Here is a 3 minute practice that can change your life forever…

There are many different ways, or “tracks” to foster more happiness.  One of the most effective ways to be happier is to manifest the state of gratitude.

It’s totally learnable, and I want to teach you a little technique so you can have incredible gratitude practice in your life.  It’s super simple and, if you use it, it will have an incredible impact on your life.

I call it the “3G3 Gratitude Practice.” 

And I’m going to explain how it goes right now…

As I mentioned, gratitude is incredibly important.  Walking through the world in a state of wonder and thankfulness is almost the only way we really want to be.

(Of course that’s not totally true, we want to have amazing sex and we want to have a lot of excitement and we want to have all these other ways of feeling great. But think about a life, where the basic background feeling, the basic “experience” of how you are, is one of being thankful, grateful, and joyful.  That would be pretty amazing, right?)

So here’s how to do the “3G3 Gratitude Practice:”

• Step 1 – Take 3 Conscious Breaths
• Step 2 – Think of 3 Things to be Grateful For
• Step 3 – Take 3 Conscious Breaths

That’s it. Just 3 breaths, 3 gratitudes, and 3 breaths… To really understand the practice, here’s how it goes in more detail:

[3G3] The first “3” explained…
I suggest getting right up out of bed in the morning and grabbing a seat somewhere.  The first “3” in the practice is three conscious breaths.

If you’re not sure what that means, it’s just taking your mind, as best you can, out of the “thinking realm” and bringing yourself to presence, or the “feeling realm.”  Like noticing the sensation of your breath.

Take three full breaths:  (In and out is one breath. In and out is another breath. In and out is a third breath.)

[3G3] Now we’re going to get to the “G” part…
We’re going to do three “gratitudes”.  Think of anything – it could literally be the sunrise.  It could be the fact that your mom was great when you were growing up.  It could be a friend you just met.  It could be the littlest thing, like you got a great night’s sleep.

The simple practice here is to just think of three things that you’re grateful for. Focus on them for a bit and feel how great it feels to be thankful and in that state.

[3G3] Then do the second “3…”
 This is to do three breaths again, but really anchoring in on that gratitude feeling.  We’re going to breathe into the gratitude feeling that we just manifested by thinking of three things to be grateful for.

(I want to tell you a quick “3 sentence” story….)

They’ve actually done placebo controlled trials of cognitive therapy, versus antidepression medication.  This was tested on people that were clinically “moderately to severely” depressed. The therapy had far more effect than placebo and has been comparable and even beyond medication, at times.

(The end.)

Positive psychology, and gratitude practices specifically, are incredibly powerful.

Here’s the advanced version of 3G3…

Here’s a way to take this even deeper.  In the “G” or gratitude portion, when you’re thinking of what you’re grateful for…

I want you to anchor each gratitude as best as you can into:

• Your physical reality
• Your mental reality
• And then into your emotional reality

We’re going to hit all three realms of our “self.”

As you pick something to be grateful for, anchor yourself physically by maybe putting your hand on your chest, or maybe your belly.  Just connect and presence with the heat, with the cold, or whatever the sensation – The pressure, the feeling – Just for a moment, anchor yourself.

I’m going to be grateful for my mom for a second…  (My mom is an amazing woman.)

My hand is on my belly and I’m just getting centered.  Then when I think of my mom, I anchor her in my mind by thinking of memories with her.  I may also imagine stuff in the future I want to do with her.  Maybe I’ll remember laughing with her or her laughing with me.  Maybe a great dinner we went to, or a time she was really loving when I was little.

I’m just going to allow that mental movie, not for too long, but just let it play out.

As I do that, the next step is to try and consciously bring that in and notice… “How do I FEEL about that?” We want to anchor that gratitude in our emotions.

If it’s not naturally bringing up a feeling I can notice, like happiness, excitement, or gratitude, I’m going to manifest the feeling.  All we have to do to manifest it, is intend it.

I’m going to say to myself internally, “I feel really grateful for that.”  Then feel whatever I feel.

This anchoring in physical, mental and emotional worlds would be doing one “advanced” gratitude.  This is one of the “G’s.” Do the next two in the same way.

It’s a little more to do that the “simple way” above.  But it’s really just thinking about it a little bit more deeply, anchoring presence with it, thinking about it, creating a movie in our head with it, either through memory or imagination or whatever.

Then anchoring it into the real, tangible sensation and feeling of gratitude.

Either we notice it arising or we actually manifest it and think, “I’m so grateful for that.”

Just do your best.

IMPORTANT: Many of us have really stuffed our emotions down, especially people who have been through trauma and pain.  It could feel absolutely amazing to do this practice, or it may feel kind of empty. You may need more work to get in touch with your emotions.

If you need more help with this, reach out to me.  I’m happy to try and help you.  Because getting in touch with our emotions (letting the bad ones process through, and really honoring the great ones when they’re here) is one of the things that makes life incredibly rich and wonderful.

Let’s wrap it up…

 The 3G3 practice is simply:

• 3 breaths
• 3 gratitudes
• 3 breaths

Make it a practice. Make it as long or short as you’d like. If you add this to your life in any capacity, in any regular way, you’re going to be strengthening the muscle of happiness and gratitude.

What your brain is going to do is, it’s going to start getting “wired” this way.  It’s going to start noticing things that you’re grateful for, more and more of the time, all by itself.

Enjoy.  :)