Thanks Living

I am reading the most amazing book by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Pam Grout. The book is Thank and Grow Rich. The title is an update on the title of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.
Too often we think but not about the right things. We think from our old limited beliefs in lack and want and we wonder why we don’t increase in life. Maybe it’s time to try something new — upping our thinking to thankfulness.
There are lots of places in the various scriptures of world faiths that encourage being thankful as the best way to think. Here are just a couple of my favorite ones:
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To help us get started in our new thanks living way of thinking I want to share the following post from Pam’s website where she describes her new A.A. 2.0 program of creating a new life by giving thanks.
“My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.
“Step #1: Admit that…..”Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”  First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.
“And it never fails to come true.”
Step #2: Come to believe…..in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.
“Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these simple two steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.
“Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”

Now It’s Our Turn
I invite others to join me in posting their blessings daily. Be sure to share different things you are thankful for each day. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.
I am posting this to my blog and I will begin that day doing step 1. I will post my first sharing of 3  blessings to Facebook on Monday, June 11th. I hope my list will inspire you to share 3 things each day that you are thankful for.

Just for Today — Be Filled with Gratitude

Before I get to this third Reiki principle, I want to remind you that my last post covered a very important topic, anger. If you have not read this, I encourage you to do so. Also, please share with us any of your thought about anger and how you deal with this very powerful emotion.

And if you are new to this blog, you will want to read my introduction post about the Reiki principles and the one concerning another powerful emotion, worry.

In this post, we are looking at the Reiki principle that says “just for today — be filled with gratitude.” I hope that by the end of this post you to will know why joy and gratitude go hand in hand.

When I was preparing this post, I looked in my library where I found a book compiled by Louise Hay entitled Gratitude: A Way of Life. This book contains many articles by lots of different people about how to make your life one of gratitude.

Think for just a moment about the following scenario: you spend the whole afternoon looking for just the right present to give your best friend for his/her birthday. You arrive at the party and when your gift is opened, your friend remarks “oh, it’s not my size”, or “it’s not my color”, or “I never use anything like that” or is “that all there is?”

How would you act? Would you want the next year to go and spend all afternoon again buying this friend a present? Probably not.

But if on the other hand, when opening your present, their eyes dance with delight and they thanks you profusely for the gift, then every time you see something he or she would like, you want to give it to them.

And this is just how the universe, just how it is with us.

You see gratitude brings more to be grateful about. It increases your abundant life. Lack of gratitude or complaining, brings little to rejoice about. Complainers find that they have little good in their life or they do not enjoy what they do have.

The Universe and God always give us what we believe that we deserve.

Many of us have been taught to look at life and see only what we do not have and to feel only lack. When we say, “I don’t have and I won’t be happy till I do” they guess what? This is what will be true in your life.

You see gratitude give us an attitude that is above all earthbound concerns and worries. As our lives are filled with gratitude, we assure ourselves of abundance and growth.

This principle is echoed in the words of Jesus that say “whatsoever you will ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.”

You see the success that you desire is found in doing three things.

First, affirm that your needs have already been met.

Second, believe that this is true.

And third, be grateful for your supply.

You see when we look beyond the problem to the answer we bring the invisible into the visible. This is the way we turn problems into opportunities. This is the way we release tension and congestion. This is the way we move into the realm of the solution.

Most of us are grateful for the things we have but it is time that we begin to give thanks for what we are about to receive:

I am thankful for the blessing I am about to receive. I am thankful for the increased harmonious conditions in my home. I am thankful for the wonderful experiences that exacerbate my growth. I am thankful for the newness that I am about to receive. I am thankful that I have an attitude of gratitude about the living of my life. My attitude of gratitude opens the portals to richer living.

You see what you complain about and resist — persists. But what you adore and are thankful for, becomes more.

You see if you don’t remember anything else, remember this — You cannot be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

So begin right now to adopt the habit and attitude of being grateful. Just for today — be filled with gratitude. Be filled to overflowing, pressed down, shaken together and running over so that the words that escape from your lips are enveloped in gratitude.

Let this be the attitude that defines our lives — each and every one of us.

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