LIVING WITH JOY - Chapter 11
XI. Appreciation, Gratitude,
and the Law of Increase
If you want to come out of a bad space, if you are drained or depleted, if you have been around someone who upset you, then you can quickly change your energy by looking at the good things you have and saying thanks—thank you self, thank you Universe. It is an effective way of cleaning your aura and raising your vibration. If you were to wake up each morning and spend two minutes giving thanks, you would find yourself having a much higher day.
What is the purpose of gratitude? It is not just something you have to do because your parents told you to say thank you and be polite. You have a holiday called Thanksgiving; you have heard of people who give thanks after coming through an ordeal. There is a higher reason for gratitude and thanks. They literally send out a call to the Universe to give you more.
Whatever you appreciate and
give thanks for
will increase in your life.
Have you ever noticed how much you like to be with people who thank you, appreciate and acknowledge you? When you give them advice, they say "Thank you, that helps so much." When you offer them something, they hold it and love it. Have you noticed how you want to give them more? It is the same, on an energy level, with the Universe. Whenever you stop to thank the Universe for the abundance you have, the Universe will give you more. Whenever you give thanks, you increase the light in your aura at that very moment. You change it through your heart, for the feeling of gratitude comes from the heart. As you give thanks, you open your heart. Your heart is the doorway to your soul; it is the link between the world of form and the world of essence. Gratitude and thanks are a path straight to the heart, to your essence and your soul.
You can clean your aura and raise your vibration by giving thanks. The resonance of gratitude in your body vibrates with your heart center. It allows you to open to receive more. It opens your heart to your consciousness, healing the physical body with its radiance of love. It sets up a higher, finer vibration, and it is your vibration that magnetizes you to the things you want. When you give thanks, the Universe sets up a matching note or sound that brings you even more of the same.
There are various methods of expressing thanks— mental, verbal, and written. And, there is the emotional, heartfelt sense of gratitude, which is the most important. No matter how you give thanks, if it is done idly, without paying attention and feeling it in your heart, then it is not as effective as when you are fully aware and coming from true gratitude. When you think a "Thank you," it does have an effect on your body, and it is even more powerful to say it aloud. Have you been around people who constantly thank you? I am not speaking of those who do it from habit or because they are always apologizing or wanting your favor. I am referring to people who truly acknowledge and appreciate you when you are with them. These people are increasing what they will receive from other people and from the world.
The process of writing ideas down and speaking them puts them out into the world of form more quickly than just thinking them. If you want something, write it down or say it out loud, because the processes of speech and writing are one step closer to having something than the process of thinking. The hands and the throat are two centers of manifestation. The ideas in your mind, when expressed to others, become part of the world of form, and when written on paper are even closer to being created. It is all right to express thanks in your mind. That will evolve you also, but it is even more powerful to say it out loud to the Universe and others. The written thank you is even more powerful than the spoken.
To create something new, or to keep
receiving more of something you have
already gotten, get some paper and pens
and write a thank you to the Universe.
At night, make a list of everything you received during the day. It may be something you bought, a smile from a stranger, a good feeling or extra energy, a car that got you where you wanted to go or money you received. You will be amazed at all the gifts that are sent your way every day. In acknowledging what you received, you will create a connection with the universe that will allow you to have even more.
You may want to write or call someone who has helped you and express your appreciation. The more you express outwardly your gratitude and thankfulness for what you have, the more you change your molecular vibration away from the dense energy into finer levels. You may notice that highly evolved souls and great teachers spend much of their time appreciating and thanking the Universe. In their meditation they feel true humility and gratitude for every thing they are given.
What is the effect of gratitude on the various bodies? The physical body literally undergoes a change when you are appreciative. When you acknowledge your good health, for instance, you send a message to the cells in your body. They respond to it, for each of your cells has within it the hologram of the whole of you. Each cell has an awareness of its own. (Not that they think in the ways you know.) You are composed of many different cells which function at a level of awareness that is not the same as the overall awareness you call "I." They like to be appreciated also. If you want to heal a problem in your body, instead of remembering those times when you weren't healthy, or worrying about future pains or problems, thank your body for all the wonderful things it is doing well. If you send it gratitude frequently you will find it doing even more for you. The cells definitely do understand the feeling of gratitude and will try to work for you even harder.
Find appreciation for how well your body moves, acts and gets you around. Appreciate how it converts your food into energy and how well it serves you. On the other hand, if you look at your body and make it wrong, saying "I don't like my thighs, stomach, etc.," if you complain about it, you will find that it does not respond as well. Think of your body as containing millions of little entities—cells—that have feelings. The minute you make up your mind you appreciate them, you change your physical vibration. The cells immediately go to work to increase your energy. When you have a negative thought, one of ingratitude, then your energy drops.
Gratitude is healing to the emotions.
It links the emotional body to the heart and thus to the soul, which is reached through the heart. The emotional body is a restless, constantly vibrating flow of energy around you. When you say thanks, and appreciate your life, acknowledging people, events, and the higher forces, the pattern of energy that represents your emotional body begins to rearrange itself into a higher and finer vibration. Your emotions are the most magnetic part of you when it comes to attracting events, people and objects. The calmer and more detached you are, the easier it is to have what you want. Your will and intent will need to be directed towards having it. The more peaceful and serene you are, the more easily you can focus on your higher being and the more you can have.
When you experience emotionally a sense of deep gratitude, it is calming and effective in raising the vibration of your emotional body. The heart is most affected and most easily reached by gratitude. If you want to link with another in your heart, appreciate him or her. By sending out your telepathic appreciation, you will automatically stop power struggles. When you see friends this week, notice and acknowledge something good about them. Be sure it is heartfelt, and not something you have to make up. If you can find something to say to them that is gratitude for who they are, you will immediately move the level of contact up into the heart.
Giving thanks and appreciation
opens many doors into the
higher levels of the Universe.
Appreciation is a doorway into the heart, it opens your heart and allows you to experience more love in your life. In the next week, appreciate each person you see when you remember to do so. If it is your friend or a loved one, a stranger or co-worker, see if you can send him or her gratitude and thanks. Appreciate something about that person from your heart. Gratitude takes you out of your head and judgment. Many of you are wrapped up in your thoughts, and when you give thanks, it takes you out of that mental place of right and wrong, good and bad, and puts you into your heart. When you get out of your mind level, even for a short time, it is possible for the Universe to work more directly with you. Often the level of mental activity that is going on in all of you creates so much confusion it is harder for you to get what you want.
When appreciation is felt in the mental body (the part of you that thinks all the time), it literally silences the worry part, the doubting or skeptical side. It brings together all your selves under a new banner, and can be a doorway into a new level of energy. Whenever you find yourself upset or concerned, experiencing something that does not feel healing, stop and give thanks for the good things you have.
A feeling of gratitude allows you access to your abstract mind, which is the part of you that links the right and left brain, male and female sides. The abstract mind does not work only with the left-brain side, which deals with numbers, figures, and logic, nor does it work specifically with the right-brain side, which deals with creativity, intuition and feelings. It synthesizes these two parts. The union comes when you are able to conceptualize with frameworks of beliefs and realities that are outside your normal way of thinking. It feels like a light coming through, a new solution to an old problem, an inspiration or revelation.
The abstract mind is able to see the larger picture of your life, and you spend so little time there. This part of you has many new ways of thinking; it exists beyond the normal framework you live in. The abstract mind does not think in terms you are used to. It is the genius level that exists within all of you. It uses the highest form of thinking you have and it can greatly assist you in evolving if you are willing to use it more often.
You can choose to think in
a higher way more often.
Giving thanks will lead you directly to your heart and your abstract mind. By giving thanks, you bring light into your crown center at the top of your head, through the doorway of your heart. Because of the increased light, and new heart opening, many ideas and gifts can be sent to you. They may unfold in a week, or month, but you have created a doorway for many good things to come to you. Imagine that gratefulness allows you to reach into and change your vibration, to go to the higher levels of wisdom that are available in the Uni verse. The Universe hears your call; thank you's are definitely heard and appreciated, and you will be sent that energy back.
All of you have desires, and desires make up what I call your "desire body." There are things that you want to have in your life. If I asked you what you desire, what is most important to have right now, you could tell me if you stopped and thought about it. When you give thanks, you affect your desire body. The desire body is quite restless, like the emotional body. It is always focusing on what it does not have and what it wants to create. It has a purpose, for it brings you new forms, motivation and creative energy. Yet, it can bring you a sense of runaway energy—reminding you of all the things you have yet to do and create.
Your desires can seem overwhelming, if you have too many unfulfilled ones. Giving thanks directly affects desires by allowing them to calm down and to see how much they have created. Think of it as if you have a separate part of you composed of those things you have been wanting. When you give thanks, it empowers this part. For this self does not usually focus on what you have generated, but wants to tell you what you could do, how much harder you could work, and on and on.
It always has lists of things for you to do, and it needs to be reassured, talked to, and calmed down. Feeling appreciation for what you have done will accomplish this, and will strengthen this part in its ability to create more.
Another body is that of the will. All of you have different pictures of will. Some of you call it "Will Power."
Will is the ability to direct
your energy where you
want it to go.
Many of you want to go higher, into the finer levels of energy where there is more peace, joy, contentment, and detachment. The will is energy that flows through you constantly. It is like a stream or river of energy that moves through you all the time. When you give thanks, you strengthen your will. Not will power, but will that is linked with the heart, will that is directed to doing what you love. The more you appreciate yourself, acknowledge everything in your life, the more you link your heart with your will. This allows you to create those things your heart has been wanting.
APPRECIATION, GRATITUDE, AND THE LAW OF INCREASE
PLAYSHEET
What things do you appreciate having in your life right now?
What people do you appreciate?
What good things about yourself—your body, mind, etc.—do you appreciate?
Ideas:
Call someone on the phone or write and express your appreciation of him or her.