How often have you wondered what your life would look and feel like if you could magically bottle up a moment’s worth of joy and fulfillment to experience all the time?

Some will say this is not possible. What if it is?

In my personal life experiences, coupled with over a decade of research into what it takes to liberate yourself from myths, rules, and limiting beliefs about what you can do, be, and have, I kept coming back to gratitude as the key to unlocking sustainable joy and fulfillment.

You have likely heard or read about how powerful and liberating gratitude is. Yet, as someone who has spent most of my life learning the fine art of practicing it, I will admit, at times it is not as simple as it sounds.

With a 21-day affirmation, I will share with you how to gracefully ease into the practice of sustaining your sense of joy and fulfillment through gratitude. To get started, let us re-establish and re-frame what gratitude is and how it shapes our perception of life.

Where Do You Start Loving Your Life?

When it comes to gratitude, the first place to start is where you are right now. This precise moment in your life is worthy of celebration – is it not?

What if the idea of feeling good about yourself seems like a cruel fantasy when you take into consideration the current state of the world or what others are telling you is possible, based on your age?

Sustainable joy and fulfillment are very real possibilities when you allow yourself to realize that today you are the youngest you will ever be. Therefore, where do you start loving your life, and loving who you are but from a genuine place of gratitude for where you are right now.

What Does Gratitude Do for You?

Author Maya Angelou once famously wrote, “When you know better, you do better.” What you know at this stage of your life gives you the freedom and creative license to enjoy more of life on your terms than perhaps you allowed yourself in the past.

This is where the power of gratitude is tapped into, amplified, and sustainable.

Gratitude melts away the burden of fear and dissolves limiting beliefs because it reframes your perception of life, from the inside out. Gratitude also creates a more joyous set of experiences for yourself and those you love.

You may agree with this, but when you look in the rearview mirror at your past, you might perceive a time from your youth as being far better than where you are now. Or you may see a past filled with pain and disappointment, which could affect your willingness to be grateful for your life today.

What these two examples have in common is that they separate you from your present moment, which creates unsatisfying feelings based on lack. Therefore, the more you practice gratitude, the more you look at your past through a new, healthy lens of appreciation.

The 21-Day Affirmation Journey

Changing how you view your past reframes your perception of gratitude in the present. It removes the pain of past mistakes and acknowledges that you not only know better at this point in your life, but you are doing better.

This is less about pretending you are happy and more about no longer viewing your mistakes or lack of perfection as signs of not being good enough just as you are.

To further reinforce your worthiness for a life of sustainable joy and fulfillment, I invite you to say the following affirmation to yourself for the next 21 days.

I am grateful for my life.

I am valuable.

I am appreciated.

I am acknowledged.

I am loved.

I love back.

I play and laugh.

I enjoy being me.

I am good enough.

In order to for these words to take root into your subconscious and reprogram any lingering feelings of disappointment, I invite you to say the affirmation three times in a row, three times a day for the next 21 days.

I encourage you to say these words out loud and allow yourself to arrive at an empowered state of being where you see yourself embodying them, knowing they are absolutely true for you.

How have you used the power of gratitude so far? How has it helped you reframe your mind? What was your life like before you embraced practicing gratitude?