Guest Blog Post by Chutisa Bowman

As my husband Steve and I travel the world working with different businesses and speaking at conferences, we often talk about the power of gratitude.

When we asked some senior leaders to share with us their experience of gratitude in their lives, we found that most people only experienced gratitude when something they thought of as ‘good’ happened. The more we worked with people, the more we noticed how many people misidentified what gratitude is all about.

Quite a few people we know have gratitude journals packed full of shopping lists of things that they say they are grateful for. However, the lists they have compiled do not seem to translate into an energetic state of gratefulness.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not belittling the gratitude journal. It is a useful tool if you are using it consciously, but it seems like a mindless act of pretense if you are not experiencing an energetic state of gratitude as you use the tool.

The bottom line is this: whatever you focus on expands. When you focus on gratitude, what are you focusing on? You are putting your attention on what’s right in your life. You focusing on what is wonderful and marvelous so more of that can show up.

When things are not working the way you wish, instead of complaining, ask this question:

What’s right about this that I’m not getting yet?

From this moment on, I invite you to look for the rightness of you and your life. Stop judging and complaining. Feel and express gratitude for you, for your life, and for everyone and everything around you all the time. You don’t have to wait for something ‘good’ to happen so you can be grateful.

I invite you to embody gratitude. Make it the state of your being and a part of who are are in every moment – not just a response to attaining something you desire or expect.

Embodying the gratitude of you allows everything else in your life to show up. You can begin to embody gratitude by choosing to notice all that you have to be grateful for, and by expressing your gratitude earnestly without hesitation.

And when a ‘miraculous’ incident occurs, be grateful to yourself and the universe. Acknowledge that you created it. Invite the universe to send more of the same by asking, ‘What else is possible?’

Quick Reference Guide

• look for the rightness in your life
• focus on what you have
• express gratitude for you, for your life, and for everyone and everything around you, including the money that you do have
• appreciate the magic that you are
• stop thinking of yourself as broke or having no money
• stop judging anything
• when things aren’t working the way you wish, ask ‘what’s right about this that I’m not getting yet?Excerpts taken from the book, Prosperity Consciousness, by Chutisa & Steven Bowman.