Can the Practice of Gratitude Make us Wealthy?

Well, I don’t know if we can become wealthy by simply practicing gratitude. But I do know that the practice of proactive gratitude can heal our relationship with money and can increase our experience of prosperity in all areas including financial.

Here’s how it works.  First, be grateful for every dollar that comes in.  A consciousness of gratitude in regards to our income helps us to see that money is Divine energy in motion. We begin to see the amount – no matter how small it may be – as evidence of substance rather than a symbol of lack.  By allowing a feeling our gratitude to fill our consciousness we understanding that behind that substance we see with our eyes, lies ever-present, limitless, all-providing good.  Our gratitude opens us up to receive more.

Secondly, when we exchange that money for goods and services by paying our bills, we can express our gratitude once again.  How blessed we are to be able to afford a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and heat in our homes (not to mention all the extras like computers and cars and iPhones, that the majority of the world’s population will never know.)

After practicing this for a while you will begin to develop an awareness that earning an income, buying goods and services and perhaps sharing our good with others is participating in a Divine positive energy exchange.  We feel like active participants in this positive energy exchange and we begin to activate the law of circulation in our lives – opening the floodgates for more good to flow into our lives.

Try this and prove it to yourself.  You will witness your relationship with money transform and your experience of prosperity increase!

Sunday Morning Series: Building a New Awareness Pt. 2

In my last post I talked about how powerful our false core beliefs can be in choking off our good.  So, now what?  How do we effectively eliminate them so that our highest vision for our lives can be realized?

Well, there are some good methods which include one I always recommend: journaling  which helps to get at the root of the belief — where did that belief originate?  Another good way is to just be a witness to the belief as it shows up in your speech, your feelings, and your behaviors.  A method I do with clients in Spiritual Coaching takes it a little more deeply and we do a ritual together that is completed with a burning ceremony.

However, the way that David Owen Ritz (the author of Keys to the Kingdom program on which this talk was based) assert that it is not necessary to do anything with false beliefs, but simply to build our realization of our unity and oneness with God.  The idea here is that a larger idea –an idea of Truth — is more powerful than any limited idea.  Ritz says, “Every circumstance or condition in your life that has been created by a false belief can be healed and transformed by an awareness of Truth – often instantaneously.”  I still maintain that our deeply embedded core beliefs must be address and healed first.  Only then can ideas of Truth take root in our subconscious.

However, we can begin now to build an awareness that we are Divine beings already whole, complete, beloved, abundant and worthy of all good.  There is indeed a part of us that has never been fooled by our false or limited beliefs.  Our higher self knows our full potential.  That’s the place where the highest vision for our lives resides.  And that’s why it’s important to be working with your vision – writing it out, meditating on it and affirming it daily.

Ritz says, “The personal vision that you are building is far more than just a new belief or two about abundance.  It is actually an inner awareness of your true spiritual self and highest human and spiritual potential.  It is a set of wonderful new possibilities that the Universe wants to express through and as you.”  I love that.  Before I read through my vision for my life in the evening before going to sleep, I repeat those two sentences and really let them soak in.

So, in Keys to the Kingdom, Ritz define 7 “truths” that help us build that awareness and acceptance of the good we are claiming in our vision.  Let’s explore these 7 truths together.  

1.  God is the one and only source of your good.   This is really about understanding that the people, places and things in your life – your job, your investments, your business, your spouse’s income, your inheritance….those things are not the Source of your supply – they are channels through which your good flows into your life. God is the ultimate source acting through these channels.  When we look to the channels as our Source, we’re at their mercy.  You can lose your job, and then suddenly you have no income.  Your business or investments takes a downturn and then where are you?   Therefore, you must look to and depend upon God alone as the Source.  The infinite knows how to open other channels through which your good can flow – if you allow it.  The sacred act of tithing to the source of our spiritual support helps connect us with this truth – it acknowledges God as the Source.

2.  Abundance is a here-and-now Reality.    I know it doesn’t look like that now in many of our lives.  It might look like we are struggling to make ends meet, or that our savings accounts are lower than we’d like, or there just isn’t enough left after we’ve paid all our bills to do what we really want to do.  It looks like that.  But we’re confusing temporary “facts” with Divine Truth of infinite abundance.  Lack and limitation are only temporary human experiences that we are creating out of our own ignorance of the Truth. Temporary facts can never alter the greater reality.  Truth can be hidden by temporary facts, but it never changes it.  You can’t change the changeless.

We can train ourselves to see Divine abundance by noticing it in nature.  Can you count the number of leaves on a tree or…where I live in N. Carolina…trees in the forest? Can you count the number of grains of sand on the beach, or gallons of water in an ocean?  I use to love doing this exercise when I drove by orange groves in California.  The number of oranges on all those trees seemed limitless.  It’s such an affirmation of limitless supply.

Training ourselves to affirm the presence of Infinite abundance in nature, helps us see it even in the face of appearances to the contrary.  While the contents of your wallet or the amount in your checking account may appear limited – that’s a temporary fact, right?  Actually your wallet or checking account represents the limitless abundance which lies behind it.   When you think of that amount you can affirm: “This is a temporary fact.  My true Source is limitless.  That Source is right here and right now. I open to it now!”  This is good to do every time you sit down to pay bills.

3.  Abundance is inexhaustible.
A few posts ago I talked about the continual expansion of the universe and everything in nature – how plants continually come to fruition, and produce seed for the next generation of plants.  That’s what this point is all about.  Everything visible and in form originates from an invisible Source. The invisible is the realm of potential and possibilities.  Some refer to this as the Transcendent realm of the Divine.  As it comes into the realm of the visible, or form, it – by it’s very nature – is finite, temporary and constantly changing…but it’s still Spirit.  Some refer to this as Immanent.   God’s creative process is the endless dance between the two realms – the transcendent and the immanent – the formless and the form.   It’s that dance, or that flow that prospers us. Abundance is inexhaustible because the flow of Spirit is ceaseless.   And the more we can practice non-attachment to temporary physical things, the more we are dancing in that flow.  So learning to let go is key.  And I’ll talk more about that next week.

4.  God is meeting your every need at every moment according to your own acceptance.  This point has a lot to do with the Law of Circulation and how much we participate in that, or restrict it’s flow in our lives.  Ritz states:
“Your level of acceptance depends upon 2 things: What you give to life and how you give it.  The what can be your time, talent, financial resources, energy, attention, love – anything you bring to life.  The how is the attitude, intention and awareness that accompanies that which you give.  Together, these two things create the measure of your acceptance.”  We need to develop a deep and abiding trust that when we give of ourselves to life with joy, integrity and love – we are participating in the Law of Circulation – we are building our level of acceptance — and that energy will be returned to us multiplied and running over.

5.  Everyone deserves abundance.  Have you ever created a work of art that you were particularly proud of – whether it was a painting, sculpture, jewelry, or written a poem or a song, or built something, or put something together well – and when it was done you looked at it lovingly and with pride and maybe said, “I did that.  I created that.”  Have you had that experience?
I think that’s a little bit like how God thinks of us. God created us – we are a special piece of art only the mind of the Divine could create.  You can almost hear God saying about you when you were just born, “Wow, I created that.” With immense love and pride!  If you can feel the truth in that, you could never again believe that the Divine would ever withhold anything from you…from any of us.  You could never imagine God saying, “Wow, I created that…now I ordain that he or she suffer and struggle against adversity.”  No.  Not for any of us.

If we could see ourselves as God sees us — we could love ourselves as God loves us – completely and unconditionally.  This point is about loving ourselves completely and unconditionally. This may require some work in self-forgiveness, and that’s where a Spiritual Coach can be of help. In the meantime, breathe in the idea that God loves you so much and that you’ve already been given the Kingdom — from the moment of birth.

6.  Your vision is your inner awareness of your naturally abundant self.
Something inside you wants to push past your limiting beliefs and lift you into higher expression – your Higher Self wants you to be the person you were meant to be.  The Divine has great things in store for you.  And maybe you’re catching just a glimpse of that greatness now.  Once you do, there will be more. To live this truth, Ritz says, “you must be willing to risk personal greatness.”  Which for me means being willing to be the magnificent person you were created to be.

7. Your inner guidance will lead you toward the fulfillment of your vision.

Contained in every acorn is everything it needs to become a mighty oak tree.   The vision for it’s greatness is contained within the little seed – and everything necessary for it’s fulfillment.  It only needs a little soil, sun and water.  The same for us.  Everything necessary for us to realize our highest vision for our lives is contained in the vision itself – it’s the Infinite Intelligence within us that organizes and orchestrates perfect synchronistic events and guides our every step.  We provide the soil, sun and water when we nourish ourselves by engaging in our Spiritual Practices and affirming these truths until we’ve built a new awareness.  That, and by following our inner guidance – not just listening to our inner guidance, but actually following it!

I sincerely hope these ideas begin to shift your awareness to one of knowing your innate worthiness of limitless good.  Again, this Keys to the Kingdom program can be brought into most churches or spiritual centers.  Just visit their website (click here) and inquire.  And if you could use personal guidance to release old patterns and false core beliefs so that these ideas can be incorporated more easily, don’t hesitate to contact me for Spiritual Coaching.