You've heard every guru and coach harp on about Gratitude, as this Universal solution to any and all manifestation questions or concerns you might have, and while I can see and appreciate where they are coming from, I still have a bone to pick.
So if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, let me break down the positives and some possible traps of using Gratitude as this one-size-fits-all solution to manifesting whatever it is that you're manifesting.
On a face value, yeah, sure it's a no-brainer, of course gratitude is good for you. Of course, you should feel grateful for all the epic stuff that you've already managed to do and achieve. Especially if you're prone to default to more lower energies throughout the day, sure, take your time, sit down and feel that gratitude, it's a quick and simple boost to your energy.
HOWEVER..
Let's dig a bit deeper. Let's look at what the feeling of gratitude ACTUALLY means and why did I just call Gratitude the Trojan Horse of manifesting..
Say you did take the advice of 'feeling the gratitude' to heart and really focussed on it, making it the dominant feeling throughout your days, what you'd notice as an effect sooner or later would be this yo-yo-ing from these amazing times, events and synchronicities to getting into all sorts of pickles, finding your back against a wall more often than not and getting yourself into these uncomfortably tight situations where you wouldn't be sure if you'd make out of them this time.
A pattern like that might make for a good episode of a show, but would you really want to live your everyday day-to-day life like that? I mean if you do, more power to you, but I know for sure that that is not for me.
Now why would focusing on feeling gratitude create a pattern like that?
Because the feeling of gratitude implies a retroactive hardship that's overcome. And the bigger the feeling of gratitude the bigger the hardship that's overcome, so when you focus on it, you imply future hardships that will get you to your feeling of gratitude once overcome.
Yeah, but contrast is what makes the life worth living, Josie.
Yes, yes, I know, but from experience I can tell you that there IS such a thing as TOO much contrast. And diligently focusing on gratitude is one fast way to get to that place of too high of a highs and too low of a lows.
Do I have a better alternative to Gratitude then?
As a matter of fact I do - Appreciation.
See the subtle difference in the energy? Appreciation does not imply retroactive lack or hardship, you can appreciate things when they are going good and still keep finding more and more things, situations, people and circumstances to appreciate without 'the fall from grace', without getting yourself 'between a rock and a hard place'.
So try swapping gratitude for appreciation and watch how this simple shift brings in more ease and soft flow to your manifesting journey.
Sometimes on this path it really comes down to breaking down and dissecting energies to see in nuance if they really are compatible with the life that you're building for yourself, and not just taking some gurus word for it.
Experiment, have fun, and I'll catch you later.
~Josie~