Greetings Dear Ones,

We want to speak to you today about gratitude and how it truly does influence your day to day, moment to moment existence. Have you ever observed in you or others the importance of gratitude?

Awake each morning and think or speak out loud if you wish, I am grateful for this new day. I have the opportunity to experience things from this perspective today. I appreciate the bed I slept in, the home, the warmth or coolness of the day. The ability to move about and have water to drink and air to breathe and experience…

When you awake from your slumber, remind yourself of all the wonder that surrounds you and the awe and acceptance that you created it. Enjoy the specialness of the day, and remind yourself that today is a new day and I have a clean slate in front of me. I come today with knowledge that anything I want to achieve can be done if I step out of my own way. Today I am not going to allow the outer world to disturb the peace and hope and joy that has filled me up. I am in control of my destiny and all I have is the now moment, why not try to create the best moment to moment experience I can.

When you arise and know that you must go off to work, play, school, whatever it may be, you are setting out the intention that today I am in control of what will happen. You will notice that on your way to work, you won’t encounter those people that may cut you off or honk their horn or make a gesture to you, because you have placed yourself in what we have called “The God Zone.” You have seen this happen as you observe sports activities, we are using this example, as Leslie has watched many sports programs as of late, and she notices as she watches when a team player or team is in the “zone,” they know where to throw the basketball and to whom to throw it at any given time. It is as if it has been orchestrated. The timing is impeccable. The baskets are made seemingly without effort!

This can be you, when you allow life to respond to your actions, feelings, words, experiences and direct you in a way that can be of benefit to you. When you tune into your wisdom, when you get those little nudges and you are not quite certain why you are doing what you are doing, trust that what has been given to you is what you need to do at that moment in time.

We see you struggle sometimes with the notion of trust. You may say, yeah, when I trust myself I make stupid mistakes or why did I just do that! You must realize that even when you may seemingly make an error or what appears to be something that doesn’t turn out just the way you had thought it would, it was still the best choice for that moment. Do not beat yourself up. All will work out! It is when you continue the downward spiral of thinking I am stupid, or I’m a failure or I can’t do anything right, that the universe will continue to give you all of those things right back to you and much more. This is the time, you will want to remind yourself, of being grateful for the opportunity to try it differently, tweak it, and make adjustments, and in turn get a different outcome. You will be astonished how quickly you will be able to do this with some practice, and yes it will take practice. You have practiced the not good enough-ness for quite some time so now it is time to try something new.

Remind yourself again about having this awesome day to adjust your thinking and arrive at a different place. I am grateful I have this moment in my life to make these adjustments and to become fully alive in this moment in time to choose a different course. I have a smorgasbord of life in front of me so many choices, opportunities to become fully actualized in this moment. Wow isn’t that so exciting? Me, little ole me, has this powerful moment to operate and navigate to where I want to turn. For that I am grateful.

Many of you may be also experiencing some challenges in your life. You can think why me, why is this happening to me. I thought I was doing all the “right” things. I thought I was keeping a positive attitude towards my challenges, and yet they seem so overwhelming to me. How can I change?

Isn’t this yet another perfect opportunity to put yourself in the driver’s seat, and say, ok, life has given to me some interesting experiences, I can make the most of them and divert my attention to those things that I can be grateful for, or I can continue to look at the things that are giving me a challenge. Hmm, which one seems like it would be the most beneficial to me right now? Right now is all I have. I can turn this into my grateful time, or I can say my life is the pits and it all seems like it’s going downhill. Allow yourself to take a few minutes to step out of the situation and find something that makes you smile—a laughing child, a funny joke, some wonderful music—and absorb yourself in that. It will take you out of the downward spiral and allow you to get back into the space of gratitude.

Leslie loves to remind people of when she heard about President Jimmy Carter and his cancer diagnosis. If you paid close attention to his reaction and not the reaction of the news media or people that wanted it to be bigger, President Carter acknowledged the fact, and moved on and continued to live his life as if it was not a big deal. He took action that he felt was necessary, but he did not allow it to take over his whole being. He was bigger than that “word” that was given to him. He had the ability to react differently to the situation. And the outcome was positive. You all have this ability. You can give into what outside sources want to label or you can say this does not honor who I am as a whole person. I will take inventory of who I am and see that I can see the bigger picture of who I AM! Enjoy the whole of who you are and do not allow anyone or anything to take you away from that which is YOU.

Be at peace dear ones and In-Joy!

Many blessings