Welcome back!

Hopefully after a few weeks of actively working to invite more gratitude into your life, it’s becoming like a trusted friend--always there without you having to look for it. (Click to tweet.)

In Part Three we touched on trust and surrender. Today we are going to do a mini-dissection of the Five Realms of Our Life (as taught by davidji) to shine a light on the important pillars of gratitude each of us posseses.

If, after completing this exercise, you find you really like this technique and want to explore it in more, I encourage you to join davidji in Paradise at the Maya Tulum resort in Mexico in November.

Let's get started. For today's practice you will need a pen and a journal or piece of paper.

Grab your pen and piece of paper. On this paper, make sure you have plenty of room. You will list five things in five categories. Create space for the following five realms of your life that you are grateful for:

1. Physical

2. Emotionally

3. Spiritual

4. Economic

5. Relationships

Now, under each category, write down FIVE things that you are grateful for in each area of your life.

Here are some examples to help you get started:

Physical- maybe you’ve been hitting the gym, maybe it’s your legs for carrying you through life, great energy, quality of sleep, your sex life

Emotionally- patience, ability to forgive, the way you love, the fact you feel your emotions

Spiritual- your spiritual teachers, your relationship with God or the Universe, your meditation practice

Economic- your belief system around money, which you trust there always be enough, your bills are paid for this month, a recent debt you’ve paid off or vowed to pay off

Relationships- who is in your front row always cheering you on? The one with your mother, significant other, child, sibling, bestie.

When you've written all you can write, go back to your list. Circle the one thing in each category you are MOST grateful. Once you've done this, write the following sentence for each category, filling in the blank with your top gratitude moment/person/thing.

I am grateful for _______________________________________________________.

It's not over!

We will now distill each sentence further. Go back to each sentence and, this time, circle just one word that will jog your memory to this attitude of gratitude.

Example: I am grateful for the stability of the relationship with my mother. Circle the word "MOTHER."

You will end up with five words--one word for each realm of your life. Now string these five words together. Put each word together, making a personal mantra. You can use this personal mantra anytime you need help shifting your attitude towards gratitude.

You can even try it right now if you have five minutes. Repeat when necessary!

It’s a lovely pattern interrupt when life is seemingly serving up more challenge than you would like.

Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg on this exercise. If you want more, go sit with davidji at one of his many retreats and go deep into the five realms of your unique life or check out his newest book destressifying where he devotes an entire chapter to using the five realms to master your needs.

Thanks for tuning inwards and doing your part to strengthen the whole.

We also have a guided meditation that goes along with today’s blog. You can find it both on our meditation page (along with our other gratitude meditations) and embedded below for easy access.

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