 
Are you a person who expresses gratitude for the prosperity that you are experiencing in your life? Do you know when you express gratitude, you are opening a conduit to manifest great things into your life such as the right people, the right circumstances, better health, increased financial abundance, more joy, etc.?
Now, let me as you another question– do you keep a gratitude journal? If you not currently using one, you are missing out on one of the best tools available to you to help you make your life more enjoyable right now. I believe in the power of the Gratitude Journal so much that I not only use it on a regular basis, but I recommend to all my clients, friends, and family member to start and continue using one because it has the power to deepen the “good” results you are experiencing in your life.
What Is A Gratitude Journal?
A gratitude journal is a paper notebook, electronic text editor (journal), or blog that you use to write about the things you are grateful for each day. It is a way to help you consciously focus on the things you have attracted in your life that make you feel joy. By expressing gratitude, you become aware of these things, thus you create a shift in your thinking and your attitude. Furthermore, a gratitude journal is a place where you can celebrate your wins in your life such as getting a job promotion, starting a new romantic relationship, losing five pounds, or any small or large goal that you have achieved.
Brian Tracy says “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step towards achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
Until you are grateful for what you have right now in your life, you can not expect new things to flow to you. So, if you currently do not have a Gratitude Journal, start one today. The following tips can help you start a Gratitude Journal and a whole new outlook on life.
Tips for Starting and Keeping Your Journal
1. Choose a blank notebook or journal to use as your Gratitude Journal. Consider using a spiral-bound notebook that opens flat for ease in writing. If you like to use technology, you can use an electronic journal or you can use a free blog from www.blogger.com.
2. Every night, create a few quiet minutes before going to bed, review your day, and write a list of at least five things that you are grateful for today. These things can be small or great such as hearing your baby’s laughter, seeing a flower in bloom, hearing a bird chirping near your window, or receiving unexpected money.
3. Make the list personal, and write a few words about why you are grateful for these things. When you initially start, you can be brief, but increase the length of what you write as time progresses. As you do, allow yourself to be free in form and structure. Some days, you might be feeling particularly abundant, and those five things will just fly onto the page. Other days, you may feel like you can’t think of even one thing that you are grateful for that day. It this happens, just remember how amazing it is that you even have a roof over your head, food to eat, or the fact that you have hot water for a bath.
4. You can write your Gratitude Journal in list-form, free-form, prayer-form, or begin each sentence the same way. Use whatever writing style feels comfortable with you that day. Express yourself freely, and do not censor your thoughts and feelings as you write. Just let the information flow from within.
5. Everyday, begin looking for the positive perspective in all things. View obstacles in your life as opportunities to appreciate and grow. Focus on the wonderful things in your life, so you can experience similar encounters in the course of your life. Use positive energy as a magnet to draw even more positive energy, and note the things that show up in your Gratitude Journal.
6. Personalize your Gratitude Journal. Expand it by including photos, clippings, quotes or verses from magazines or other sources.
7. Keep your Gratitude Journal in the same location, so it is easily accessible. The easier you make it for yourself to keep this routine, the more likely will you commit to doing it. I normally keep my Gratitude Journal on my desk in my office or on my night stand in my bedroom, so I can have easy access to it.
8. Keep your Gratitude Journal private. This is very important because this will give you an incentive to be more open and honest with your thoughts and feelings. This journal is for you and Source (God, Universe, etc).
What happens when you write in a gratitude journal every night?
As you continue expressing gratitude in your Gratitude Journal, you will notice more things in your life, and you will create greater feelings of appreciation. My experience is that when I write out what I am grateful every night, I become more in tune throughout the next day. It is like turning on an inner-switch that sets my awareness to look for experiences to be grateful for each day. So you might be jogging in your neighborhood in the morning, and catch the flash of a bluebird in the sunlight, and instead of going pass it, you stop and notice it for a moment. You take it in, and you make a mental note to include that in your gratitude journal. Later when you’re having lunch with a business partner, he grabs the check and pays it. Not only do you thank him, but you make that mental note again. Your day becomes amazing because you are living in the moment enjoying each thing that is occurring.
In essence, you have become a gratitude magnet, and oddly enough, amazing things start to find you. But you have to learn to be grateful now for all that your are experiencing.
To help you get started, here are just a few of the things I wrote in my Gratitude Journal from yesterday.
I am grateful for:
…spending time with my wife walking on the beach and enjoying the beautiful
oceanfront view and the sound of the waves as they rolled in on the shore.
…editing 30 pages in my book that I am writing. It was really fun and amazing easily to accomplish.
…that I chose to exercise even though I was tired from jetlag from my trip to San Diego / La Jolla.
…seeing the turtles and ducks swimming on the lake in our backyard.
…that I was able to enjoy a quiet lunch with my wife where we feasted on an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetable from her garden.
…that more people are visiting and enjoying my blog post.
Another thing you can do in your Gratitude Journal is list the things and experiences that you are grateful for attracting in your life now. These are things and experiences that are not YET in your reality, but are on the way to you now.
Here are a few things from my list:
I am grateful for:
…selling 25,000 copies of my new book in the first 90 days of it being released.
…500,000 people visiting my blog each month
…for my wife helping 25 families buy a new house or sell their existing house.
So, what are you waiting for now. Get started with your Gratitude Journal today. The key to having a Gratitude Journal is doing it! At the end of each moth, it is fun to go back and look at what you wrote to remind yourself of all the positive things you experiences throughout the last month, especially all the great things you consciously attracted in your life. This is such an amazing feeling knowing you consciously manifested things and experiences that were not there the previous month.
Really do this one. In fact, do it for 30 days, and see how the practice changes you. See if you don’t experience joy and experience more miracles in your life.
Namaste,
RC
written by Reginald Cuffee
When I heard that Michael Jackson had passed away, I begin reflecting on my own life.
What came to my mind was the subject of happiness. Specifically, I was thinking about how many people are waiting for some external circumstance to change so they can be happy.
The say statements such as ” when I get the right job, when I get enough money, when I get the right man or woman, when my children become successful….. then I will be happy”
Guess what? Michael Jackson had tons of money, remarkable talent, fame, and millions of adoring fans around the world.
But, was he happy?
Although I did not know him personally, I think that most of us would agree that he didn’t act happy. In fact, a common phrase used to describe him was a “tortured soul.” Many people used this phrase to describe him because he appeared to be fighting inner demons.
If external circumstances such as money and success cause happiness, Michael Jackson should have been very happy. But it didn’t seem he was.
Now let’s not make a critical mistake and say that money and success cause unhappiness because they don’t. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”
If you can’t be happy before you have prosperous, chances are you won’t be happy no matter how much abundance flows into in your life.
The best way I know to be happy is to practice gratitude. Yes, gratitude! When you focus on what is good in your life, rather than what is “bad” , happiness follows. And we all have plenty to be grateful for in our lives.
Many things in life that you experience are result of the choices you make! Love is a choice, not a feeling. Happiness is a choice.
How happy are you willing to make up your mind to be? Take a chance and choose to be really happy!
In this moment, focus on the blessings you have, and from that place of happiness, create the life you want. Let the lesson from Michael Jackson inspire you choose happiness first.
You can’t flow more abundance in your life if you’re feeling ungrateful, but you sure can if you’re feeling grateful, and happy.
So, go ahead. It won’t hurt. It’ll probably feel really good.
Say it–I choose happiness!
Namaste,
RC
written by Reginald Cuffee
What is it that you want in your life? Is it a loving relationship with your spouse, a family member or a friend? Is it a new career doing what you love, or is having the money to travel around the world? Is it improved health and having a sexy body? Take a few minutes and think about all the things you want in your life.
If you did simple task, do you notice a common theme in the things you want?
No matter what you want, there is a common theme is and that is you don’t have it.
Do you ever wonder why? It happens because wanting is the opposite of having. Can you stand up and sit down at the same time. No; it is impossible. You can do one or the other, but you can’t do both at the same time, and this same principle applies to wanting and having.
Now, I am not suggesting that you do let go of your wanting so you end up with nothing. Instead, I am merely pointing out that if you let go of wanting, then you would have it. I know this sounds like a real dilemma for the mind, but when you in a state of wanting, you mind tends to focus on what you don’t have. When this occurs, you get feelings of lack and unhappiness, and these feelings are broadcasted into the Universe. Thus you repel what you want, and you remain trapped in a state of wanting.
The old adage of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” can easily be explained with this principle. When a rich person hold in his mind the belief that “I have money”, this person is not focusing on wanting (or lacking) money, and this abundant energy is broadcasted to the Universe. Thus this person attracts more opportunities and circumstances to manifest more money. On the other hand, a poor person on is forever wanting it and broadcasting lack energy to the Universe. Thus this person attracts opportunities and circumstances to repel money.
If you are going to change from a state of wanting to a state of having, you need to re-program the mind to focus on what is good in life. It is normal for the mind to focus on the lack of it in your life, but many people never move beyond that point of creation.
To create a the shift in your mind from wanting to having, do the following.
For everything that you want to create in your life, find something similar that you can be grateful for in your life NOW. For example, if you want a more blissful relationship with your primary partner, find things about him/her that you are grateful for and focus on those things. Feel gratitude for the relationships you have that are working. It is the feeling of gratitude that draws what you want to you. It is not necessary to focus specifically on what it is that you want…mainly because when we do that it is so difficult to focus on the feelings of having what you want while living in the present experience of what you do not want. Instead shift your focus away from what isn’t working and focus on the things that are.
The more you vibrate the energy of gratitude out into the Universe, the more things you will begin to notice to be grateful for. When those things happen, allow yourself to just feel gratitude for them. Be aware that the mind is suspicious sometimes and wants to doubt what is happening, looks for strings, or is worried about when it will stop, so notice the mind when it does this and just release those toxic thoughts. Just relax and enjoy the moment. Feel gratitude for what IS happening and you will attract more of that.
Furthermore, start a gratitude journal today. At the end of every day before retiring to bed, write 5-10 things that you grateful for about your day. Allow yourself to really focus on them and FEEL the energy of gratitude in your body.
When you find yourself having a moment in the day when nothing is happening, allow yourself to take a deep breath and just appreciate the silence of the present moment.
Be grateful your health, home, your car, the things that are working in your life, the food in your refrigerator, the lessons you are experiencing that will cause you to grow, or anything that comes to mind.
Give thanks…feel it…and journal about what you experience.
Namaste,
RC
written by Reginald Cuffee
 What if I told you that you have free will and you can use it to choose to be happy or to be negative. Many people would probably doubt this statement, but being happy is a choice. Your choice of being happy has a greater influence on your life than you believe. When you choose be happy, you broadcast a high energetic vibration to the Universe that is full of love, joy and gratitude. As a result of this high energetic vibration, you will begin to attract all of sorts of glorious things and experiences into your life. Furthermore, when you are happy, you can overcome any negative emotions such as anger, sadness, frustration, guilt, desperation and fear. These negative emotions simply dissipate when you are devoted to embodying your nature divine state of happiness.
“Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.” ~ Mildred Barthel
Many people have been conditioned to believe that external stimulus such as your spouse or children acting and conforming to what you believe is correct and proper, winning the lottery, getting a promotion at work, having a new baby or buying a new car will make you happy. Although external things or the actions of other people can engender feelings of euphoria for you, they are often only ephemeral, thus you cannot sustain them for very long. Have you ever noticed when you purchased a new car, and you felt really happy. As you drove your new car, you felt proud and happy that you owned it. But what happens after about three or four weeks, the feelings soon subside, and you begin to look at the next car you want to own.
Perhaps, in some way, that is a good thing because the Universe is reminding you that happiness really does come from outside of you.
Instead, happiness comes from within, and it is available to you and me at any moment. True happiness has very little to do with external events, circumstances, things, and other people because happiness is an inside job.
I can say this because is simply a conscious choice, and it is a state of BEING that you can make in each moment of the day no matter what is occurring in your life. Simply choose to understand that you are already free from needing “this or that” in order to be happy. You don’t need anything in life to be happier in this moment because you can always choose to be grateful for who you are and what you have in your life even if you think it should be different. You can feel this joy inside for no reason other than exercising your free will and choosing to be it. Simply choose to be an energetic ball of light, love and joy!
”Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.” ~ Dan Millman
If you intend to live a prosperous life, your mission is to go beyond playing those “unhappy roles” that keeps most people trapped in negativity and step into being the Divine being you really are. All of your unhappy thoughts and feelings are just caused by negative thinking patterns, and they are not who you truly are.
You are much larger than a handful of thoughts. In fact, you are a manifestation of Source (God)!
As a manifestation of Source, your nature state is Love and Happiness! Once you truly realize this, happiness will find you. Surrender to your greatest experience of happiness right now in this moment. Find your most authentic expression of boundless joy and happiness, and express it!
When you do, this simply creates more happiness. Once you continuously vibrate at this level, the Universe will reward you with even more satisfying experiences that snowball into manifesting even happier feelings and experiences for you!
The greatest secret you can learn for experiencing a perpetual state of happiness is to remain completely present to the “NOW” moment in whatever activity you are engaged in. The past is over, and the future does not exist. So, the more you can be completely absorbed in the “NOW”, the more your energy expands which allows you to feel higher about life!
If you are currently not being happy and joyous, just express gratitude for what you have in your life. Close you eyes, and list ten specific (good) things you are grateful for experiencing or having in your life. Include not just the people in your life and your accomplishments, but also include your positive qualities and what you have to offer to the world.
Really feel your vibrations of gratitude for these things. As you begin to express gratitude, your feelings will shift to a state of happiness and joy because you can’t be grateful and feel negative emotions such as anger, overwhelm, frustration, and fear.
As an alternative, you can find something that brings you great pleasure such as sitting outside in the garden under an old tree and listening to the birds sing, or watching puppies or cats playing and just savoring the moment.
Happiness is always available to all of us. It is our natural state and you need only to allow it in. At any moment, you can stop, take a few deep breaths, and remember who you really are, and why you came here, and that truly is to experience joy and the aliveness of being.
“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
So, today, no matter what is going on in your life, take a few moments to breathe deeply and just choose to BE happy.
May there be a miracle in your life today… May you have the awareness to see it…And the thoughtfulness to be grateful for it.
Namaste,
RC
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written by Reginald Cuffee
What if you lost your job, your house is being foreclosed, your creditors are closing in, and your marriage had become a hellishly nightmare? No, that is not make-believe story, but it the actual life of some people today. If you are experiencing these circumstances, here are eight tips you can use to maintain a positive outlook under your stressful circumstances.
1. Start by finding things for which to be grateful for in your life. Gratitude is very crucial to your happiness and peace of mind because when you are grateful, you see the world differently. Most people tend to see the “bad” things that happen in their lives, but most overlook the “good” things. What a pity. Open your eyes and be aware of those good things you experience.
As you are begin to be grateful, you will realize that your life is wonderful, and you will feel joy despite your current circumstances. So, if you are reading this article, realize that you are alive, and your mind is functioning fairly well. Therefore, be grateful.
What else are you grateful for in your live in this moment? Write a gratitude list, and give thanks for everything that is good in your life. Start with being alive, breathing, and thinking, and add every blessing that comes to your mind no matter have small to your list. Remember, every moment of life is a blessing, every bite of food you taste, every bird you see, every sound you hear, and every kiss from your primary partner (spouse). Even small things matter. If someone calls you a friend, that’s something you should be grateful for. If a child smiles to you, it should remind you that hope is always here in this world.
2. Take it one step further, and write all the good things that happen in your life in a “good things” journal, especially those which impress you and make you feel joyful. When life looks dark and it is difficult for you to be grateful, open and read your journal. You will soon realize the wonderful life you have, and you will get new strength to overcome your problems.
3. Give thanks for the life lessons that you are learning. Although it may not be aware of it at this time, every thing that is occurring in your life is for your highest good because there are positive things behind all the “bad” things that happen. This might be difficult for some people to accept, but I firmly believe it. At the very least, “bad” things give you valuable lessons you should be grateful for. When you have a mindset that is based in gratitude, it’s not difficult to see the “good” things you could get out of “bad” circumstances. This way you will always have reasons to be grateful.
Remember, when you have a “bad” circumstance or what I call a breakdown in life (i.e. lost of job), there something better coming. Therefore, make a list of what you have learned from your current breakdowns. Write it out, and be grateful for each lesson. Life’s lessons appear to often come at great cost, but actually they are priceless jewels that are required for your growth.
In 2002, I had a major breakdown when I was unemployed, and I lost nearly all the money in my stock portfolio, but I would not change those circumstances because those breakdowns caused me to embark on a journey that has totally changed my life. As a result, my marriage is stronger, my relationship with my kids is better, my finances are better, my consciousness has expanded, and my spiritual connection to all that IS has expanded.
4. Do you have a support system of friends and family you can confide in about how you are feeling? If you do, be very grateful, and use that network of people now. Do not feel embarrassed to seek emotional support from those you respect and love. If you don’t feel you have a support network, find one in your church or community.
Furthermore, associate with positive people. You will be like the people you associate with most of the time. It is difficult for most people to be positive if the people they meet through out the day are focusing on negativity or discussing negative events. Therefore, surround yourself with positive people who themselves are grateful and positive , and it will be much easier and natural for you to be a grateful and positive.
5. Care for your mind and body with special attention and gentleness in this time of change. Several times each day, take a moment to breathe deeply and center yourself. Do this by closing your eyes and taking three deep breaths. Exhale each breath three times as long as you inhale to relax you mind and body.
Eat healthy and be aware of stressful eating. Do light exercises and drink plenty of water throughout the day. Also, get enough sleep to rejuvenate your body. If you have trouble sleeping, take a hot shower and listen to some soft relaxing / meditative music.
6. Begin each day with a silent walk. Awaken a half hour earlier to make time for it. While a walk in a natural setting such as a park or on the ocean shore is ideal, a walk on city streets will suffice. As you are walking, thoughts, angers, resentments, and fears may form in your mind. That “mind chatter” is always with us whenever we are not focused on a specific mental activity and it gets much stronger when we are stressed. Neither resent the mind chatter, nor let it linger. Say “thank you for sharing” to each passing thought, anger, resentment, or fear. Then release it, and return to your silent walk.
7. Release your angers, resentments, and fears by feeding them to a cleansing fire. Do this by lighting a candle that is placed in an aluminum pan or by starting a small fire in a metal bucket. Write one issue, concern, or fear on a piece of paper, and put it in to the flame of the candle or in the fire in the metal bucket. As the paper begins to burn, release your anger, concern or fears to God. Repeat this process until you can no longer feel the emotion about the concern or fear that you were experiencing. Give thanks for this release.
I know this may sound like hocus pocus, but his process is effective.
Warning, do this activity outside and be careful not to start an uncontrollable fire. Have a bottle of water or a fire extinguisher near by to extinguish any small uncontrollable fire if it occurs.
8. Do NOT watch the news or read newspapers because they will infect your mind with negativity and cause you to worry or experience fear. If you want to watch television, watch comedy movies that make you laugh. See my post, Eliminating Negativity from Your Life. Furthermore, read books on personal development to strengthen your self-esteem or listen to upbeat music with POSITIVE lyrics.
These eight tips can help you cope with your circumstances and help you keep a positive outlook in life. However, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to experience joy each day and have a positive outlook on life. If you decide to use these tips, each day will be better than the last day. No matter what happens to you, it is still you who decide how you will respond to your breakdowns. So make the decision to be a positive person, and may your days be filled with joy, hope, and inner peace!
Namaste,
RC
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written by Reginald Cuffee
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