Second Chances

I am truly blessed to have people in my life who will tell me when I have made a mistake, because it means they care enough to see me improve.

When children make mistakes we usually comfort them and tell them to try again. We work with what they know and help them to gain more knowledge. The goal is to keep helping them improve. However, as adults we give ourselves and each other much less leniency when it comes to not being perfect. For some reason there is an age where everyone is no longer allowed to make mistakes without being ridiculed for them.

Our goal for today is to learn to be grateful for our mistakes instead of frustrated or angry. Our mistakes open our eyes to things that we can change and learn for the better. In the book, “The Magic” the author Rhonda Byrne uses the example of being pulled over by the police. More often than not we are more upset with the police for pulling us over than grateful for the fact that they raised our awareness of the lack of concern for our safety and others on the road.

Today, consider a mistake that you have made and find ten reasons to be grateful for that mistake. This would look like a list of things that you learned from the outcome of the mistake.  Hopefully by taking the time to appreciate you lessons you will also decrease your likelihood of making that same mistake in the future. 

We are ONE

I am grateful today that I understand oneness, because I know that I have the power to effect change for my fellow man. 

Lately in the news we are bombarded by all of the division our world is experiencing. There is political division, color division, gender and sexuality, and division of nations. Everyone seems to want to have distinction in who they are, but these distinctions simply bring about more and more discrimination. It seems the one thing we are forgetting is that no matter what distinctions we ascribe to we are all still have something in common, our humanity.

Regardless of our differences we are all one. In many spiritual and religious traditions they discuss the concept of oneness, but often the oneness is only including those who believe in their particular teaching. The truth is belief in traditions or not no one is exempt from the oneness that we just naturally have.

So what does that mean? That means that you have the power to effect change in yourself and others through your understanding of oneness. This concept is a bit hard to try to explain in a short blog post. But here goes. When you encounter, people in your life that are struggling you have choices in how to help them. You can give them advice. You can leave them alone and let them figure it out. You can pray for them. Or your can help them. But, I bet you didn't know that you could effect change in their experience.

It may sound crazy, but when you feel and understand the concept of oneness, you realize that we all have the opportunity to change the life of others. Oneness means that if a brother or sister is hurting, you are also affected because they are a part of you. They are not separate from you. When you truly understand this you will be able to start feeling gratitude for the positive experiences of others because you realize the connection you have with them. When you begin to feel gratitude for their positive experiences you will start to see the lives of those around you start to improve as much as your own.

For today, your goal is to practice feeling gratitude for the well being of others. Choose three people in your life. Imagine them as happy and healthy. You may not know exactly what they want out of life but you do know that you are connected with them as you are with everyone. Feel the gratitude of being blessed by your connection to them. The more you acknowledge blessings for them and ultimately yourself, the more you will see change.

Magical Cues

I am grateful for magical cues, because before today I never knew they existed. 

When I read today's practice I was intrigued, because I never even thought like this before. The title of this chapter is Cue the Magic. In it the author talks about seeing things in our lives as cues to be grateful. I am going to share directly from the book because I cannot say it better:

The Universe knows you have to feel gratitude to bring forth your dreams, so it plays its part in the game by giving you personal cues to remind you to be grateful. It uses the people, circumstances, and events that surround you in your day as magic cues to be grateful. It works like this:

If you hear and ambulance siren, then the magic cue form the Universe is to be grateful for perfect health. If you see a police car, your magic cue is to be grateful for safety and security. If you see someone reading a newspaper, it's your magic cue to be thankful for great news.

The author goes on to talk about how seeing things in our day should remind us to be grateful for things in our lives. One of the others she mentions is seeing and ATM should remind you to be grateful for plenty of money. I am excited to try this practice because, well, you can never have too much to be grateful for.

So today let your world inspire your gratitude through magical cues.

Just Breathe

I am truly grateful for the world that I live in, because life is an amazing experience. 

There is an older woman at my church. She is a church mother and everytime she is asked to share a word with the congregation she just says "Grateful". At first you might think she is taking the question to literally or maybe she just has a ritual she wants to stick to, but one day it hit me. I felt what she was saying. She has lived over 80 years here in this life and on this earth. She has seen many historical tragedies and victories. She has experienced joys and hurts with her family and friends and she knows the wonder of life.

We will all experience ups and downs joys and hurts in our life, but life itself is intricate and amazing. Think about all of the things that have to happen in order for you to be born. Your parents must be fertile. You have to survive many weeks in the womb. You must exit your mother's body with no complications and then you get to take your first breath. That first breath leads to a lifetime of breathing. No matter what you go through in life, breath is with you. It sustains your life from the time you are born until the time that you die. Breathing sustains your bodily functions and allows you to experience everything that you experience on a daily basis.

But the fact that you can breathe is only one piece of the puzzle there must be air for you to breathe. So that means that the earth is perfectly placed in the universe and the elements on the earth are more than adequate to support the breath that you need. WOOOOOW!!! When you really get a hold of the concept of the intricate nature of life, you will be amazed. You may even be grateful.

Today, just breathe and say thank you for your breath. Be grateful for all that your breathing has sustained you through. Feel gratitude for the divine order of the universe that allows you life here and say Thank you.

Hope for the Best Pt. 2

I am very grateful for personal days, because they allow me to focus on things and activities that are important to me. 

So yesterday, I took a personal day from writing and today I am taking a personal day from my job. To be honest, most of the personal days I do take involve me not doing something I want to do(writing), rather than taking time away from the things I have to do (job). So today is just about me what I want to do. One is to offer you another gratitude practice, continue to write, meet up with a friend, and then maybe catch a movie! I'm excited just thinking about it.
So first let's talk about today's gratitude practice. It is essentially the other half of the last exercise we did. Last time we thought of 3 specific things that we wanted to see a great outcome for. The practice I offer today is simply and add on to that.

Up until recently, I always had a negative reaction to people saying they needed to see me or talk to me. If a boss would say, "we need to meet", I would instantly begin thinking about all the things that I may have possibly done wrong and try to prepare to defend myself.  One day I realized that I was creating unnecessary fear in myself so even though my initial reaction my have been instant fear, I began working on hoping for the best in all situations. It took a bit of practice and understanding of myself, but now I am at a much better place. If someone needs to speak to me, instead of invoking fear, I can invoke gratitude for myself and peace in who I am. Believe me, it is much less stressful to live this way.

Anyhow for you if you experience, what I have experienced, try the same practice that I discussed last time. You may get anxiety when you have to work with certain people. Or maybe dealing with particular family members bring you stress. When these situations occur, say grace. Feel gratitude for a positive outcome. Know what outcome you desire and then hope for it. Now remember immediate results don't always equate to final outcomes but patience will bring you the desires you seek.

Day Nineteen - Hope for the Best

I am grateful for this day, because I believe that everything will work out for my good by the end of it. 

How often in your day do you say grace over something? Some of us say it when we eat hoping that there will be an outcome of health and safety in what we consume. But that idea or practice of grace and prayer could be extended to many more things in our lives. Grace is essentially expressing a belief in a positive outcome.

Today let's use that same concept to believe in the best for everything within our day. Think of at least three things today that you have to do and believe for a positive outcome. Try saying, "Thank you for a magnificent outcome to____________".  Here's the trick. You must believe that you will receive that positive outcome and not be tied to the immediate results. Often times we believe we know what the best outcome is and become disappointed in our initial results. However, if you truly believe you will get the best out every situation then ALWAYS hope for it. Don't give up hope when results look negative.

This past August my father ran for Police Commissioner. He ran as a write-in candidate. That is usually not the best way to get in office. Yet he campaigned and shared his views. He got lots of positive support, but did not get the votes needed to be put in office. He expressed gratitude to his supporters and moved on. Well just last week, he was appointed to the position! Well just imagine what his outcome would have been if he suddenly started spewing negativity about the whole thing.

We actually have access to our desires through our own mindset and gratitude. If you know what you want, there is always a way for you to have it. The real trick is keeping your belief positive and being grateful for the process of it coming to you.

So today, I hope you all have a magnificent day and hope for the best.

Day Eighteen - Walk it Out

I am very grateful to have my daughter, because she is truly a blessing in my life!

I know I disappeared for a few days. I just took the weekend off from blogging about our challenge. But hopefully that did not stop you from your daily practice of finding things to be grateful for. As you can see in my opening gratitude statement, I'm pretty jazzed today about someone special, my daughter. It's her BIRTHDAY!!! Kids are something special and if you have any give them all big hugs today and be grateful for them (hopefully they will take care of you when you get old.)

Anyhow, I skipped a few days in the book. I want to get back on track with day 18. It is inspired by the following quote by writer, William A. Ward:

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used any of them to say thank you?"

Well, if you have been following along with our blog then I hope that you are spending at least a few moments or your day saying thank you. However, today we are going to walk out our gratitude. It's a very simple practice but hopefully can increase the gratitude you feel within this day. Simply take a walk and each time your foot hits the ground think and say in your mind "thank you". No need to be specific about what you are thankful for, just feel the feeling of gratitude for life in general. Today we are not concerned with what doors are opening and what we get in return for our gratitude we are just grateful. These past 17 days we have found many things to be grateful for so we will continue on that trend and just say thank you. Make that thanks and gratefulness a part of your day today.

Thank you all again for reading and sticking with me through this challenge.