Many people who know me know that gratitude is my “thing” but not everyone gets why, until they try a daily dedicated gratitude practice for themselves. One of my favorite teachers Abraham Hicks, has a famous quote that goes something like:

You only want that thing that you want because you think that in having that thing that you will feel better.

The magic of this wisdom has always amazed me. If we step into a place of true gratitude and feel good about what we have and who we are now, just as it is; we in turn will feel joy, contentment and peace. Then ironically, the things that we want, come. If you don’t believe me try it. But you should know that there are a few thing you must do to get the full experience.

|Practice daily|

In order to feel and then see the impact that gratitude has on our health, happiness, relationships and manifestations you must make gratitude an intentional daily practice and ritual. Think of a daily gratitude practice like juice when on a juice cleanse. To get the full benefit of the cleanse you must keep a steady and consistent schedule of drinking the juice, if you don’t, you will loose energy, feel light headed, exhausted and if your like me, moody! If you don’t keep up a regular practice of gratitude much the same will happen, you loose energy, feel less clear on what you want and don’t want (confusion), you get tired of your life and lose all satisfaction and lastly, if like me, you become moody!

|Carve out time to focus on your practice|

The truth is that every bit helps, but a focused practice trumps all. Think about when you are in a quiet space, focused on reading a great book. You get lost in the story, carried away with emotion and transported through time and space. What better story is there to get lost in, than your own life. If that sounds crazy to you, try practicing 10 mins of gratitude without interruption, an easy way to do this is writing ten things that you are thankful for and why. The trick is to not stop writing, just let the list become a flow of consciousness with no judgement or editing. Before you know it, with true focus you will find that you lost touch with time and space and found yourself in the infinite NOW, aligned with love and appreciation.

|Make it a habit|

Just like any habit, most of the time, we must repeat something over and over again to finally create a new mindset and default response. There are times when we have a quantum leap in our consciousness where we shift out of one habit completely into another in an instant. Still, I believe there is some ground work that we must do, and that is to sow the seed of a new habit. Daily practices will help solidify a new go to thought pattern of happiness, passion and appreciation but science says that it takes 21 days of doing the same thing to create a new habit. With GetTHANKFUL, we take on an attitude of gratitude for 26 days to keep the new good habit longer for good measure. I do recommend doing a gratitude practice more than just 26 days, because I, as well as the participants in the group have all noticed a difference when we don’t!

In short, gratitude does wonders. If you want to try your hand at creating this powerful and simple new habit with some support feel free to join the upcoming GetTHANKFUL course or practice on your own with the automatic daily email. I have compiled a list of 26 gratitude practices, formatted and designed to create steady and powerful momentum to anyone who will take the plunge!

Millana is one of the co-founders of SERENE, a Reiki healer, model, tv host, and vegan foodie. You can catch her hanging out in Meat Packing in Manhattan or on Rose in Venice Beach sippin a green juice while planning the next rooftop takeover!