5 Keys To Transform Through Deep Gratitude in 2022
It was 2 years ago when I designed the month of March to be dedicated to a gratitude journey inside my Beauty Flourishing Collective. At that time, I never imagined what would transpire to shake up the world, and it has been nonstop since.
I offered this profound teaching freely with a blog and FB live event back then. And today, with our world in an even greater state of uncertainty and fear, I choose to share the key components of this teaching with new updates for 2022 freely once again.
I feel it is my obligation to contribute to this world and all beings in a positive way as a healer, spiritual teacher, and mentor, in order to uplift the energy of our Collective Consciousness.
What I will be giving you here are the 5 Keys to transform through deep Gratitude, which I have developed based on my knowledge and practice. Together with the Gratitude Journal (a workbook I created for you with prompts for each Key), this strategic system leads to deep and honest gratitude practice that transforms lives.
How can we change our Life through Gratitude?
Transformation through deep gratitude is always an internal game, but with most gratitude practices, it simply never lands unless we work through the underlying layers of our emotions.
We stay in a shallow space that simply remains flat because the worst thing we can do in our practice is to push ourselves to list X-number of things to be ‘grateful’ for, as this just then becomes another meaningless chore we have to do.
And let’s be frank, that’s the last thing any of us need.
On the other hand, when we work through our layers, we place ourselves in an organic process of letting gratitude bubble to the surface which naturally uplifts our life experience. In combination with Energy Healing and a supportive community, there is a potent equation that brings you into true alignment within your life and creates well-being within you. Which is:
Self-care as your outward practice + gratitude as your inward practice.
This is the equation I have always applied in my life as both elements are vital for humanity to be uplifted and create the powerful shifts we want to see within ourselves and in our environment. This is what I teach in my online spaces and to my clients, and it is truly what I live, and breathe. You can read more about self-care here in my Blog Post, as the main focus of this blog post is about gratitude.
Photo of me by Alex Sumner Photography
On the scale of human emotions, gratitude is one of the highest forms of expression. However, when we are finding ourselves in troubled times, we can easily become discouraged and lose sight of gratitude.
While discouragement might be our initial response to our challenges, we can move beyond that when we embrace the following truth: We CAN step up and create a space of gratitude within ourselves which then raises the vibration of our inner and outer space and that of our Collective Consciousness.
“We can step up and create a space of gratitude within ourselves which then raises the vibration of our inner and outer space and that of our Collective Consciousness.”
By raising vibration, we shift our internal state which is always where the magic happens. The external circumstances around us move according to their own ‘play’ but our internal shifts influence our own health and well-being.
In turn, this shifts the world around us. It helps with our self-esteem and reduces any emotions on the lower spectrum of the scale. For anything to manifest the way we want to, it is always within our inner power.
5 Keys To Transform Through Deep Gratitude
My system for accessing gratitude has developed over many years of working on my own self-development and guiding my clients through challenging times in their lives. It takes this concept - of practicing gratitude even in difficult circumstances - beyond the standard gratitude practice because it outlines specific steps for a true journey of gratitude that will transform you and your environment.
“For anything to manifest the way we want to, it is always within our inner power.”
This system of 5 Keys is the foundation that opens up the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies to shift from a vibration of helplessness and fear into an empowered state of being.
The 5 keys to transforming into a space of true gratitude follow this sequence:
1. Claim your power
2. Center yourself inwardly, regardless of outer circumstances
3. Align yourself totally to Source Energy
4. Surrender to the highest guidance
5. Choose honest gratitude for all that feels right
Claim Your Power
The teaching that I’m giving in this is based on the belief and knowledge that everything is a co-creative process and a feedback loop between us and the Universe/Source. And if I am co-creating this experience, then I have a right to claim my space within that.
We all have gone through a lot of stuff in our lives. Therefore, first of all, give yourself permission for an honest and deep acknowledgment of all the things that do not feel right. Allow all your feelings in, without expectations or sugarcoating anything!
We cannot practice false gratitude and hold expectations of transformation when we don’t create room for all our emotions in any given situation.
There is no healing without honesty, period.
One of my key phrases, whenever life is throwing me for a loop, is:
“Universe, open new spaces and transform everything to the highest and best in my life!”
I then feel into the situation without fighting or resisting it or my feelings and look for opportunities for soul growth within it. And I do declare what I am o.k with and what I am not, and what feels good and what does not, in order to define my preferences.
It is possible to tap into endless alternate realities at any given time, and knowing this, I allow for openings in the current state. We have the power to do this, and I, therefore, give myself permission to exit that ‘screening’ and explore different movies in the ’theater’.
Going into a state of gratitude without first allowing the process of acknowledging all that is and how it sits within me would cut off the healing in the present moment. Anything less than that is simply out of alignment with our natural state of being in a space of love and flow.
2. Center Yourself Inwardly, Regardless of Outer Circumstances
One key concept to understand is finding calm within your current ‘storm’ by centering yourself within. You will always ‘chase’ your own life when this is missed. It is up to you to take responsibility for being the director in YOUR movie and not to be in anyone else's. We have the saying “I am beside myself,” and this is literally where that comes from.
When you go out of your Center, outside of yourself, your energy field is out of alignment. You are more likely to experience stress, the feeling that there is no time, and a general sense of disharmony. Any time you are not connected with your pure essence within, you will find it challenging to practice gratitude because it is hard to distinguish where you begin and what is influenced from outside of you.
This is why centering your own energy is an important preface to a healthy gratitude practice. In doing so, you can come from your own strong core. From this place of centeredness, all things which are distractions to who you truly are can fall away.
3. Align Yourself Totally to Source Energy
Once you are centered into your own core, the next key is to be in total alignment to Source Energy. The name for this may be different for each of us, as we may consider this to be God, Goddess, Higher Self, Universal Spirit, Divine Spirit, the Eternal Heart, etc. No matter how we define it, what is important to recognize is that this connection always exists and that this is the place from which we draw our energy and alignment.
In this place of alignment to Source you receive your intuitive guidance, and your trust for the direction in your life (from something more expansive than you) is formed.
We access this alignment/connection through our heart center. And this guides our lives from the highest perspective.
We can usually feel when we have gotten off track, when things just don't flow right, when we feel like we struggle unnecessarily, and we lack vision. It is the general feeling of being out of alignment that creates discomfort, fear, and anxiety.
In comparison, when we are in alignment, there is a certain quality, a magic to life, a feeling that we are unstoppable. We are excited about creating healthy habits for ourselves, and we feel in harmony with the overall flow of our movement within our days.
4. Surrender to the Highest Guidance
The practice of surrendering follows the other keys when we are strongly centered within our own power and energy.
The act of surrendering is not weakness...it is a leap of faith and complete trust that we are not alone in this experience, and that we are guided and taken care of, beyond measure.
This trust and surrendering has always been the guidepost in my life when things get tough, and anytime in between. In whichever way you personally connect with your highest guidance, prayer, meditation, etc., you are seeking to open your heart wide to allow a complete space of surrendering within you.
Receive this guidance and let it inform you of potentials you have not even considered in the midst of your challenges.
5. Choose Honest Gratitude For All That Feels Right
At its core, the goal of your gratitude practice is to access the elements in your life which make your soul sing. This 5th key for transforming to a space of true gratitude involves capturing what comes through for you in journal form.
Studies have shown that keeping a gratitude journal has various benefits:
- Improves health
- Improves psychological health
- Improves sleep
- Increases empathy
- Improves mental strength
- Enhances self-esteem
- Reduces aggression
- Creates more social connection
Source: Morin (2014)
Ideally, there should not be a certain expectation or outcome attached to your journaling, as the practice of gratitude brings you into a state of “now”. Any expectations can actually hinder the pure joy of filling your heart with gratitude. In its pure essence, the practice of gratitude will naturally increase your vibrations which will then enhance all aspects surrounding your life just by pure association. In fact, any false or forced spaces of gratitude will be ineffective. Therefore, it is vital that you are very honest with yourself when delving into this practice.
“The world of the human storyline, of all our concentration on behavior and all the things that occur outside us, is a world of illusion. It’s a veil in front of a more real world, a collective dream. A miracle is not a rearrangement of the figures in our dream. A miracle is our awakening from it.In asking for miracles, we are seeking a practical goal: a return to inner peace. We’re not asking for something outside us to change, but for something inside us to change. We’re looking for a softer orientation to life.”
Sustain Your Gratitude Practice With Support And Resources
In closing, may we remember that our physical reality is truly just an illusion. Our neurology can only slightly distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. When we bring ourselves into a space of gratitude, it will naturally fuel our cells with radiant energy. Your gratitude practice can actually cause you to experience magic and miracles naturally every day because you are raising your vibration in that state of gratitude.
Before closing this writing, I want to say that I understand the challenge of getting past the blocks that keep us from achieving the kind of alignment we want to experience.
Inside my Beauty Flourishing Collective, I incorporate guided meditations to complement and enhance all the teachings. These meditations make the difference by reaching deeply into the subconscious to create positive shifts. Therefore, I am gifting you my much-loved Heart Meditation to support you in this blog's gratitude practice.
Stay with a gratitude practice that works for you consistently, and don't get thrown off track by the stimuli from our physical experience.
It is always up to us which space we want to occupy at any given moment. When we are in a powerful space of gratitude, our body and its systems will naturally follow suit, and a truly uplifting healing space will be created.
Feel free to reach out to me for further help. I am here for you via online 1:1 sessions and through my Beauty Flourishing Collective and other programs.
Love, Silke
P.S. Remember to download your Gratitude Journal, the ebook I specially designed to go with this Blog Post as your daily guide! After all, the transformations are in the consistency of our practice.
Photo by Alex Sumner Photography