By Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones
What You Focus On Increases
“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend…when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present – love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure –the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
With Thanksgiving approaching quickly, are you ready to raise the altitude of your attitude of gratitude? In some Eastern teachings, they proclaim we are all born with the “seed potential” of all possibilities and that it is the seeds we nurture with our energy of focused attention that come to fruition. It is no secret that what we focus our attention upon rises in the field of our awareness and tends to become part of our experience. In challenging times (including a pandemic), the tendency for many of us is to stare at what seems to be missing – or what’s wrong – rather than the good that lies right in front of us. Practicing conscious gratitude activates and directs the creative energy of life that nurtures the seed potential within, which contains the spiritual DNA of a life worth living.
For most of us, expressing conscious gratitude is not something we generally “remember” to do because the collective consciousness obsesses on staring at what is missing in our lives. We can transcend the vortex and gravitational pull of the collective consciousness with the conscious practice of gratitude; it’s just a matter of remembering to remember. William A. Ward wrote, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, ‘Thank you?’” When you think about it, a second or two is all that takes to practice gratitude. Who doesn’t have at least a few seconds to spare each day for such a powerful practice…?
As we go into this holiday season with the observation of Thanksgiving, I would like to give you a gift that will help raise the altitude of your attitude of gratitude, and keep it there. It’s a free 30-day Gratitude Abundance journal which you can download from my website at www.dennismerrittjones.com/gratitude. I invite you to print a copy of the journal and use it mindfully. Better yet, print out several of them and pass them out to friends and family. I detail the suggestions on how to use the journal on the inside front cover. If you begin the journal the week of Thanksgiving, it will take you into the weeks of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas soaring on high with gratitude.
Some say that with clear intention we can form a new habit in three to four weeks. What better habit could we have than to live daily, naturally focusing on what is good about our lives? With a little effort, “thanks living” can become a conscious practice every day of the year – we don’t have to wait until the fourth Thursday in November each year to be reminded of how blessed we truly are. Perhaps Meister Eckhart put it most simply and most eloquently when he wrote, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” I encourage you to join with me in making “thank you” your mantra for the next 30 days and witness an infinite, expanding, abundant universe at work; what you focus on increases. Your 86,400 seconds begin now!
I consider Peter and Renee Roos – and those who read Paradise News (including you) – my extended family. In the midst of all that has transpired in the past year-and-a-half may we all remember how important family and friends really are and make room in our minds and hearts to express our gratitude daily. Thank you for being part of my family!
Peace, Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones
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