Chapter 2
Gratitude
Living in this emotional state will enhance your life more than almost anything I know of.
Cultivating this is cultivating life. Live with an attitude of gratitude.
– Anthony Robbins
Gratitude is the way by which we confirm with the universe that all we have manifested in our physical reality is indeed what we desire. Everything that we bring into our physical existence either stays for a while or dissipates. Whether it stays or goes is determined by our level of gratitude for that particular thing.
Think of the universe as a waiter in a restaurant. Let’s say you order a Caesar salad. All day you have been thinking about a Caesar salad, visualizing what it will look like, and imagining what it will taste like. Then you actually get to the restaurant and you place your order with the waiter by simply asking him for a Caesar salad. You let him or her go to submit your order so that the kitchen can begin preparing it for you. You have been to this restaurant a dozen times and had great food each time, so you have faith that your order will be received and delivered to your table in a timely fashion. So far you have done everything perfectly to manifest a Caesar salad. Finally it materializes, and the waiter drops off your salad at your table.
Now here is where gratitude comes in. Imagine that you only take two bites of the Caesar salad and then you lose interest in it and push it to the side of the table. Now you have already begun thinking about something you would like to manifest from the dessert menu. The waiter seeing your lack of interest in your salad will come by and pick it up because the act of pushing it aside signals that you are no longer interested in the salad.
The universe works the same way. If we have things in our lives that we have manifested but have lost interest in, the universe will help us clear these old manifestations out of the physical realm in order to clear the way for new manifestations. It has no judgment on what you wish to hold on to and what you wish to let go of. It is merely taking in the signals and acting accordingly.
What if you aren’t ready to give certain things up, though? What if you love your job, your car, and your house and you want to hold on to them? The key to holding on to these things is gratitude. When you feel or express gratitude, when you give thanks for the things in your life, then it is akin to us continually eating the Caesar salad. The waiter may walk by a few times to check on you, but every time that he does he sees that you are still eating the salad, so it is a clear signal that it is not time to clear the table just yet.
Giving thanks is just our simple way of confirming to the universe that what we have manifested is what we desire and that we do in fact want to hold on to it. So take inventory of all the things in your life that you wish to hold on to, and solidify their existence with continual gratitude. Everything in the physical world is maintained by gratitude.
Praying and Giving Thanks
No one particular religion has been able to secure the exclusive rights for the power of prayer.
No matter who you are, we all have the ability to take advantage of this amazing and wonderful power.
Once you realize this, you will then be filled with the desire to help others realize this as well.
More and more people are resonating with this understanding,
and this could result in a more wonderful future for mankind.
- Masaru Emoto
Prayer is the lost mode of communication. Prayer used to be practiced on such a wide scale but recently, with people having shifted out of the old paradigm of religion, there has been a loss of interest in some of the more traditional aspects of spirituality. Prayer is such an important part of manifesting in the physical world. It is such a beautiful art form and when done correctly can bring things into your life very quickly.
First let me explain that there is a whole team of people or energies surrounding you at all times during your physical life. They are there from the time you are born into this world and they are there until the day you cross back over. You and this team are really like a company or a corporation. The company is your life. You are the CEO of that company. You are on the forefront of making all of the decisions with regards to your company. Your team is merely in place to assist you in any way that they can. When a person prays, they are making requests of their fellow employees or team members basically. If a person does not pray throughout his or her life, it is like having a company with all of its employees sitting around a table in a boardroom with notebooks and pens just waiting for the CEO to come in and tell them what needs to be done. The employees will not move forward without a request from the CEO. It is not their job to make decisions regarding the company. It is your job, hence free will. So they wait and they wait, and if the CEO never shows up to a meeting then the employees and all of their gifts are wasted.
Now when the CEO finally shows up to a meeting and makes some requests, the employees actually become excited. They will begin to work in a fashion to get everything done that the CEO has asked of them, however, just as employees need to be incentivized, so to do your team members. Obviously these team members won’t be incentivized by money but they are incentivized by gratitude. So it is important to always be thanking them for the tasks that they have completed. It is also important to provide encouragement along the way, especially for the tasks that take a little longer to complete.
So every daily prayer is really like your daily work meeting. You have your list of new jobs that you would like the company to accomplish, you have your list of jobs that are currently in progress, and you have your list of jobs that have been completed to your satisfaction. It is imperative to address the team on all three lists. Begin with gratitude and appreciation for the jobs completed, provide encouragement and motivation for the jobs in progress, and lastly make your requests for new jobs that have recently come up.
The Bible says, “Ask and you shall receive.” I would like to expand that to say “Ask, encourage, thank, and you shall receive without end.” Behind every great company there is a skillful CEO with grateful and honest intentions. If you are a present, encouraging, and gracious CEO, then your company (your life) will be successful.