventure, I am grateful. For friends-like-family and a social calendar full of rich and loving relationships, I am grateful.

I could see that above paragraph as one big to-do list. Write this blog post, pack for the move, show up to Potluck, get your work done, cross this off, maintain this, be attentive to that. I could. But that would make things like creativity and relationships a task – and they’re not. They’re evidence of abundance in my life, and for that – I am grateful.

And if I’ve learned anything about gratitude this year, it’s that the expression of it – for the immense and for the mundane, – almost always guarantees MORE of the goodness. More abundance, more love, more living.

Even when I struggle, I find those things that I’m grateful for and I focus in hard on those things. The stressors start to melt, and calm sets in. Gratitude is powerful.

No matter where you are, there is at least one thing in your life your are most immensely grateful for. What is it?

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Comments (10)

694810 ResponsesHow+Gratitude+Leads+to+More+Abundance2010-12-07+15%3A00%3A52Doniree to “How Gratitude Leads to More Abundance”

P.S. Jones Says:
December 7th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Immensely on point post. I'm grateful that I wake up every morning and think "I get to work now" as opposed to "I have to work now."
Heidi Says:
December 7th, 2010 at 8:43 am
so true – all of it. So much to grateful for and so often we forget to look at it in terms of being grateful.

Thanks for the reminder
Lindsey Says:
December 7th, 2010 at 9:02 am
At first, I just thought of gratitude as a way to look for the positive in my life instead of the negative. But the more I focus on it and the more it becomes a part of my life I feel that gratitude is, like, an entirely new way of existing. And if you can train yourself to live in gratitude, you only do things that you want, simple as that. I love that the topic of so many of our season 3 posts have touched on this, because I SO believe it is the key to living that abundant life you're talking about – and LOVING it. Lovely post!
Kinsey Michaels Says:
December 7th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
wow, i love this post Doni. And I love what Chelsea said about it! It really is so true. A similar quote that kinda sorta speaks to this, is this: "just remember that what you have right now is a result of the price you have decided you're willing to pay."
Doniree Says:
December 8th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I LOVE that perspective, and I'm so glad you get to live that reality also
Doniree Says:
December 8th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Anytime!
Doniree Says:
December 8th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Oh, that's a good one too! Thanks for sharing
Doniree Says:
December 8th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
It's a lifestyle, isn't it? Love it!
Alisha Says:
December 9th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Such a lovely post. How fortunate you are to have such an abundant life–and it's so good you don't take it for granted. Abundance is going to be my word for 2011. It's definitely lacking at the moment, but I hope to change that.
Katie [blogs] Says:
December 10th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
I've totally adopted Pot Luck Sundays here too. One day, you WILL attend one over here.