Day 1 – Monday 15th January 2018 – Count your Blessings

We, Amethyst and Sapphire welcome all our readers to the first day on the 28 day journey to gratitude.

We hope that you get as much out of this journey as we do and that by using the power of thanks and gratitude that you create a more blessed, enriched and positive life for yourself.

To assist you on this journey we would recommend that you purchase “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne.  You can purchase the book online at

Amazon

Takelot

However should you not have the book, our day to day blog will keep you updated with easy steps to follow.

You will need a journal or your computer.  Before you start  be sure to have completed your lists of everything you want in life as set out in our “2018 – Journey into mindfulness” Blog post.   Click here if you would like to read the full post.

Here are the details from the post.

Before you start the program on Monday you will need to make a detailed list of everything you would like to attract into your life. Rhonda suggests the following categories and encourages you to be as specific as possible.

(extract from The Magic by Rhonda Byrne)

“Health and body
Career and work
Money
Relationships
Personal desires
Material things

And then just add the things you want to each category.
When you get clear about the things you want, you are giving a definite direction to the way you want gratitude’s magical power to change
your life, and you are ready to begin the most exciting and thrilling adventure you’ve ever been on!”

With that said and done, let’s begin our journey to gratitude.

Over the next 28 days, we will do an exercise early every morning of counting our blessings.

Write down 10 new blessings every morning, starting this morning with your first 10 blessings.

As you write down each blessing, think of a reason why you should be grateful for the blessing.  When you have identified why you should be grateful for the blessing, try and feel the gratitude as much as you possibly can.

In “The Magic”, Rhonda Byrne gives us the following ideas for writing your blessings down;

I am truly blessed to have ______________ ,
because ______________.

I am so happy and grateful for______________ ,
because ____________ .

I am truly grateful for ____________ ,
because __________ .

With all my heart, thank you for ____________ ,
because _________ .

After you have listed all ten blessings in this way and felt gratitude for each and every one, go back and read each one again.

After reading each blessing, give thanks for the blessing and truly feel thankful.  Proclaim it by repeating the magic words “Thank you”, “Thank you”, “Thank you”, three times.

You can direct your thanks and gratitude to whomever you feel your thanks should be directed to whether it be to the Universe, to God, to Buddha, to Jehovah, to greater self, or whichever divine Power you feel you should be giving thanks to.

Counting your blessings every day and being truly thankful and grateful will change your perspective on life.  When you count your blessings, you soon start to realise how much you have to be thankful and grateful for.

So many things that we just take for granted like –

• The fact that you woke up this morning, the warm bed you slept in. If with your partner, the fact that you have someone to share your life with and to love, and who loves you.
• As you awake and open your eyes, your sight and being able to see.
• As you take your first awake breath, the fact that you have healthy lungs and can breathe. The fresh air that you are breathing.
• As you stretch and awaken to a new day. The ability to do just that.
• Your body and how amazing it is.
• Your health and just being able to move.
• As  you listen to the sounds of the morning around you in all its splendor, the fact that you can hear the world awakening in all its magnificence.

As you go about your day, the list of blessings just go on and on………… An endless list of all the things we don’t even think about and that we forget to give thanks for and be truly grateful for.

South Africa is experiencing major water shortages at the moment.  Another thing to be thankful and grateful for when it rains is every drop of rain that falls.  “For every drop of rain that falls a flower grows”.

“Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles”. – Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858 – 1901) – Writer and Clergyman.

To help you in listing your daily blessings, refer to the list of subjects below as Rhonda has set it out in “The Magic” to remind us of all the major areas where we can look to for our blessings;

• Health and body
• Work and success
• Money
• Relationships
• Passions
• Happiness
• Love
• Life
• Nature: planet Earth, air, water, and the sun
• Material goods and services
• Any subject of your choosing

The past year has been such a blessing for us, and even more of a blessing is being able to share our journey so far with you and an even bigger blessing is having all of you with us on this journey to gratitude.

Over the next 28 days we will be counting and listing 10 new blessings every morning and giving thanks and feeling the gratitude for each and every new blessing before we start our day.  I am sure you must agree, what a positive way to start each new day.

For our Christian readers, maybe include this in your quiet time in the morning. For our Spiritual readers this could become part of your morning affirmations and meditations.  Giving thanks and feeling gratitude will benefit anyone and everyone no matter whether you are religious or not, spiritual or agnostic.

If you have a copy of “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne please go ahead and read Day 2 – The Magic Rock in preparation for Day 2, Tuesday .

For those following the blog, you will need to find a “Magic Rock” for Day 2.  Actually more like a big pebble or small stone that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.  You should be able to  wrap your fingers around it and enclose it in your hand.  Put this stone next to your bed on your bedside table.  It should be clearly visible and easy to reach.  If you like, paint it or decorate it and personalize it as it is going to be around for a long time……………………

We thank you for joining us on this journey into gratitude and invite you to share your journey,  experiences, thoughts, feelings and questions in the Comments section at the bottom of each page.

Our quote for the day.

Namaste’

Amethyst and Sapphire

P.S. Hope you like the new look of our Blog as much as we do.