Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, on which all men have some.
-Charles Dickens

Here in the U.S., we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving this week. For many, Thanksgiving means a cornucopia of food served in feast-like fashion. For others, it means a day off from work and football on the tube. For others, still, it means another holiday in which the pathologies of various family members come together once more to clash!

As simplistic as this may be, I prefer to think of Thanksgiving as a reminder that I have so much for which I can be thankful. It’s a time for me to brush up on my attitude of gratitude.

Gratitude, of course, is not unique to any one culture, theology, philosophy or people. In fact, a survey of the world’s major religions, shows that gratitude as a human disposition is highly prized characteristic in Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu thought.

I personally have come to learn that gratitude is an interesting little character. I don’t remember when I first came to treat it with the reverence and awe for which I believe it deserves, but I do know, that a funny thing happens to me when I enter an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving!

Dr. Wayne Dyer has described the essence of attitude as “understanding that every moment of your life is something to be grateful for.” There was a time when I would read or hear that sentence and my interpretation of it was that in every moment of my life there exists something for which I should be grateful. But, I want to point you back to what Dr. Dyer really said: “every moment of your life is something to be grateful for”. Do you see the difference?

Although we can, we need not look outside ourselves for material things to feel blessed. Although we can, we need not look to the way someone else treats us or feels about us in order to feel blessed. Simply being who we simply are is a blessing. Simply being, is a blessing. Are you thankful?

Commit yourself today to begin counting your blessings, to begin giving thanks, to begin to have an attitude of gratitude. Begin today to recognize that there are no blessings too small to be counted. When you lay in bed at night, sleepless from worry, rather than count sheep, count your blessings and experience an instant state shift.

As a little old (and very wise) lady at church once reminded me: When thanks goes up, blessings pour down!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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What do physics and personal development have in common?

Author Thomas Wolfe tells a story of Noble Prize winning physicist William Shockley. Known as the father of the transistor, Shockley was working with a young physics student who couldn’t seem the grasp the concept of amplification. Now, when you and I think of amplification, the first thing that comes to our mind is likely the amplification of sound, such as what occurs when you listen to the radio or even this audio. Shockley had an interesting way of explaining amplification and making the point that many things could be amplified, including sound or other energy forms. He explained it graphically by offering the image of someone tying a bale of hay to a mule’s tail and then striking a match to set the hay on fire. He went on to suggest that comparing the amount of energy expended by the mule once the hay was ablaze to the amount of energy required to strike the match, should easily convey the concept of amplification.

When I read this account, it struck me as both dark and humorous. But it also resonated with me as a rather well-spoken conveyance of the meaning of amplification. That got me to thinking about the use of the principle of amplification in personal development. In short, when we desire something, we often merely desire an amplification of something we already have. It seems at the time of desire, we just don’t have enough of it.

What is it that you most desire in your life? Or put another way, what is it you wish you could amplify? Is it money? Is it love? Is it relationships? Is it discipline? No matter what it is, use the image of the mule–the extremely motivated mule–to remind you that those things that we most desire can often be amplified if we set our minds to it and invest the necessary resources and energy to achieve all that we desire.

Want to learn more about how to use the power of positive affirmations in conjunction with the Law of Attraction to amplify and achieve your desires? Check out my audio program entitled Affirmations For Attraction.

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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