Being grateful... for Rhonda Byrne

Let me start this blog post by giving gratitude! I have innumerous things to be grateful for but I would like to share one recent one with you - The Magic - a book by Rhonda Byrne (of The Secret fame). A wonderful book which is actually a handbook and daily exercise workbook on showing, living and expressing gratitude in many different aspects of your life.

It is actually quite simple and "all" it takes is come time, focus and discipline...Obviously those three are not easy to align, otherwise we would all be who we wanted to be a long time ago, but the requirements are relatively low on all three dimensions (10 minutes per morning and 5 every evening, and, depending on the exercise du jour, some sporadic moments during the day).

I am convinced, and not by Rhonda in this case, that gratitude is the first step to a better, richer outlook and life experience, but also the first step towards being a more spiritual being. Which means that it requires some "work" for most of us.

Once you start looking for things to be grateful for you discover a never-ending list. But it also reminds you to appreciate things and to stop taking so much for granted. Being grateful for the food you eat makes it taste better. The same goes for everything and the formula is drop-dead simple: being grateful for X makes X better.

You can substitute X for anything - food, water, friendships, family, work, play, technology, life, health, music or smaller things like the material stuff, gadgets, chewing gum, you name it. Which kind of implies, in a sappy way, but very real way, that it actually makes us richer (we have better everything than we thought). It wakes us up to the incredible abundance we have and were not fully aware of (I hope you don't mind me including you in the "we")...

In any case, I am truly grateful for this opportunity to use technology to try and share this wonderful book, concept, philosophy, spiritual practice with you - whether you discover this the day I wrote it or in many years time...

Gratefully yours,

Alon