~ It Starts in the Heart ~
by Lori Suzanne Holetz
As we watch another year slip into the past and we arrive at the time we celebrate Thanksgiving, we are reminded to be thankful. However, it is also a good time to begin to be thankful on a daily basis. Developing an “attitude of gratitude” is a simple and extremely profound way to shift energy in our life from negative to positive, as we watch how life responds to us within this choice. This daily practice is simple enough. It only requires that you stop for a brief moment, think upon your life, and find even the tiniest thing you are happy and grateful for. It can be as small as being thankful for your daily meal, or as big and full as the inventory of your entire life and all the blessings you can identify; friends, family, a roof over your head; yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It starts within your heart. Gratitude resides there and is aligned with a loving way of being. When we begin to take a closer look at our life with a positive attitude, many good things can be seen…. it is truly a matter of perspective. We can sit back and review the past two years of pandemic, separation, job or home loss, family shifts of routine, and much more, and either take a viewpoint of how messed up it all has been, or we can look at the bright side. Bright side, we have all been “sent home”, with an opportunity to slow down, drop the frenetic micro-details, and have the tremendous blessing of time to reflect on what is truly most important in our own particular situation. We are being taught by profoundly challenging global circumstances to stop, assess, and find the goodness that does surround us daily. One simple exercise to help get into the daily rhythm of ever-present thankfulness is to make a specific time, best in the morning before the day gets going, and write down one specific thing you are thankful for. It only takes as little as a few days of consistency to create that shift within your life. Before you know it, you will be creating a new, supportive pattern that has the potential to shift your entire life, into an amazingly positive direction. Again, like positive energies attracting like. Appreciation for what we do have will bring more into our lives. Spirit, that is pretty much the largest driving force in our lives whether we embrace it actively or not, will see this authenticity coming from your heart, and respond with more and more of your dreams come true. When we practice an attitude of gratefulness for what we do have, no matter how small, it shall be returned unto us multifold. It’s magic, it’s amazing and it works. What’s more, we personally hold the power of that magical dance between ourselves, our lives and Spirit literally within our own hands. Be genuinely thankful from your heart, make a wish, and watch how quickly Spirit takes care of you. For today, find one thing you are thankful for. Don’t wait for the bustle of the holidays, (remember they are holy days!) Start now and watch how the magic of being thankful shifts and changes your life for the better. We hold more power than we are ever taught; these spiritual “secrets” having been kept from us by the elder wizened ones down through time immemorial. But it is not to be kept from us any longer with the world in the critical mass it presently is. Mother Earth needs as many people of grateful thankfulness as possible in order to shift our global challenges into a better place. We are ascending into a higher vibration of the heart and love. By developing and fostering thankfulness and gratitude daily, although you might not see the larger impact upon the Greater Whole, you will indeed be practicing your own brand of positive magic that holds astonishing power of attraction for this great shift the globe is presently within. Believe and be thankful, not just one day a year, but one day at a time all year long. Happy thankfulness and the giving fourth of gratitude! Blessed be your Holy days!