Gratitude is a word that is commonly invoked when it comes to positive thinking, manifesting what you want and the Law of Attraction. In this article, I will explore why this is such an important topic and what it really means.

A state of gratitude is being in a state of openness and receptivity to the world. We often equate gratitude with thankfulness, and they are definitely similar. The only distinction I would make is that thankfulness is most often voiced as "thank you." It's nice to say "thank you," of course, but it's a statement that is repeated very frequently every day, and is often little more than formal politeness. The kind of gratitude we are talking about here must be heartfelt, for the universe does not respond to mere words.

The problem people sometimes have with the idea of gratitude is that they feel that they are lacking something and want to attract it. "How can I feel grateful for something I don't have?" they may ask. For example, if I feel like I need more money, what am I going to feel grateful about? If you find yourself in this kind of state, which is essentially an ungrateful state, there are two important ways you can handle it.

First of all, focus on something you *can* be grateful for. If you are in an especially negative or depressed state, you may not be able to think of anything. However, the fact is, if you are alive and have enough energy, intelligence and free time to be reading this, you almost certainly do have things to be grateful for. Make it a habit to look for things that make you feel better, even in a small way. This can be interacting with a pet, a friendly exchange with a cashier, cashing your paycheck, eating a candy bar. People who do not feel much gratefulness tend to make a habit of keeping track of the things that make them unhappy, while ignoring those that make them happier. Make an effort to reverse this and you are well on the way to a state of greater appreciation (this is a word closely related to gratefulness).

The second strategy in this area is to start feeling grateful even for things you don't yet have. This can be a little trickier, but it's really the essence of what affirmations, visualization and prayer are all about. In fact, the absence or presence of gratefulness (or thankfulness or appreciation) when you imagine something you want is the difference between mere wishful thinking and actually magnetizing something into your life. If you imagine something you want and do not feel gratefulness, you are really focused on the absence of it. On the other hand, if you do feel gratefulness while imagining it, you are in the process of manifesting it!

It helps to remember that everything in the universe is thought before it becomes physical. So when you think about something, you are creating it. Yet how you feel while thinking these thoughts is the big difference in terms of what you are attracting. If you are thinking about how much money you'd like to have but are feeling resentful about your lack of money, you are actually creating more lack. Another way to put this is that you are feeling ungrateful for the amount of money in your life, which tells the universe that you don't really expect anything to change. On the other hand, if you feel joy and energy when imagining all the money that is coming to you, you are in a state of gratefulness, and this signals to the universe that you fully expect everything to work out in your favor!