One of the most beautiful things about life is that we can be whoever we want to be. The sky is the limit, as they say. If you’re not happy with where you are, while it may not be easy, you can change your current situation and alter the things in your world that you don’t like. An effective meditative tool that can help you shift to a place of gratitude and happiness and help you become the person you want to be is patterning.

We humans generally like structure and patterns, and we can be programmed in a way. Look at cognitive behavioral therapy. Some programs exist to alter our behavior if it’s negatively affecting our lives. The same can be accomplished in our meditation journeys through patterning. With gratitude and determination, we can change patterns we don’t like and manifest the lives we want, one small step at a time.

An effective meditative tool that can help you shift to a place of gratitude and happiness and help you become the person you want to be is patterning.

This is something I’ve been facing a lot recently. Though I am abundantly grateful for all the things in my life and can see how lucky I am, I just haven’t been able to feel that gratitude fully. My mindset has slipped into more of a negative outlook, which is something I really don’t want. While I know that changing this won’t be easy, I’ve been working to pattern my mindset through meditation and figure out how to shift my perspective. The main thing I’m trying to change is my thought process, as many times, I initially read something and have a negative thought about it within seconds. To fight this and stop that pattern (and hopefully create a new one), as soon as this happens, I recognize it and try to shift that thought to a positive. Instead of thinking, for instance, “Why does everything bad keep happening to me?” I stop the thought and try to shift it to a positive. For instance, “What is the universe trying to tell me through this obstacle? How can I grow from this?”

Other examples could include, “How can she achieve that when I can’t? Everything is given to her,” which could be shifted into “Good for her! I wish her success. I can’t see her full journey but I’m sure she’s had to work hard for this.”

Or “How could they do this to me?” could easily shift to “They must be hurting to lash out like that. I’ll send them some positive vibes.”

It can be exceptionally hard to pivot your mindset from one extreme to the other. Believe me, I’m experiencing this. It all starts with baby steps.

To shift my perspective, which I’m happy to say is slowly working, I’ve been doing my usual gratitude meditations in the morning where I take some time to focus on each of the things in my life I’m grateful for and live in that gratitude for a few minutes. Then, after building up a good deal of positive energy, I consider the negative trait I have, see it in a visual representation, and then allow it to dissolve before my mind’s eye, erasing it with the phrase, “I release this, as it no longer serves me.” From there, I visualize how much better my life is without that negative pattern. I see myself thinking positively instead and the benefits and value this brings. And it’s slowly been working.

It can be exceptionally hard to pivot your mindset from one extreme to the other. Believe me, I’m experiencing this. It all starts with baby steps.

It does take commitment and regular meditations for a while, but I encourage you to analyze what’s holding you back and try a few patterning meditations to release what isn’t serving you. The Expand app has a couple of quick patterning exercises that are great tools for you to begin this process.

If you’re feeling stuck and want to change things as a part of your patterning, shaking up your schedule and meditating at different times could be just what you need. Good luck in your patterning, and be sure to celebrate when you see the results of your hard work!