Anyway, her book has a chapter in it that focuses in on gratitude. For the past few months she has been writing about it, talking about and teaching it in her " Inspiration in Action" courses that she teaches to women. So I have heard a lot about it and I have discussed it with her a lot.
When I started to write the book "The Ten Commitments to a Better Life", I was a less focused on the process for getting what it was you wanted and being grateful and more about integrity. I felt that once you were in integrity you could easily attract everything to you since you were clear about who you were and what you wanted and where it was you were going. I think however I was incorrect in that I was making it really too simple.
In Kathie's context, if you are grateful for what you already have; you already recognize that you have more than most people, just by being thankful and grateful for what you have no matter how small or large it is.
For example Louise Hay said at a recent " You Can Do It " event that she thanks her car everyday. That really resonated with me since I love cars and I am always looking at the next new one vrs thanking or thinking about the one I already have. Its really funny, because as soon I started to do that, thank my car, I realized the vehicle I am driving is really a great vehicle and realized that it had more features than what I even realized were on the car in the first place and that I took for granted.
The concept of being grateful is pretty powerful. It allows you to take stock that you already have a lot of things in your life and that the quest for more is really predicated on advertising and marketing and creating a want or fulfilling a need.
Being in that industry for the past thirty years, our key goal was to create either a need for fulfill a want. That by itself seems like a weird concept for some since advertising is about telling a story of things you should consider or purchase. For example, the new watch, car, clothing, shoes, lipstick, Kraft dinner, soup or fast food. Like if we did not tell you there was a Panini Sandwich at Tim Horton's, most people would not care. However we go out and spend a lot of money on advertising and all of a sudden you want a Panini sandwich even if you don't really know what it is, but you want one.
So gratitude takes away the need and the want. It says; I am already happy with what I have and I am thankful. It allows you to appreciate the simple things. The smell and taste of a good cup of coffee, a great band, a sunset, green grass, a sauna, warm soup on cold day, a cozy cat, warm socks or a hug from someone you love.
Getting what you want then is far simpler than the power of attraction or wishing for more of something. Once you become thankful or grateful it is through this appreciation of gratitude that you appreciate more of what you already have and that makes you open to receive. By being open to receive you get more of what you are already grateful for. A rule of thumb for example is that if you have loose change in some form of receptical in your bedroom, you have more money that 90% of the people on the planet today.
So gratitude is pretty unique concept in that, once you are thankful for what is already been acquired you actually want less and anything that shows up is a bonus, giving you a great deal of satisfaction.
This may seem like a simple concept, but like the little book the "The Ten Commitments to a Better Life", life is pretty simple. When you commit to over responding to life, and all the things that come into that life, you can be really pretty thankful.
I wanted to thank my wife this month for her Inspiration in Action program. The chapter on gratitude resonates with me and resonates with me even more now. I already have what I want, love, life, happeniess, health, wealth, water, thoughts and on and on and even having the ability to write these words in something called a blog and that makes me extremely happy. Thanks Kathie!
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