Tomorrow will be the first day of us taking steps together to shift our focus and therefore shift our day-to-day experience with our money (or with anything for that matter).
I for one, am really excited! I am excited to facilitate this journey and I am excited to continue working on my own path to financial happiness and freedom. Thank you for joining me on this!
I started full on doing gratitude work back at the beginning of September and within about a week I started noticing a tremendous difference in what I was noticing! Noticing my noticing, pretty unreal stuff.
Anytime that I started to feel negatively towards something - whether it was spending money, the piles of crap in my house, my friendships, being a mom (insert anything you can feel negatively about) ANYTHING & EVERYTHING - I dug down deep to find something, no matter how small, that I could be grateful for. Oh wow - what a shift!
Ex: If I was feeling like I didn't have much money, I would find something I already had that I loved - like my car. She's a 2003 Toyota carola missing one hub cap, with a bite out of the steering wheel (from the dog) - but damn she can run. This is a perfect example because often I wish for a new car and then I start feeling negative, but then I think about all the places my good'ol Carola has gotten me and how very little money I have to put into her and I am beaming with delight. (This is not an exaggeration, believe it or not).
I have to be honest here for a second (big shock eh?). But seriously, when I first started reading about how gratitude changes your experience I didn't get it. How will I be happier with what I have, just by being thankful for it? I suppose I thought I was already thankful in some instances, but really what was happening was that I kept seeing the lack, I kept seeing what I didn't have yet.
We are surrounded by consumerism. Don't get me wrong, we need things, we like things - that is why we make money so that we can go out and get them! But hidden in that consumerism is the message of extremism. We are not trained or conditioned to believe that we are enough, that we will ever have enough and that we can be happy right where we are. Again, I just need to make it clear that I am not implying that services and products can't add to our lives and bring freedom, change and happiness. However, what I am suggesting is that in order to make the right choices, reduce impulse buys - or buying for the wrong reasons, we really need to stop and recognize that happiness lies within our reach every moment of everyday - no matter what we have or don't have.
* You may read this and think that there is no issue you need/want to address. I totally know that feeling. I invite you to notice when you ignore a negative feeling. I have found by allowing it to happen, I can better understand it, disarm it and move beyond it. Most people I speak to about this initially don't feel that they need to make change - the truth is we all have room to enhance or improve and if nothing else you will be adding a super positive practice into your busy day!
Gratitude melts my complaints. It softens my furrowed brows when I feel that an injustice has taken place. When I feel grateful, not enough turns into plenty.
Some of this I can't explain, it's just a feeling - an opening of my heart.
The transformation that is taking place in my life right now has been a long time coming. I know now that this has always been the missing link. That in order for me to reach for what I want I need to find relief in where I am. Lack of gratitude breeds emotional distress and paralysis. It enourages disbelief in yourself, what life has to offer and it robs you of simple pleasures.
After the first month of morning and night gratitude reflections, I actually started writing down things I used to hate. This might sound confusing but what happened was that times of change, transition and even bad days became something I honoured because I knew that without them the good could never come.
The flowers need the rain, as well as the sun in order to blossom. I was able to see how crucial the crappy days were because they broke the path in for the good days. When the good days are here, I not only see them more clearly but I relish in all their glory with a big ass smile on my face.
My journey has been a trecherous one. I don't know how many of you know the depths of my depression but I just need to express my profound passion for helping others move past what is debilitating for them. We all suffer, I hope to be able shed some light for you in those times so that you can navigate through them to look back from the top of your mountain in awe of all your perserverence.
With love and gratitude,
Grace
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