Gratitude and Abundance

Gratitude is the key to our experience of abundance. It is how we learn to receive so that we able to come into alignment with our true self.
     When we are grateful, we give thanks for what we have.  We do not dwell on what we don’t have. We celebrate the beauty that exists in our life.  We appreciate the love and the support that is here for us. We do not focus on the love or the support that we feel is missing.
     What we focus on is what is reinforced. So if we focus on what is missing, it will continue to be missing.  But if we focus on what is present, it will increase and intensify.
     That is what Jesus did with the loaves and the fishes.  He had only two loaves of bread and two fishes and there was a multitude of people gathered before him and they were all hungry.
     Yet he did not say “How can I possibly feed these thousands of people?” He simply began to divide the loaves and the fishes that he had and, miraculously, they began to multiply until there was plenty of food to feed everyone.  He focused on the food that was there, not on the food that was missing.
     We too need to learn to be grateful for the abundance we already have.  That is what makes it grow and multiply.
     If there is lack in our lives, it may be because we are focused on what is lacking. We may be complaining about what is missing and feeling sorry for ourselves.
     This is victim consciousness.   It leads to the experience of scarcity, of feeling that we do not have enough or that we are not enough.  It stems from a deep feeling of unworthiness.
     We do not feel worthy of love and so we do not find love in our lives.  Yet love is all around us and as soon as we know that we are worthy, love easily finds us and takes us up in its arms.
     As soon as we know that love dwells within us, it embraces us from the outside. As soon as we are grateful for what we have scarcity disappears from our lives. 
     Abundance is created through an attitude of gratitude, through the awareness that we are worthy and what we have is good enough.
     The way to abundance is to accept and celebrate what is. The way to scarcity is to find fault with or complain about what is.
     The truth is that we are all creators.  We create scarcity by showing up as a victim and complaining about what is. We create abundance by being grateful for what we have.
     Victims do not know that they are creating their world. They think that they have no choice.
     Creators know that they are creating their world.   They know that have constant choices.
     In my book Real Happiness, I suggest that we stop telling each other what we can’t do and start to say what we can do. I suggest that we say what we like, not what we don’t like, what we want, not what we don’t want.
     By focusing on the negative we confirm it and recreate it. By focusing on the positive, we also confirm and recreate it.
     What we focus on is our choice.
     As we enter the holiday season this year, let us appreciate the gifts that have already been given us. In this way, we can truly receive them. For to be grateful for the gift is to receive it fully.
     Once we have received it fully, we can give it back effortlessly. For receiving and giving are linked together.  Without one, we cannot have the other.
     Many of us are wondering what our gifts are.  We may even think that we don’t have a gift to give.
     But the Great Spirit has given Its gift of love to all of us. When we take the time to receive that gift, our own gift becomes clear and we are not afraid to give it.
     When we live in gratitude, we experience not just the abundant love and support of our Source, but we actively contribute to the abundance of the universe. Our gifts are given and become part of the intricate web of life and love that invites all of us to come home.