
I was not planning to write this article. Instead, I was going to publish an article about integrity. It has been on my mind this last week and I was planning to share some thoughts about it. Then, I received an email from Jim Donovan, one of the regular contributors to my Prosperity Paradigm eZine, and it inspired me to write once again about the magical power of gratitude.
Yes, the magical power.
Before I talk about the magic of gratitude, I want to talk about its opposite. Not the lack, not ingratitude; but resentfulness.
Powerful emotions attached to specific repetitive thoughts make things manifest. Intentional thought combined with heartfelt desire is how masters and winners create the circumstances and events of their lives. This powerful knowledge is one of the most crucial things a person who desires to be a creator instead of a mere creature needs to know and integrate into their life.
There is a dark side. Just as what you love/desire can come true, so too, as even the bible reminds us...that what you fear shall come to pass. You can witness the power of fear making things happen in many people's lives. A victim's attitude often creates events that cause that person to say, "see, I told you so." They don't, of course, know that it was their very own fear that attracted the bad thing into their life. The proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy.
It works the same with gratitude and resentfulness. When you walk around with the attitude of gratitude, life does not just seem better because of your psychological take on life, it actually is better because of the magic creative power of intentionally combining positive thought and positive emotion.
However, when you adopt the attitude of resentfulness, things don't just seem bad...bad things actually do happen more often than they would otherwise. Resentfulness is insidious. Once you start to resent the circumstances and conditions of your life, you begin attracting more things into your life that you will not welcome UNTIL AND UNLESS you change your attitude. Some molehill appears and your resentfulness makes it into a mountain. The next thing you know, a real mountain shows up. Why? Because you attracted it. And now it is harder to be grateful instead of resentful.
That is why masters at the art of living see obstacles as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to become more powerful; and, winners see obstacles as proof that they are traveling the high road. They know that the flat, wide, easy road is the path of mediocrity. It is wide, flat and easy because it is well traveled by the majority who do not aspire or dare to achieve great things. or to challenge life and themselves to deliver more than the norm.
Losers resent winners. You see it all the time. The average person delights in the often public trials and tribulations of the high achievers. Losers do not 'get it' that it is their own resentfulness that makes them losers. They don't get that the winner is grateful not just because things are going right, but because it is the gratitude that makes things go right in the first place.
If you want to be a winner, start being grateful; start existing in a constant state of thanksgiving. You don't need some annual celebration of some romanticized historical event to feel grateful. As long as you are still breathing, you have much to be thankful for. You have, right now, the chance to make a meaningful difference in the lives of other people.
You have, right now, the chance to appreciate all you have been given. You have, right now, the chance to enjoy the pleasures of walking around on planet earth. Remember this, if you are reading this, you should know that you are better off than the overwhelming majority of other people on this planet.
Give thanks. You'll end up with plenty to be grateful for.
Happy thanksgiving!
© Leslie Fieger. All rights reserved worldwide.
Leslie is the author of The DELFIN Knowledge System Trilogy: The Initiation, The Journey and The Quest plus many more success publications. He also the co-author of The End of the World with Hugh Jeffries and Alexandra's DragonFire with his daughter Ashley. Subscribe to his free and ad-free eZine at http://www.ProsperityParadigm.com or http://www.LeslieFieger.com.
Reprinting and republishing of this article is granted only with the above credit included. Permission to reprint or republish does not waive any copyright.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan.
AP - Vice President Dick Cheney says that his boss, President George W. Bush, has no need to apologize to the American people for not doing more to head off the financial calamity, saying no one saw the crisis coming.
AP - The U.N. suspended aid shipments in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and the Red Cross restricted its convoys after their trucks came under Israeli fire. The threat of a wider conflict arose when militants in Lebanon fired two rockets into northern Israel.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama implored Congress to "act boldly and act now" on Thursday to fix an economy growing perilously weaker, and leading lawmakers set an informal goal of mid-February for enacting tax cuts and government spending that could cost as much as $1 trillion.
AP - The many Bernard Madoff investors who withdrew money from their accounts over the years are now wrestling with an ethical and legal quandary.
AP - U.S. Senate appointee Roland Burris said Thursday he's never been involved in an improper deal in his two decades in government and didn't strike any agreement to become embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick for the U.S. Senate.
AP - "Horrific" is how Tom Cruise described the sudden death of the son of his friend, John Travolta. Cruise struggled to maintain his composure as he spoke on "The View" about last week's death of 16-year-old Jett Travolta. "John just adored him, both of his children," Cruise said haltingly. "... It's something that I don't have the words for."
AP - After more than two decades with the Atlanta Braves, John Smoltz is ready to finish his stellar career wearing a different uniform. In a stunning end to one of baseball's longest runs, Smoltz reached a preliminary agreement Thursday on a $5.5 million, one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox after failing to work out a deal to return for his 22nd season with the Braves.
Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama warned on Thursday that the U.S. economy could stay mired in recession for years without bold action and he urged lawmakers to work day and night to pass a massive stimulus plan.
Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc has agreed to support a controversial rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy law aimed at helping troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, lawmakers said on Thursday.
Reuters - Recovery teams ventured into battlegrounds of the Gaza Strip on Thursday to gather bodies from the rubble, and Hamas officials said the Palestinian toll in Israel's 13 day-old offensive rose to 765 dead.
Reuters - Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other top U.S. retailers delivered disappointing December same-store sales and profit warnings on Thursday, sparking fresh recession concerns that hit stock and currency markets.
Reuters - Accused swindler Bernard Madoff had signed checks totaling more than $173 million in his office desk ready to be sent out before his arrest, U.S. prosecutors said in court papers on Thursday asking a judge to jail him.
Reuters - Europe on Friday looked for a swift restoration of gas supplies, after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a rancorous pricing dispute with Kiev.
Reuters - Economic weakness in Europe worsened and U.S. jobless rolls swelled as disappointing sales from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and other retailers on Thursday showed that consumers are still wary about opening up their pocketbooks in an uncertain economy.
AFP - A UN relief agency halted work in Gaza and protested to Israel on Thursday after an aid worker was killed, while the war death toll rose past 760 after dozens of bodies were found in rubble during a pause in bombing.
AFP - EU-sponsored talks collapsed Thursday between Russia and Ukraine on resolving a gas dispute that has cut supplies to Europe in the midst of a bitterly cold winter, with Moscow blamed for the failure.
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