The Magic of Gratitude

THE MAGIC OF GRATITUDE

Last year I joined the Freedom Era and was recommended this book The Magic by Rhonda Byrnes. And as I started reading it I decided that I wanted to keep coming back to it because it is truly magical! So I thought I would record each of the chapters reading them out loud.

Reading it out loud the magic did come alive and I knew that I wanted to share it. It was December 1st and I decided to send a chapter each day to 20 of my friends as part of an advent calendar ritual. Which continued after a short break over Christmas all the way until last week when we finished the book.

It has been such an incredible experience. Not only did it strengthened my belief that gratitude is so important in my life. But receiving the feedback from my friends and the conversations that I have had and still have just prove that we all need gratitude in our lives, that we often forget it or take it for granted but also that it is crucial in changing our mindset as to how we go through life and perceive and receive things. In our past, present and future. In relationships, our work, health or daily lives.

So many beautiful things happened in those six weeks!

A friend of mine told me that she now has a new ritual with her kids every night at the dinner table where each one shares one thing they are grateful for that day. And the kids love it!

Another friend sent me a message in the middle of the night telling me how she had been so stressed, overwhelmed and anxious with everything going on right now with home office and schooling, missing her family, etc. that she couldn’t sleep. And how she had felt before that she hadn’t had the time to listen to the ten minutes of recording. But that she did that night and that she actually cried because it helped her to release so much of her stress and that she felt calm and just grateful again.

With many of my friends I had the most wonderful conversations about life, love, support and gratitude.

And what I learned through it all:

1. It is easy to feel grateful when we are happy and everything is going well. But that we then still often don’t pause and acknowledge it or even take it for granted.
2. That it is much harder to feel grateful when we are struggle, things go not as expected, or circumstances are challenging. But it is exactly in those moments when we need to refocus. That we need to acknowledge the problems and how it makes us feel but to then check ourselves focus on what we are grateful for. I might be frustrated with work in a moment but if I understand all the reasons why I’m grateful for my work then that frustration is not going to fester. And even transfer onto other areas in my life or my general wellbeing. If I keep focusing on the negative then it will be all I can see. If I focus on the positive I get to train my brain like a muscle to keep noticing everywhere! And to actually feel it!
3. The most challenging for me though was to be grateful for what is to come, for what I want in life, for what I want to manifest. To work on positive messaging instead of limitations that will hold me back. To believe and to then set my mind to it!
4. And an also very important lesson was that once you stop to focus on practicing gratitude that it quickly fades away again. Life takes over, routines, the negative thoughts. We have to practice it so much until it becomes ingrained in us and our subconsciousness. And that is when we truly change. That is when the magic happens!

I’m so grateful for this book, for what it taught me, and for my friends sharing this experience with me!

What do you feel grateful for?