I remember clearly that when I was young and had joined school as a kid then the first word my teacher taught was thank you. And in all these years, this is the word which has lost its real meaning.

When the clock strikes the time and alarm goes off, what is the first thing you search for after turning off your alarm? Easy, right? You search for your mobile phone in the dark like a blind searching for his walking stick. The eagerness to scroll through your social media, emails and messages seems to have become like an involuntary action which your body has learned over the time when you were growing neck deep into the virtual world. It seems like a habitual action to check your mobile phones every now and then starting from the very morning. But do you have any idea how adversely is this one action of yours affecting your mental and physical health?

Imagine a pool of still water and you throw a stone in it. What will happen? Of course stillness of water will be disturbed and ripples will affect the adjacent water as well. Pouring of so much of digital information in the morning is like dropping a boulder in a still pond. It changes the biochemistry of your brain. Information of your friend going to Maldives, your colleague switching to a new job, your boss sending you new assignment, US sending its military to Iraq, a dying cancer patient asking for help, all these release stress hormones. These stress hormones give rise to feelings of anxiety and these feelings give birth to more thoughts of restlessness. These stressful thoughts signals the 173 billion nerve cells across the body to release more stress hormones . Thus the wicked feedback loop of hormones leading to stressful feelings and feeling leading to more worrisome thoughts come into action.

Disturbing digital information Nerve cells release stress hormones leads to feeling of anxiety Leads to more thoughts in brain  more thoughts produce more stress hormone leads to more feelings of anxiety leads to larger number of thoughts and so on.

A never ending loop is formed.Can you imagine 173 billion nerve cells producing such a high quantity of chemicals in your body ? What effect would they have in long run? Here is the answer that why so many people are mentally unhealthy today. And in this way, there is nothing good left inthe morning. Stop texting those spam good morning messages. You have already ruined yours.

So let us consider an alternate situation. Rewind the picture and you start your day in such a way that your day begins with happy hormones leaving you energetic , chirpy and rejuvenated. How to do this? I have one sure shot formula for this which has changed my life entirely. It is an elixir which will make you a divine being full of compassion and love. And I call that elixir as “Atitude for Gratitude”. It is a Gratitude practice which I designed for myself.I know what you are thinking. “I already know about it. Damn, no !It is just an old cliché subject.” But, if you ever want to benefit from anything you need to forget what you know and what you have heard. Be a child.

Coming back to Gratitude practice. Let us go back to the point where alarm went off. While in bed just do not go searching for your phone. Keep it as away as possible to keep control over your mornings. While in bed just be grateful for anything that comes in your mind, be it for a beautiful morning or for the dew drops on your garden grass. It will fill your heart with so much love and compassion that in no time you will be like a brimming cup of honey.

In the evening before going to bed, take a journal to record your entries. Try to remember atleast one thing for which you are grateful for in your social, personal and professional life. Just go through your day and see if you can find any moments of gratitude. It can be as simple as your colleague complementing you for your dress, your friend offering you some home cooked pasta or even you reaching office in time or you getting a call from your loved one. If you really pay close attention ,you will find hundreds of small things which brightens your soul throughout the day. But as you are busy with your lives, you tend to miss these tiny moments of happiness and you sleep at night with your empty cup. But these tiny moments are like those grains of sand which make the entire beach line, under whose subtle layers lie pearls and shells.

Be grateful for the beautiful flower blooming beside your window, be grateful for your friends who make whacky finger horns in the photos, be thankful for the fact that you are alive, be thankful for the beautiful rainbow doming your balcony, be thankful for the crescent moon sailing in the cloudless night. Let us focus on what we have rather than what we do not have. Remember ,”What you pay attention to, it grows”, so let us focus on abundance.

When you are grateful then you are wiring your brain to have feelings and thoughts of joy and abundance. These thoughts tend to release more dopamine which is a neurotransmitter leaving you more joyful. This continuous practice become a habit and your internal environment become so much calmer, full of love and happiness. Attitude of Gratitude is a catalyst of happiness. So, let us rock and roll. Take your journal and start your journey of abundance.

Navkiran Brar

Thinker, Mind Body healer , Writer

Bank officer by profession