If at any time during the day you forget to say the magic words, thank you, before you eat or drink anything, as soon as you remember, close your eyes, go back in your mind to the time when you forgot, visualize yourself in your mind for a second or two before you ate or drank, and say the magic words. If you forget to be grateful for food and drinks multiple times in the day, then repeat this same practice tomorrow. You can’t afford to miss a single day in building your gratitude – your dreams depend upon it!
Being grateful for the simple things in life, like food and water, is one of the deepest expressions of gratitude, and when you can feel that degree of gratitude, you will see the magic happen.
Magic Practice Number 8
The Magic Ingredient
Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write why you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say thank you, thank you, thank you, and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
Before you eat or drink anything today, take a moment to look at what you’re about to eat or drink, and in your mind or out loud, say the magic words, thank you! If you want you can sprinkle your food or drink with magic dust.
Just before you go to sleep tonight, hold your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words, thank you, for the best thing that happened during the day.
Day 9
The Money Magnet
“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)
LUTHERAN PASTOR
Gratitude is riches and complaint is poverty; it’s the golden rule of your whole life, whether it’s your health, job, relationships, or money. The more grateful you can be for the money you have, even if you don’t have very much, the more riches you will receive. And the more you complain about money, the poorer you will become.
Today’s magical practice turns one of the biggest reasons people complain about money into an act of gratitude, and so it has double the power to change the circumstances of your money; you’ll be replacing a complaint, which makes you poorer, with gratitude, which magically brings you riches.
Most people wouldn’t think they complain about money, but if there is a lack of money in their life they are complaining without realizing it. Complaining happens through people’s thoughts as well as their words, and most people aren’t aware of the many thoughts in their head. Any complaining, negative, jealous, or worried thoughts or words about money are literally creating poverty. And of course the biggest complaints come when money has to be paid out.
If you don’t have enough money, paying your bills can be one of the most difficult things to do. It can seem like there is a greater stream of bills than there is money to pay them. But if you complain about your bills then what you are really doing is complaining about money, and complaining keeps you in poverty.
If you don’t have enough money, the last thing you would normally do is feel grateful for your bills, but in fact that’s exactly what you have to do to receive more money in your life. To have a rich life, you must be grateful for everything to do with money, and begrudging your bills is not being grateful. You must do the exact opposite, which is to be grateful for the goods or services you’ve received from those who billed you. It is such a simple thing to do, but it will have a monumental effect on the money in your life. You will literally become a money magnet!
To be grateful for a bill, think about how much you’ve benefited from the service or goods on the bill. If it’s payment for rent or a mortgage, be grateful that you have a home, and you’re living in it. What if the only way you could live in a home was by saving up all the money and paying cash for it? What if there was no such thing as lending institutions or places to rent? Most of us would be living on the streets, so be grateful to the lending institutions or your landlord, because they have made it possible for you to live in a home or apartment.
If you’re paying a bill for gas or electricity, think about the heating or cooling you received, the hot showers, and every appliance you were able to use because of the service. If you’re paying a phone or Internet bill, imagine how difficult your life would be if you had to travel vast distances to talk to each person individually. Think about how many times you’ve been able to call family and friends, send and receive emails, or access information instantly through the Internet because of your service provider. All of these remarkable services are at your fingertips, so be grateful for them, and be grateful that the companies trust you by providing their services before you have paid for them.
Ever since I discovered the phenomenal power of gratitude, I write the magic words, “Thank you – Paid,” on every bill as I pay it, and I never miss a single one. At the beginning, when I didn’t have the money to pay a bill, I would still use gratitude’s magical power, and would instead write across the bill, “Thank you for the money.” Then when I had the money to pay it, I would add, “Thank you – Paid.”
Today you are going to do the same. Take any currently unpaid bills you have, and use gratitude’s magical power by writing across them, “Thank you for the money,” and feel grateful for having the money to pay the bill, whether you have it or not. If you receive and pay most of your bills online, then when you receive an online bill forward it to yourself as an email and write in the subject line in capital bold letters, THANK YOU FOR THE MONEY.
Next, find ten bills you’ve paid in the past and write across the front of each one the magic words, “Thank you – Paid.” As you write on each paid bill, feel as grateful as you possibly can that you had the money to pay the bill. The more gratitude you can harness for the bills you’ve paid, the more money you will magically magnetize to you!
From this day forward, you could make it your regular practice that whenever you pay a bill, you briefly think about the great service you’ve received from the bill, and write across the face of the bill the magic words, “Thank you – Paid.” And if you don’t have the money to pay a bill, use gratitude’s magical power and write, “Thank you for the money,” and feel as if you’re saying thank you because you have the money to pay the bill!
Feeling gratitude for the money you’ve paid out guarantees you will receive more. Gratitude is like a magnetic golden thread attached to your money, so when you pay money out, the money always returns to you, sometimes equally, sometimes tenfold, sometimes a hundredfold. The abundance you receive back depends not on how much money you give, but on how much gratitude you give. You could have so much gratitude when you pay a bill for fifty dollars that you could receive back hundreds of dollars.
Magic Practice Number 9
The Money Magnet
Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write why you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say thank you, thank you, thank you, and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
Take any current unpaid bills you have, use gratitude’s magical power, and write across each one: Thank you for the money. Feel grateful for having the money to pay the bill, whether you have it or not.
Take ten bills you’ve paid in the past, and write across the front of each one of them the magic words: “Thank you – Paid.” Feel truly grateful that you had the money to pay the bill!
Before you go to sleep, take your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words, thank you, for the best thing that happened during the day.
Day 10
Magic Dust Everyone
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
Saint Ambrose (AD 340–397)
THEOLOGIAN AND CATHOLIC BISHOP
Ancient spiritual teachings say that what we give to another person with a full heart returns to us a hundredfold. So being grateful and saying thank you to another person for anything you receive from them is not only urgent, it’s vital to improving your life!
Gratitude is a powerful energy, and so whomever you direct gratitude’s energy toward, that’s where it goes. If you think
of gratitude’s energy looking like sparkling magic dust, then when you express gratitude to another person in return for something you’ve received from them, you are literally sprinkling them with that magic dust! The powerful, positive energy in magic dust reaches and affects whomever you sprinkle it on.
Most of us make contact with many people every day, whether on the phone, through email, or face to face at work, in stores, restaurants, elevators, buses, or trains, and in many cases the people we make contact with deserve our gratitude, because we are receiving something from them.
Think about the people you encounter on a typical day who provide you with some kind of service, like those working in stores or restaurants, bus or cab drivers, customer service people, cleaners, or the staff at your work. The people who work in service are giving themselves to serve you, and you’re receiving their service. If you don’t say thank you in return for their service, then you’re not being grateful, and you’re stopping the good from coming into your life.
Think about the maintenance workers who keep our transport systems working safely, and those who maintain the service of utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and our roads.
Think about the cleaners of the world who clean our streets, public bathrooms, trains, buses, airplanes, hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets, and office buildings. You can’t personally say thank you to all of them, but you can sprinkle them with magic dust by saying thank you next time you pass one of them. And you can be grateful next time you sit at your clean desk, or walk on a clean sidewalk, or across a polished floor.
When you’re at a café or restaurant, sprinkle magic dust by saying thank you to each person as they serve you. Whether cleaning the table, giving you the menu, receiving your order, filling your glass with water, serving the meal you ordered, clearing the table, giving you the bill, or giving your change, remember to say thank you every single time. If you’re in a store or supermarket checkout, sprinkle magic dust and say thank you to the person who serves you or packs your groceries.
If you are traveling by plane, sprinkle magic dust by saying thank you to the check-in people, the people in security, the person who checks your ticket as you board, and the cabin crew who greet you as you enter the plane. During the flight, say thank you to the cabin crew every time they perform a service for you. Serving drinks and food or removing your plate or trash is a service. The airline thanks you for flying with them, the captain thanks you, and the crew thank you, so do the same and thank them as you leave the plane. And every time you take off and land at your destination say thank you, because the fact that you can fly is an absolute miracle!
Be grateful to those people who assist you in your work, whether they are clerical staff, receptionists, canteen staff, cleaners, customer service people, or any of your work colleagues. Magic dust them all with thank you! All of them are doing you a service, and they deserve your continued gratitude in return.
Store assistants, waiters, and waitresses work very hard to serve people. They have chosen a job to serve other people, and serving the public means encountering all kinds of people in varying moods, including those who are ungrateful. Next time you are being served by another person, remember that the person who is serving you is a precious daughter or son to parents, an irreplaceable brother or sister to siblings, a mother or father to a family and children, and a loved and adored partner or friend, and they deserve your kindness and patience.
At times you may encounter a person in service who behaves rudely toward you or doesn’t give you the attention you think you deserve. It may be more challenging to be grateful in these situations, but your gratitude cannot be dependent on another person’s behavior. Choose to be grateful no matter what! Choose magic in your life no matter what! It might help you to remember that you don’t know what difficulty someone might be going through at the time you connect with him or her. They may be feeling unwell, they may have just lost a loved one, their marriage might have just ended, or they may be in desperation and at a tipping point in their life. Your gratitude and kindness might be the most magical thing that happens to them that day.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Philo of Alexandria (circa 20 BC–AD 50)
PHILOSOPHER
If you thank someone on the phone for his or her help, don’t throw away your thank you; instead, give the reason why you’re grateful. For example, “Thank you for your help.” “Thank you for going out of your way for me.” “Thank you for giving me so much of your time.” “Thank you for resolving the situation for me, I’m very grateful to you.” You will be amazed at the response from the other person when you do this one simple thing, because they will feel your sincerity.
When you say thank you to someone in person, look at his or her face. They will not feel your gratitude or receive your magic dust unless you look directly at them. You’ve wasted an opportunity to help that person and to change your own life if you say thank you to the air, or say thank you as you’re looking down, or thank you while you’re on your cell phone, because you’re not really sincere when you do that.
A couple of years ago I was in a store buying a gift for my sister. The store assistant who served me listened to what I was looking for, and then went on a search for the perfect gift as though it was for her sister! As the store assistant handed me the bag containing the perfect, beautifully wrapped gift, I received a call on my cell phone. I was finishing the call when I reached the front entrance of the store, and suddenly an unsettled feeling swept over me. I immediately returned to the store assistant who had helped me, and I not only thanked her, but I told her all the reasons why I was grateful to her, and how much I appreciated everything she did for me. I showered her with gratitude’s magic dust! Her eyes filled with tears, and the biggest smile you’ve ever seen swept across her face.
Every action always has an equal reaction. If you really mean it when you say thank you, the other person will feel it, and you will not only have made another person feel really good, but your gratitude will fill you with an indescribable happiness. That day I walked out of the store indescribably happy.
I don’t use magic dust only for the people who serve; I use gratitude’s magic dust in all kinds of situations. When I say goodbye to my daughter before she drives to her home, I feel gratitude for her having arrived home safely, and I wave my fingers in the air and imagine sprinkling magic dust over her and her car. Sometimes I sprinkle magic dust on my computer before I begin a new project, or sprinkle magic dust ahead of me before I walk into a store to look for something in particular that I need. My daughter uses magic dust when she’s driving, and if she sees another driver who seems to be stressed and is speeding, she sprinkles magic dust over them to help make them feel better and keep them safe.
Today, take gratitude’s magic dust with you for the people who work in service, and look for every opportunity you can to sprinkle magic dust on everyone by saying thank you. Thank at least ten people who perform different services you benefit from today. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the opportunity to do it in person; you can mentally acknowledge the people whose service you benefit from. The magic dust will still reach them. As an example, mentally say to yourself:
I’m really grateful to the cleaners who work through the early hours of the morning, making sure that the streets are cleaned of trash every day. I’ve never really thought about how grateful I am for that service, which is done like clockwork every day. Thank you.
Make sure you keep count of the people in service you are grateful for, so that you know when you have thanked ten different people for their services and sprinkled magic dust on them all. If you imagine the sparkling magic dust falling over people when you thank them, you have a picture of what really happens in the invisible with the power of gratitude. With this picture in your mind, it will help you to believe and know that the magic dust of gratitude really does reach people, and that it will be available to help them to i
mprove their lives. And every time you sprinkle magic dust over another person, it also returns to you in your own life.
If you’re at home today, then sit down with a pen and journal or on your computer, and go back in your mind recalling instances where people in service went out of their way for you. It may have been someone on the phone, or it may have been a tradesperson who was determined to resolve a problem for you. Maybe you’ve received great service from your mail person, the trash collectors or recycling companies, or local store assistants. Make a written list of ten instances where people in service helped you, and send magic dust by saying thank you to every one of them.
Magic Reminder
Read through tomorrow’s practice today, because the practice for Day 11 begins when you first wake up.
Magic Practice Number 10
Magic Dust Everyone
Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write why you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say thank you, thank you, thank you, and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
Today, sprinkle magic dust on ten people who perform services you benefit from, by thanking them directly or otherwise by mentally acknowledging and thanking them. Feel grateful to them for the service they perform!
Just before you go to sleep tonight, hold your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words, thank you, for the best thing that happened during the day.
Read through tomorrow’s practice today, because the practice for Day 11 begins when you first wake up.
Day 11
A Magic Morning