Thanksgiving theme




 

 

“Both abundance and lack
exist simultaneously in our lives,
as parallel realities. It is always
our conscious choice which secret

garden we will tend…when
we choose not to focus on what
is missing from our lives but are
grateful for the abundance that’s
present — love, health, family,
friends, work, the joys of nature
and personal pursuits that bring
us pleasure — the wasteland of
illusion falls away and we experience

Heaven on earth.”
— Sarah Ban Brethnach

You have 86,400 seconds in which to be grateful

In the some Eastern teachings it is said that we are all born with the “seed potential” of all possibilities and that it is the seeds we nurture with our energy of focused attention that come to fruition. It is no secret that what we focus our attention upon rises in the field of our awareness and tends to become part of our experience.

In challenging times, often the tendency is to stare at what seems to be missing rather than the good that lies right in front of us. Practicing conscious gratitude activates and directs the creative energy of life that nurtures the seed potential within which contains the spiritual DNA of a life worth living.

For most of us, practicing conscious gratitude is not something we generally remember to do because we are seduced by the collective consciousness that is obsessed with staring at what is “missing” in our lives. We can transcend the vortex and gravitational pull of the collective consciousness with the conscious practice of gratitude—it’s just a matter of remembering to remember.

William A. Ward wrote, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, ‘Thank you?” When you think about it, a second or two is all that takes to practice gratitude. Who doesn’t have at least a few seconds to spare each day for such a powerful practice?

As we go into this holiday season with Thanksgiving this week, I would like to give you a gift that will help raise the altitude of your attitude of gratitude, and it will only take a few moments each day.

It is a 30-day gratitude journal which you can download free by going to my website www.DennisMerrittJones.com and clicking on the press room link. I invite you to print a copy of the journal and use it mindfully. Better yet, print out a number of them and pass them out to friends and family this week. The suggestions on how to use the journal are detailed on the inside front cover. If you begin the journal the week of Thanksgiving it will take you into the weeks of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas soaring on high with gratitude.

It has been said that with clear intention a new habit can be formed in three to four weeks. What better habit could we have than to live daily, naturally focusing on what is good about our lives? In other words, with a little effort “thanks living” can become a conscious practice every day of the year. We don’t have to wait until the fourth Thursday in November each year to be reminded of how blessed we truly are.

Perhaps Meister Eckhart put it most simply and most eloquently when he wrote, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

I encourage you to join with me in making “thank you” your mantra for the next 30 days and witness an abundant universe at work. Your 86,400 seconds begin now!

I thank you for allowing me the honor of considering you a member of my extended family this year. What a blessing you have been in my life. For this I am truly grateful.

Dennis Merritt Jones is a local

spiritual mentor and keynote
speaker. Contact Jones at www
.DennisMerrittJones.com.


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