The Magic (3 page)

When you discover how little practice it takes, how easy it is to incorporate gratitude into your daily life, and when you see the magical results for yourself, you will never want to return to the life you used to live.

If you practice gratitude a little, your life will change a little. If you practice gratitude a lot every day, your life will change dramatically and in ways that you can hardly imagine.

A Magical Book

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)
35TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

In this book, there are 28 magical practices that have been specifically designed so that you learn how to use gratitude’s magical power to revolutionize your health, money, job, and relationships, and to make your smallest desires and your biggest dreams come true. You will also learn how to practice gratitude to dissolve problems and transform any negative situation.

You will be captivated while you read this life-changing knowledge, but without practicing what you learn, the knowledge will slip through your fingers, and the opportunity that you attracted to easily change your life will be gone. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, you need to practice gratitude over 28 days, so that you impregnate your cells and your subconscious mind with it. Only then will it change your life – permanently.

The practices are designed to be completed over 28 consecutive days. This allows you to make gratitude a habit and a new way of life. Practicing gratitude in a concentrated effort over consecutive days guarantees that you will see the magic take place in your life – and fast!

Within each magical practice is a wealth of secret teachings that will expand your knowledge in tremendous ways. In each practice you will understand more and more about how life works, and how easy it is to have the life you’ve dreamed of.

The first twelve practices use the magical power of gratitude for what you have now and for what you’ve received in the past, because unless you’re grateful for what you have, and what you’ve received, the magic won’t work and you won’t receive more. These first twelve practices will set the magic of gratitude into motion immediately.

The next ten practices use the magical power of gratitude for your desires, dreams, and everything you want. Through these ten practices you will be able to make your dreams come true, and you will see the circumstances of your life magically change!

The last six practices take you to a whole new level, where you will be saturating gratitude into every cell of your body and mind. You will learn how to use gratitude’s magical power to help other people, dissolve problems, and improve any negative situation or circumstance you may encounter throughout your life.

You don’t need to clear your calendar, because each of the practices has been specifically created to fit into your everyday life, whether it’s workdays, weekends, holidays, or vacations. Gratitude is portable – you take it with you wherever
you
go, and then wherever
you
go, the magic happens!

If you miss a day, you will most likely lose the momentum of what you have done. To ensure that you don’t reduce the magic, if you miss a day, count back three days and repeat the practices again from there.

Some practices are designed for the morning, and others are designed to do throughout the day, so read each day’s practice first thing in the morning. Some practices will need to be read the night before because they begin when you wake, and I will tell you when to do this. You might want to read the next day’s practice every night before you go to sleep, in order to be prepared. If you do, make sure to reread the practice again in the morning.

If you don’t want to follow the 28 magical practices consecutively, you can also use them in other ways. You could choose one magical practice that addresses an important subject in your life that you want to change or improve, and you could do that practice three days in a row or every day for a week. Or you could do one magical practice a week, or two practices a week, the only difference being that it will take you longer to see the changes in your life.

After the 28 Days

Once you’ve completed the 28 magical practices, you can use particular practices to increase the magic where or when you have a specific need, such as for health or money, or if you want to receive your dream job, have increased success in your work, or improve a relationship. Or to continue the practice of gratitude you can open this book at random, and whichever practice you open to is the one you attracted, so it’s the perfect one to do that day.

At the end of the 28 magical practices, there are also recommendations of practices you can use in combination, which will accelerate the magic in specific areas of your life.

Can you overdo gratitude? Never! Can your life become too magical? Hardly! Use the practices over and over, so that gratitude seeps into your consciousness and becomes second nature to you. After 28 days you will have rewired your brain, and implanted gratitude in your subconscious mind, where it is automatically the first thing that comes to your mind in any situation. The magic you experience will be your inspiration, because as you incorporate gratitude into your days, they will be nothing short of spectacular!

What Are Your Dreams?

Many of the magical practices are designed to help you achieve your dreams. Therefore, you need to get clear about what you
really
want.

Sit down with a computer or pen and paper and make a list of what you really want in every area of your life. Think through every detail of what you want to be, do, or have in your life – in your relationships, career, finances, health, and every area that is important to you. You can be as specific and detailed as you like, but remember your job is simply to list what you want, not how you’re going to get what you want. The “how” will be done
for
you when gratitude works its magic.

If you want a better job, or your dream job, then think about everything you want the job to be. Think about the things that are important to you, such as the type of work you want to do, how you want to feel in your job, the type of company you want to work for, the kind of people you want to work with, the hours you want to work, where you want your job to be, and the salary you want to receive. Get very clear about what you want in the job by thinking it through thoroughly and writing all the details down.

If you want money to educate your children, work out the details of their education, including which school you want your children to attend, the cost of the school fees, books, food, clothing, and transportation, so that you know exactly how much money you will need.

If you want to travel, then write down the details of the countries you want to visit, how long you want to travel for, what you want to see and do, where you want to stay, and the means by which you want to travel.

If you want a perfect partner, then write down every detail of the characteristics you want that person to have. If you want improved relationships, write down the relationships you want to improve, and what you want them to be like.

If you want more health, or an improved bodily condition, be specific about what ways you want to improve your health or body. If you want a dream home, then list every detail of what you want the home to be, room by room. If there are specific material things you want, like a car, clothes, or appliances, write them down.

If you want to achieve something, such as passing an exam, getting a degree, a goal in sports, succeeding as a musician, doctor, writer, actor, scientist, or businessperson, or whatever it is you would like to achieve, write it down and be as specific as possible.

I would strongly urge you to find the time to maintain a list of your dreams throughout your life. Write down the little things, the big things, or what you want this moment, this month, or this year. As you think of more things add them to the list, and as you receive things, cross them off the list. An easy way to do a list of what you want is to divide it into categories of:

Health and body

Career and work

Money

Relationships

Personal desires

Material things

And then just add the things you want to each category.

When you get clear about the things you want, you are giving a definite direction to the way you want gratitude’s magical power to change your life, and you are ready to begin the most exciting and thrilling adventure you’ve ever been on!

Day 1

Count Your Blessings

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

Willie Nelson (B. 1933)
SINGER-SONGWRITER

You will have heard people say to count your blessings, and when you think about the things you’re grateful for, that’s exactly what you’re doing. But what you may not have realized is that counting your blessings is one of the most powerful practices you can ever do, and it will magically turn your whole life around!

When you’re grateful for the things you have, no matter how small they may be, you will see those things instantly increase. If you’re grateful for the money you have, however little, you will see your money magically grow. If you’re grateful for a relationship, even if it’s not perfect, you will see it miraculously get even better. If you’re grateful for the job that you have, even if it’s not your dream job, things will begin to change so that you enjoy your job more, and all kinds of opportunities for your work will suddenly appear.

The flipside is that when we’re not counting our blessings, we can fall into the trap of unintentionally counting negative things. We count negative things when we talk about the things we don’t have. We count negative things when we criticize or find fault with other people, when we complain about traffic, waiting in lines, delays, the government, not enough money, or the weather. When we count negative things they increase too, but on top of that, with every negative thing we count, we cancel out blessings that were on their way. I have tried both – counting my blessings and counting negative things – and I can assure you that counting your blessings is the only way to have abundance in your life.

“Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles.”

Maltbie D. Babcock (1858–1901)
WRITER AND CLERGYMAN

First thing in the morning, or as early in the day as you can, Count Your Blessings. You can write out your list by hand, type it on a computer, or use a special book or journal and keep all of your gratitude in one place. Today, you are going to make a simple list of ten blessings in your life you are grateful for.

When Einstein gave thanks, he thought about
why
he was grateful. When you think about the reason
why
you’re grateful for a particular thing, person, or situation, you will feel gratitude more deeply. Remember that the magic of gratitude happens according to the degree of your feeling! So with each item on your list write the reason why you’re grateful for it.

Here are some ideas for writing your list:

• I am truly blessed to have
         what?       
  ,
  because
         why?       
  .
  
• I am so happy and grateful for
         what?       
  ,
  because
         why?       
  .
  
• I am truly grateful for
         what?       
  ,
  because
         why?       
  .
  
• With all my heart, thank you for
         what?       
  ,
  because
         why?       
  .