Malminder was asked by the Tavleen Foundation to share her thoughts on gratitude and happiness for their annual magazine, Soul Space. Read the full piece below. Published by Soul Space Magazine, Autumn 2014 in print.
The beating drum of happiness lies within everyone. It is our heart. When we notice what is within us and embrace it with all of our gratitude and appreciation we beat a drum that echoes far beyond our physical bodies. Using gratitude as a route to happiness is simple; it is our natural state. When we return to a thankful and appreciative mind-set, we feel good, we radiate, and others pick up on it and are drawn to us. Why? Because we are talking the unspoken language that pulls us altogether when we are in a state of gratitude.
When you give yourself permission to appreciate and give thanks to yourself, for who you are, the way you look and the things you have done in life, you will learn to let go, release and allow your natural state of happiness to soar. Spend more time thinking about ‘what is there to love and appreciate about life?’
When you are in gratitude, naturally you will radiate happiness. You start to see people differently and people start to see you differently. When you open your heart, love yourself truly you will connect with people in the world in a new way. An ocean of hearts beating as one, swaying back and forth lifting each further than before, this is the potential of happiness that lies before us all.
Start by actively appreciating yourself without guilt, shame or fear. The creative energy that built you doesn’t make mistakes. You are perfect, if only you knew it and believed it.
Get into the habit of saying to yourself, ‘what is there to love and appreciate here?’ and focus on that with the intention of love. When you beat your internal drum of happiness, others will hear and notice and this will fire off a positive anchor in them – why? Happiness is our natural state. We’ve learnt to somehow re-package happiness as something that happens to those lucky people, but this is not true. Take the reins of your natural state, look within, meditate and appreciate more.
Using gratitude as a tool to evoke happiness requires self-awareness and so we start by being a fly on the wall within our minds:
When you are in a place of gratitude:
- Give yourself permission without guilt to really milk it. Ponder your thoughts, hash out the details of what you feel appreciation for. Write it down in a journal, write a poem, paint a picture, and create something that encapsulates your feeling.
- Connect with nature. Listen to the sound of nature near you, what songs are being sung here?
- Anchor the state: Squeeze together your index finger and thumb as you soar into the heights of gratitude, aim to capture all of the good feeling energies into this small gesture. Repeat this every time you are in a place of gratitude.
When you are not in a place of gratitude:
- Think about ‘what is there to appreciate about this, there must be something!’ Use that one thing that comes to mind and focus on that until it takes over, in a short time you will begin to notice fresh positive thoughts that come to mind, now focus on these and use them as a platform.
- Refer to your journal, your poems, pictures and things you created when you were in a place of gratitude.
- Pray, something as simple as ‘please help me in this moment to realise gratitude for this, please help me to return to my natural state of happiness’. If you have previously anchored the good feelings as described above, you can squeeze together now during the prayer.
At a deeper level there is no sadness, no regret or anger. When we bring gratitude into our daily lives we realise this deeper level.
Malminder is a Clinical Hypnotherapist in London’s Harley Street, helping people to overcome their challenges. Read more about Malminder’s Hypnotherapy Practice here.
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