Full Throttle Gratitude: Week Four

Well, nothing really stood out for me in the final week of this experiment. Overall, I'd call the whole thing a success because anything that results in cheap shoes is always a success. I'm going to keep it up for a least a year to see if there are more shifts and fun stuff. This month I am going to attempt to add actively not complaining about money to amp it up and see what happens.

Full Throttle Gratitude: Week 3

This week can be summed up with one word: resistance. It made me grateful for sleep and all things related to sleep. Pillows and beds are awesome! The experiment rolls on....

Full Throttle Gratitude: the Second Week

The second week has been a lot easier for me to be in a space of gratitude. The magic is happening.

Three of my favorite things I'm grateful for this week:
1) Having the Hydro (power) bill show up already paid. There's even a credit left on the account. This wasn't a surprise because it was the result of a rebate I received for installing a new furnace. It's still super fun!
2) Someone asking if they can rent the garage for storage. I hadn't even thought of renting it out.
3) I bought 3 pairs of shoes for $15 (plus tax). And I used a gift card so it's like free shoes. Woot!

I can't wait to see what week 3 brings. I think I might extend this experiment from a month to a year. A year of full throttle gratitude sounds super fun.

Full Throttle Gratitude: The First Week

This week has really reminded me of how the more grateful you are, the more you have to be grateful for.

Two stand out events that increased my gratitude:
1) There was a fire in the parking lot next door. I felt so much gratitude for my neighbors who saw it before I did and the firemen who came quickly to put it out. No one was hurt and it didn't spread to any houses in the neighborhood. Simply put, if you are living in a house (or any building really) that isn't on fire you really have so much to be grateful for.
2) My nephew was born this week. He's a healthy, happy, little poop machine.

This week has also reminded me that no matter how much it seems like my head is resisting focusing on what I'm grateful for it doesn't have to stop me. Gratitude resides in the heart of a person, a moment, a situation.

Full Throttle Gratitude: Day One and Two

Day One: Gratitude is easy, awesome and fun

On the first day of this experiment I felt so inspired and energized. I was definitely feeling the flow and already felt a positive shift from focusing on things I am grateful for. Things were working out with ease. I was even productive.

Day Two: Gratitude is haaaaard!

Today, I feel whiny and resistant. A part of me seems to really likes stress, procrastination and resistance. But I don't have to feel inspired and full of energy to be grateful. I can just be grateful that I'm not whiny every day. ha. And I can be grateful for my humanness.

30 Days of Full Throttle Gratitude

Lately, I'm finding that I really need a shift for the better in my life. It's not like things are bad. I just have a case of the blahs and feel a need for a positive change. And, like we all know, change comes from within. And, like I know, but tend to forget, gratitude creates magical changes. Sometimes it's like I have the keys to every door I want to open in my hands, but I have to try banging them open with my head just to see if that will ever work.

Anyway, I decided that for the next 30 days I am going to focus on being grateful. But I'm not going to write down 5 things a day that I'm grateful for or think about what I'm grateful for when I wake up. I am going to attempt to focus the majority of my thoughts on gratitude for the next 30 days. My intent is not to become a gratitude robot, but rather to connect with the general rich, colourful, joyful, magical, pronoiac awesomeness of life. This is not about being grateful because I have to be or because it will possibly get me cool stuff. It's about being annoyed by my own doubts, fears and general negativity and wanting to deliberately focus on something else.

And other than my reports on this blog, I plan to not tell anyone about this. I want to see what kind of shifts this creates in the world around me. I want to see if anyone notices a difference in me without being told they should be noticing a difference. I want to see how this changes what shows up in my life. I basically want to do a fun manifestation experiment just because I can.

20 Words to Change Your Life

I am 100% responsible for this article

I love pretty much everything that has to do with the Law of Attraction, The Secret, What the Bleep, etc. I am both flaky and nutty (and a little bit chewy). But the one idea that gets on my nerves is that everyone is 100% responsible for everything that they attract into their lives. It always brings up the following four things in my mind (yes, my brain organizes my thoughts in numbered lists. It's quite handy):

1) Hurricanes. Specifically Hurricane Katrina. I think if I was stranded on my roof and someone said it was something I attracted into my life I would punch them in the nose and ask why they attracted that.

2) My Dad's death. My Dad's illness and death was a period filled with heartbreaking suffering and incredible grace. The idea that either of those things were connected to something I did or thought just does not work in my brain. There are simply events in life that aren't about you and aren't meant to be taken personally.

3) A class I took on Buddhism. The teacher talked about how spiritual techniques don't always work in the physical world. Sure, there are some monks who probably could meditate their way out of a burning building, but since they're enlightened they know the quickest way out is to run.

4) It stikes me as being cartoon villian level nacissism and arrogance. It just takes too much energy to be under the delusion that I have that much control. I will however take 100% responsibility for creating chocolate cheesecake. That was definitely all me.

Creating Success in 2009

The other day I was reading through and adding to my Success List to put myself into a successful frame of mind going into 2009. I was amazed by three things: 1) how much my definition of success has changed over the ten plus years I've been keeping a success list; 2) how many goals I've completely forgotten about achieving; and 3) that, even though 2008 was an extremely stressful, challenging year at times, I had a ton of things to add to my list.

I just started a new notebook for my success list and my intention is to fill it up in 2009. And to make it even funner I also got a bunch of Way to go! stickers to decorate my list with.

Gratitude and Intention Exercise

I recently listened to a tele-seminar by Rich German and in it he talked about a great exercise he calls the 10-10 exercise. It involves writing down 10 things you're grateful for and 10 things you intend to create every day for at least 30 days. I've been playing with this for about a month now and I've noticed that there's more ease and flow in my life. I also feel more focused on creating what I truly want without having to push myself to take action. It's like I've just turned on a faucet within me and action is flowing out like water. Which works so much better than trying to talk the faucet into giving me water.