Why Gratitude? The Foundation of an Abundant Life

Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude.  What really is gratitude? I speak about it all the time. I share with students, clients, and colleagues - gratitude is the foundation of an Abundance Mindset and living a joyful life.  But why?  What is really happening with a gratitude grounded life? 

Simply put, gratitude is the practice of appreciating what one has. On the next level it is the practice of appreciation for what one has, what one is given, and what one has lost.  But it is more than that. It is a practice in being aware. To appreciate what one has - one must be first aware of what they have.  To appreciate what one is given, one must be aware that they are being given things. 

And to appreciate and hold gratitude for what has been taken away or lost - one must have an even greater awareness of cause & effect and other subtle hermetic universal principles at work - so you can see the quote, unquote “loss” for what it truly is. So if one is actually grateful, and truly holds appreciation for everything in their life (even the unpleasant stuff), then you are in a place of high vibrational awareness, clarity and discernment.  Holding true sight and acknowledgement of what is going on around you and the ability to access wisdom and discern what is actually happening at any given time. 

 So, in short, gratitude = awareness.  Awareness = discernment. Discernment = wisdom. Wisdom = Discernment.  Discernment = Awareness. Awareness = gratitude.

And thus, we have a positive thought cycle occurring which allows us to live a joyful abundant life in flow with the universe even if our circumstances are filled with opportunity and challenge.  In fact, we are more likely to seek opportunities and challenges because we have awareness, because we know that those difficult things we face are the fertilizer for the joy we grow.  

A joyful life is not one without difficulties or sorrow.  We all experience loss and grief in life because life ends. We lose loved ones to death. This is the only certainty in life. That this physical life ends. And along the way in our life we have people we love, and they grow old and die, or they are young and die from illness or tragedy.  These are huge losses.  But we continue.  And those of us who learn in life how to continue and thrive are those who realize and are aware that this cycle in the physical body is not about learning how to survive - because that is the one impossible task. None of us get out alive. This experience in the physical body is about learning how to live and to see the glory that is everything we are given, everything we have, and everything we experience—even the losses. Jesus said to his disciples when you can truly SEE, then you will enter the kingdom of heaven. He was talking about discernment and gratitude. True awareness. When you can truly see what life offers you are capable of gratitude, and when you have awareness, gratitude and discernment - you enter the kingdom of heaven—a joyful life.

What is more heavenly than to be able to look at a shit storm in your life and say Thank You Universe for this opportunity. I am so grateful I had this experience. 

I’ve been reflecting on gratitude all month. At the end of August I had the opportunity to be faculty for an attorney retreat and intensive where we engaged in some serious learning about different life insurance vehicles and annuities interspersed with meditation, personal development, and fun outdoor activities.We pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones in order to learn and shift ourselves and our practices for the sake of being better advisors to our clients.  For me, I was also there holding a container for everyone to meditate and grow within, while keeping the focus on gratitude. Because with gratitude we can learn better, we can accept change better, we can live better.  It is an essential element to anyone’s life but especially for times of change, growth, and obstacles. And in order to change how one does something, or accept and adapt to a forced change we have to expend energy - we have to move out of the groove we have been in to shift into a new one.  No more autopilot.  Time to expend effort little by little every day until we get to the new phase of our becoming. 

Gratitude helps us with this because when we start with awareness and recognition of everything we have in our environment to support us (even if it is just out own wits), and we see just how good it is, then we do not have to expend energy worrying about the lack and attracting more lack, we aren’t running away from anything, we are moving towards something. And if that which we focus on expands it continues in the positive manifestation zone and we manifest that which we desire to bring about, versus that which we are trying to leave behind. 

As an attorney, I find it exceptionally important to always be finding ways to hold gratitude and create containers for my clients that allow them to move toward things. Lawyers in a traditional sense are called upon only when there is a problem. We are the solvers. Or the ones that must help people through an unpleasant situation, or we are the ones causing the unpleasant situation because we manage litigation in a win-lose system. Winning in the law is determined by whether or not the proper procedure is followed - which for the average person is not winning. People want wrongs righted, justice served - but the law cannot really provide that - legal “justice” is not moral justice or God's justice - is simply checking all the boxes in the proper order and following the proper rules.  What the law can provide however, are strong containers of prevention and protection to ensure to the best of our ability that bad things don’t happen, and worse things don’t happen when bad things do occur (especially in the case of dying). But for me that isn’t enough either - I don’t want to just prevent something, I want to create containers for my clients that also grow in abundance alongside providing protection.  And what I learned in my attorney summer camp experience in August was the missing piece on how to use planning to build actual abundance and wealth for families. A true abundance manifestation goal versus just the mindset of planning with the end in mind and using that to expand on opportunities through prevention and protection planning. Now my understanding of life insurance, its strategic use in retirement planning, saving plans and investment, as well as the access to an extremely knowledgeable team of resources that I can consult with to guide my clients, has opened up a huge new gallery of wealth building containers that every family can take advantage of. And it gives me great joy to be able to offer a direction that is truly an Abundance building methodology.

As I write this it is Fall Equinox.  Mabon in the Wiccan calendar.  A day of gratitude and appreciation, bringing balance into our lives as we harvest the fruits of our efforts and give thanks for them.  This autumn I am holding immense gratitude for my new partner in life and everything he has brought into my life, as well as everything he has given me, and alongside this relationship those things which have been lost. I hold gratitude for all of it - and for all of the growth I’ve experienced as a result of being in a real relationship with someone willing to do the work next to me. It's not all roses and sunbeams, and his health is far from good, but I wouldn’t trade this time to be in something else with someone else.

I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to experience something so real with someone so willing & capable of being themself with me. This relationship that brings me such great joy also reminds me of the short and preciousness of life. I’ve never been one to sit by the wayside and not squeeze the marrow out of life—but since Covid I have to admit that all I’ve done is work and fit my relationships in inbetween. When sitting next to my partner and knowing that with his particular health challenges, that our life together is more likely to be truncated than not - it adds an urgency to living. Death is a reality for everyone, and I spend a lot of my time reminding people of that because I am an estate planning attorney - but when it is on your own doorway - it is no longer a philosophical conversation. It is happening. And this is where gratitude is my foundation now, more than ever. The kind of appreciation that keeps me in full awareness so that I can truly see, discern, and live in the kingdom of heaven right now in this physical body enjoying my life in the present moment, for what it is.

Jesus said Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you.

This is gratitude. Clarity. Awareness. Discernment. Recognition.

“Whoever has (something) in his hand, (something more) will be given to him.

 And whoever has nothing, even the little he has will be taken from him.” 

So, your homework this month is to determine what you have through the practice of gratitude. Build your foundation to live a joyful life by creating and cultivating your garden of appreciation for every aspect of your life - even the hard parts.