I don’t know about you, but life sometimes feels like I am constantly being bombarded with things to spend money on and technology that is meant to suck up my time. We live in such a fast pace world, and with things like social media, its easier than ever to get lost in a world where we feel like we constantly need to buy what someone is selling or watch all the “cool” things that other people are doing. Don’t get me wrong, social media can be a beautiful gift to make true connections and for businesses to be able to reach audiences in ways they have never been able to before. But at the same time, it can be hard to filter out and quiet the mental noise of what we “need” when we have a constant flow of content telling us that what they are selling will make our life better and make us happier.

This is where having an intentional Gratitude Practice can have a huge impact. Not the first thing you think about when you think of Gratitude, but from personal experience, and from research on how Gratitude impacts our physical bodies, getting intentional with your Gratitude practice can help lessen the urge to buy into what everyone else is selling, and keep you focused on what is actually going to impact YOUR life.

This is just the tip of it all, but we wanted to share 4 ways your Gratitude Practice can save you money and time.

Saving you money

1. Gratitude Grounds You

   Gratitude as a practice is meant to help ground you in the present moment. If you don’t currently have a Gratitude or grounding practice this might be something that you overlook (trust me I did before I felt the difference). A lot of our life we spend on auto pilot. We go from thing to thing doing what we have always done and not really thinking intentionally about the choices that we are making. One of the purposes (and benefits) of a daily Gratitude practice is to help take your life off auto pilot and start getting into the present moment. Being present as you sip your coffee, feel your feet on the ground as you start your day, slow down long enough to actually appreciate all that had to go right in your life to get to this moment in time. With continued practice your time on auto pilot decreases and you step into a role of making more choices that are conscious and deliberate.

   So how does that tie into saving you money? Think about a lot of the time when you spend money. I don’t know about you but when I get in auto pilot mode, I seem to spend a lot more time on social media. That time on social media is usually spent watching people live these exciting lives and selling products that promise to make me feel amazing and be life changing. And now you don’t even have to do anything besides click a button and before you know it, you’ve got these new products being shipped right to your door. But do you really need them? Are they really going to change your life? Most of the time they end up in a drawer with all the other supplements and weight loss products or the outfits that get saves for that special occasion and they don’t ever fill that void that you had hoped. So you’ve now spent money on something that you don’t really want or need and now it just sits in a drawer or in a closet and every time you see it, you are reminded that you either spent money on something you don’t really want, or you feel guilty that you haven’t made the change you hoped. Its a double wammy!!

   Think about if you were out of auto pilot mode, present in your life and Grateful for all the stuff you already have. You won’t feel like you have to fill a void with some product or outfit, and you can spend your money on things that bring you joy and make you feel good. I can’t tell you how many times I bought things thinking they would be the one thing to change it all before starting a Gratitude practice. Now I am more aware when I am in that mode, can be present to ask myself “do you really need this, or are you bored?” and I can make smarter decisions that I know keep money in my pocket

2. Less Coping Mechanisms

   Are you aware that you can’t physically be grateful and anxious at the same time? Your body does not have the ability to hold both feelings simultaneously. So think about that, Gratitude when used as a tool to offset feelings of stress and anxiety, can be the gateway to a different way of thinking. When you feel those anxious feelings you can slow down and help your mind to focus on all the good instead of getting caught up in the anxious, stressful thoughts.

   So again you might be asking, how does this save you money? When you feel anxious do you have certain behaviors that you go towards to help you cope? Do you find yourself using retail therapy to ease the anxious feelings? Do you grab a drink with friends to help slow down the racing thoughts, which leads to a night out of dinner, and more drinks? Do you blow off doing something productive so you can zone out binge watching tv or getting lost in the internet?

   I think we forget how all these things add up. A night out at the bar can be well over $100 and retail therapy, even going to Target is dangerous these days getting out without spending a lot of money! If we had the ability to be more aware of our anxious thoughts and our conditioning of using coping mechanisms this can in the long run (and even short term) save a TON of money! So not only are you saving money from not needing to use coping mechanisms, you are finding more things to be Grateful for in your actual life that you don’t feel like you “need” so much stuff to make you happy! It’s a double sided savings!

Saving Time

1. Gratitude Gives You Direction

   This was one of the big “aha” moments for me with my Gratitude Practice. At a time when I was a stay at home mom with two kids under two I was all over the place. I had lost a true sense of myself taking care of these little humans and I was going through the day feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing anything that felt purposeful. Yes I was raising my babies, and doing the best I could at the time, but I had lost sight of all the good and the joy of it because all that I was seeing was what wasn’t getting done and how I felt like I was failing as a mother. The noise of all that you are “supposed” to be doing as a mother is real, and it can feel hard to navigate when you have spent your life prior to motherhood focusing on doing and being it all. My daily Gratitude practice is what silenced the noise. Yes, people were still sharing opinions and all the “must do’s” as a mom, but for the first time I could hear my own mom intuition and focus on what was best for myself and my kids.

   I started getting up every day and starting my day with intentional Gratitude. Over a few short weeks I was calmer, less anxious and could finally see the beauty in the chaos. Once my anxious thoughts slowed down I could start to get out of survival mode. Once I got out of survival mode I could actually focus on all the things that brought me joy in motherhood and make plans to create more experiences that brought that joy. I started to make decisions and choices that were intentional and purpose driven and I started to feel different when I woke up. I felt energized and focused on what I wanted to create in my life for my family. The practice of Gratitude spurred all of it. If you can focus on all the good in your life, you can see what is going right, what you are missing and where you want to go, then that becomes the new starting point to giving you direction to make changes and take steps in the direction of the life you want to create.

2. The Grass isn’t Greener

   In the wise words of Justin Bieber “The Grass is Green where you water it.” Sometimes it’s easy to think that life would be better somewhere else, whether in a different relationship, different job or off touring the world in a yacht doing all the glamourous things that people do on the internet these days. When we are Grateful for the life that we have we aren’t spending all of our time chasing. Yes, it might spur us to take action to shift things in our life that we want to change. But with that shifting it will be more purposeful and focused on what YOU want and need, and not what looks cool that someone else is doing. When we are in a mindset of always wanting more more more, it’s easy to get caught up in all the chase and lose sight of what you really want or need in your own life. By focusing on what is going right in your own life, your grass gets greener. You can start to see all the good things that are already right in front of you and you save time and energy running at your goals and getting deep into your own life instead of being influenced by the world around you.

   So Now What?

   Intentional Gratitude is an incredible tool that can be used as a gateway to a more purpose driven and intentional lifestyle. It is an awesome compliment to your healthy lifestyle choices and one that can truly spur a massive change in your life if you are intentional and make the time in your life.

   When I started focusing on Gratitude there wasn’t much of a starting point to go to. That is why The Motion of Gratitude was started. To give people a starting point. If you are ready to dive into a Gratitude practice we have taken all the Gratitude tools, packaged them together and given you daily guidance for 28 days to help jump start your intentional Gratitude practice. Just like sometimes when we work with a trainer or a nutritionist to jump start a new workout routine or lifestyle change, we wanted to create that same jumpstart for you here. Check out The Experience and get started today. This can be the beginning of a new chapter in your life, rooted in Gratosis!