If you had no money in the bank, how rich would your life be?
Abundance has nothing to do with your bank account, despite what our culture might have you believe. That feeling of ‘plenty’, of having a cornucopia of riches being poured onto you, comes from a deep sense of inner wealth. How do we cultivate such prosperity? The answer is so simple that most people reject it. True abundance rests on a solid foundation of gratitude.
How often do you give thanks for the ground you walk upon, or the car you drive? Do you wake up and give thanks for your life partner (or the joy of being single)? And what of your body, how often (despite your current state of health) do you stop and say “thank you”? What of your home? It protects you from the weather, and gives you a place of privacy from the world? When did you last say “Thank you, home”? Do you have friends in your life? Do you ever tell them what they mean to you?
Perhaps you’re sitting on a bunch of unpaid bills, or have a negative bank balance. Can you say thank you to your creditors for trusting in your ability to pay? Can you give thanks for what you do have in your life? If you’re reading this, you have a computer or access to one. That means you’re not homeless. It means that you’ll almost certainly have something to eat in your home, or know someone who can give you a meal. Look. Look hard. Look around you. Abundance is everywhere. Go and give thanks, and feel that genuine gratitude reach into the furthest edges of the Universe. Fill your heart with a joy so overwhelming that manifesting more good in your life is the only option.
We are living, breathing, vibrating, attracting magnets. Want more money? Give thanks for the abundance around you. Want better health? Be kind to your body, and say thank you every day for all it does for you. Want more love? Start with loving yourself. Every relationship you will ever have begins here. Don’t expect a soul mate to turn up and rescue you if you treat yourself shabbily. Love yourself into full being, and you will attract a love so great that you’ll pinch yourself every day.
We naturally enhance our energetic resonance and amplify our vibration every time we give thanks.
Gratitude is the foundation of my life. It hasn’t always been this way.
I live an undiluted life, something which I have consciously crafted over the years. It means that I have spent a lot of time investing in myself. Our culture teaches us to invest in an assortment of things, but how often do you get advice to invest in you? My school teachers certainly never taught me that.
What does my investment look like? It is about every time I do something which nurtures or nourishes me, whether it’s going to bed before I am utterly exhausted, or taking a long walk in the woods.
It might be sitting under the plum trees to read a book, or standing under the waxing Moon in silence. Sometimes it’s about slowing down to sit in the garden with a cup of tea, doing nothing but listening to the birdsong and feeling the sunshine on my skin. I invest in myself by keeping good company, and allowing laughter to be a daily vitamin! Investments also include plenty of time for daydreaming, listening to music I enjoy, and watching the sunrise. It means creating meals which are delicious and nourish my body. The more I give to myself, the higher my vibration. Every time I love myself enough to indulge in my pleasures, I am helping make the world a better place. Why? How? When we walk through this world with a sense of gratitude and contentment, we are always going to make positive, healthy, life-affirming choices which have a ripple effect. We don’t need to see how far those ripples extend, only that they do.
At secondary school, I was the student voted by teachers as most likely to fail in life. This was almost certainly because I spent more time wagging (playing truant) and heading off to the river to swim naked with the boys than I did at school. It still makes me laugh.
Silly fools! What is success? Indeed, what is failure? I reached A grades for Swedish, Catering, Drama and English. Who gives a toss that I got Es for Science and Maths? That I was kicked out of biology class for drawing love hearts instead of dissecting frogs should have been an indicator of my life’s path! A wise teacher would have seen far into the future that I’d one day live in a House of Hearts, and that I’d be, amongst other things, a marriage celebrant. So, perhaps even back than, I recognised the power of love above all else.
I’m 48 years old. So what if I don’t have a high-flying career or own a house in the Hamptons? Who cares that I don’t earn £100 000 a year?
My life is rich beyond measure. My life is not based on the sound of an alarm clock telling me to go and sell my soul. I have the freedom to potter in my garden and work from home. This morning, I came back from the gym and planted wildflower seeds under the butterfly bushes before starting work. The joy that gave me, and knowing the riot of colour that will manifest in that part of the garden, isn’t something I’d trade for a ‘normal’ life.
I have the luxury of recognising that I’d rather attract my ideal clients than have ones I don’t resonate with. That, of course, will inevitably mean fewer clients, but if the goal is living with integrity then I can tell you the path is all the more richer. As an independent author, I am free to write the books that live in my heart, rather than trying to fit into a traditional publisher’s definition of what a book should be like.
My younger daughter leaves home in three months. That my husband and I have raised two daughters to adulthood who are healthy, independent and oozing with creativity simply amazes me. If this is my life’s work, then I don’t believe I have failed.
After twenty one years with my husband, I can honestly say he still makes me laugh more than a dozen times each day. That I feel giddy with joy when he smiles at me is something no school report card could have predicted.
When I was nineteen years old, I had several past life regressions. One of the things I really appreciated was when the lady who was facilitating me decided that instead of focusing on the past, I should look into my future.
It was so odd. There was a man with stubble (I had no idea how much I would come to love stubble!), and two daughters playing in the snow. Snow seemed like an alien concept given I was living in South Australia where it can get to 40C in the Summer.
So here I am, with two daughters and a man with stubble, living in a place which snows each Winter.
My life hasn’t always felt joyous. Contentment has been an evolution. The journey has required daily inner work: a spiritual practice of taking 100% responsibility for my life, and primarily my thoughts.
I find myself thinking from time to time that if I were to die now, that would be perfectly okay. I’m happy. Could it be that I’ve reached the inner pinnacle of success?
There are of course a lot of reasons to hang about and play on Earth for another forty or fifty years: to watch my children’s lives unfold, enjoy time with my husband, meet my grandchild/ren, write more books, travel, and mostly, to sit in the sunshine and watch the cat chase insects as he scampers across the lawn daisies.
My undiluted life has come about because I learnt to recognise everything that brings me pleasure, and to self medicate with these gems every day: a hug, my husband’s fab coffee, sunshine, cello music, exercise, gardening, creating food to nourish my family, laughing, spending time with friends, reading, listening to my husband sing in the shower, chatting with my daughters, writing books and articles, creating ceremonies, reading astrology charts.
I have created a beautiful life for myself. My greatest wish for my daughters is that they can do this for themselves. I hope I’ve been enough of a role model for them.
I said to a friend at the gym this morning, that I only have one goal: to live a peaceful life. Each day, I make choices that contribute to my inner calm.
So, I’m not a doctor or a lawyer. I haven’t changed the world. There’ll be no obituary in a national paper when I die. But you know what? I don’t care, because I do believe I have touched the face of Happiness, and there is no higher purpose. #creatingabeautifullife
