Day 17: Lesson
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say “thank you?”” ~William A. Ward
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,”
that would suffice.? ~Meister Eckhart
Day 17 highlights the importance of gratitude and appreciation in your life. The Universe loves gratitude. Gratitude is powerful. Gratitude is an acknowledgement of something received. How are you about receiving gratitude? How about when someone opens the door for you, do you thank them? How are you at receiving a compliment? How do you handle when someone does you a favor? Do you disconnect from it? Does it matter to you? Gratitude is a catalyst to experiencing more good in your life. What you give attention to expands.
Gratitude is the greatest prayer and thanksgiving. “The greatest contribution we can make to the wellbeing of those in our lives is to have peace in our own hearts. When our hearts are filled with gratitude and our minds are brimming with enthusiasm, everyone we encounter leaves our space feeling a little big lighter than when they entered it.” David Simon
Deepak Chopra’s Spiritual Law of the Day for Monday is the Law of Giving and Receiving. The mantra is “Om Vardhanam Namah” and the affirmation is -I am the nourisher of the universe and the universe nourishes me. The Law of Giving asks you to bring whoever you encounter a gift: a smile, compliment or helping hand. Gratefully receive gifts. Keep wealth circulating by giving and receiving care, affection, appreciation and love. How can you keep this wealth circulating? How can you give and receive from a place of gratitude? How could you think of each Monday as an opportunity to give and receive? Remember, as you focus on one area, it represents the microcosm of the macrocosm of your life. So as you implement these actions on Monday, (the microcosm) then slowly they will filter into the rest of your life (macrocosm).
Appreciation and gratitude are powerful tools for understanding the way the world works. The more you can love and accept your life, the more happiness there will be. Life has it challenges but even in the challenges, there are great opportunities to appreciate and be thankful. These challenges often wake you up to so many things in life that you have to be grateful for and haven’t taken the time to acknowledge or appreciate.
As you make gratitude a part of your all day, every day the process of finding something to be grateful in the challenge will become easier. Bryon Katie teaches a way to happiness by learning how to love what is. She teaches a four step process and turnaround known as “The Work” to show you how to accept all the situations in your life and not see them as wrong or bad. She has worksheets to help you work through situations that you see as negative or bad so that you can turn it around.
Think about the area and your dream that you have chosen for this class. How can you fuel it with gratitude? How could you give appreciation and gratitude for all the steps you take each day such as you took some of the actions steps from this course; you have gained clarity of your dream; you have created a great visual of your dream; you wake up and plan your day in the direction of your desires; you begin your day asking what would I love to experience today or something else to bring positive energy to how you start your day; you use your intentions; you say more positive words today; you have more positive thoughts today than yesterday. Catch yourself, applaud yourself, and congratulate yourself. It keeps you focused on where you want to go and keeps the universe working in your favor. Write these down as you do them. It keeps you motivated and it keeps you seeing how your dream is possible. It helps you build a structure for implementing the changes and achieving your dreams. It is the step by step changes you make that will create the life you desire.
Are you living each day filled with faith and expectancy or are you taking life for granted? How could your life use a little more gratitude and appreciation? Where can you begin today showering yourself and your life with more gratitude and appreciation?
Actions Steps:
- Use a gratitude journal each day. Write down at least 5 things that you are grateful for in your day. It might be hard to begin with but do it anyway. This one thing will change your world. See if by the end of your first month you can do 10 things a day. Notice how the way you see the world changes.
- Write out 5 things you appreciate about you, then your family and the world.
- Go to bryonkatie.com or thework.com and print out her worksheets for any area you are struggling with so you can learn to accept and appreciate it.
Journal Time:
- What inspired you most from the call?
- What are two ideas you are taking from the call?
- Where are you finding resistance?
- What is one action step you will take within 24 hours of the call?
- What support do you need to help you keep moving forward?