Gratitude Flow

Written By Melissa Scheichl

There are two things I regularly recommend to clients during challenging times in their lives: Cultivating gratitude and acts of service. Here are a few simple ways to get started! Grab your journal and a pen and let’s do this!


Grateful Flow

“When your mind is filled with worry, self-hatred, or any other form of negative thinking, you've been taken over by the Black Cloud. It limits what you can do with your life and deprives your loved ones of what is best about you. Life becomes a struggle to survive instead of the fulfillment of great promise. Overcome negative thinking and dispel the Black Cloud with the Grateful Flow tool.”

(Source: The Tools)

When to use

  • Use Grateful Flow immediately whenever you are attacked by negative thoughts. If unchallenged, negative thinking will just get stronger.

  • Any time your mind becomes undirected—like when you're on hold on a phone call, stuck in traffic, or standing in line at the store.

  • Turn specific times (like waking up, going to sleep, and mealtimes) into cues by practicing Grateful Flow on a regular schedule.

How to

  1. Silently say out loud to yourself 5 things you are grateful for. *Bonus points for simple things like that first sip of coffee or the sun shining.

  2. Take a moment to appreciate those things. Feel what that feels like in your body.

  3. Now write down 5 more things in your journal or in the notes section of your phone (although I prefer pen to paper). They cannot be the same as the first five - no repeats.

  4. Take another deep breath and ponder those five things for another moment.

  5. Next think of another five things but don’t say them out loud to yourself or write them down. Just think of them. Got them?

  6. Imagine I were to ask you now to think of even 5 more things next… that action of scanning and generating ideas - that’s the Grateful Flow! It’s the active searching for the good.

  7. Pause for a moment and feel your body. Focus on the physical sensations of gratefulness. You may feel softer, more relaxed… you heart may feel more open. Breathe into your body and in particular deep into your heart space. Smile.

  8. How do you feel?

Why it works

Our brains naturally scan for the danger and the “bad”…it’s meant to be protective. We are wired for negativity and the kicker is - every negative thing we find is 20x more powerful than the positive things we can see.

Imagine if I asked you to scan my office for everything blue and told you there was going to be a quiz after…. but the question I asked was to list all the red things in the room. You weren’t looking for the red! It’s the same with the brain - it’s not looking for the good..so we need to consciously and intentionally do that to build that skill and make it a habit.


Melissa Scheichl