“Give thanks and improve your life” is a phrase used to describe the value of gratitude and appreciation. To shape a better life and as a part of a process for creating abundance.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” asserts author Melody Beattie.

Here is the interesting question to ask — “Why is this?” Perhaps because being grateful is a state of mind indicating elevated awareness. The more elevated one’s consciousness the higher the vibration one expresses. The higher a vibration one expresses the more likely we are to attract to us good people, things and circumstances. (See more about the Law of Attraction in my work The Manifestation Book.)

Here are 8 ways to give thanks that might seem a little unusual. I will offer a few stories to illustrate.

Thank You Supply Chain

Sometimes I am struck by how blessed I am, and it makes me shiver. As I sat outside recently taking in the end of the day and having crackers, cheese and wine, a feeling of overwhelming gratitude came over me for all the elements of the supply chain that culminated in my being able to eat well without having to go out in the fields and cultivate it. All the people, animals, trucks, forklifts, warehouses, stores, and credit card machines that enabled me to relish a bit of Swiss cheese on a Triscuit cracker, washed down with a nice Napa Valley Chardonnay.

Tears came to my eyes for the time, effort, care, and attention of the forces of the Universe that coalesced to nourish my body and mind, and ultimately my Spirit as I sat in a pool of intense thanksgiving. These nourishing things that I exchanged pieces of paper or electronic impulses, which manifested in my presence through the unfolding of events and circumstances. “What a fortunate guy am I!” I wrote in my journal.

And as I sit here writing this, and revisiting that moment, I am moved, again, at my good fortune.

Application of Gratitude, Extended

Building on thanking the supply chain, it is helpful to offer thanks to everything around me, all the time. I am more and more realizing the depth of the act of offering thanks and appreciation. I am surrounded by many things, things I have placed in my house and things that just seem to show up. Molecules arranged in such a way as to serve some need that I have and serves that need well. Some examples, again from my journal:

• Today my Toshiba laptop, when I opened it, went through a 20-minute routine of informing me that there was trouble when I last closed it down and did a preliminary diagnostic, an update, a disc repair, and finally a reboot. Back to good as new. “Good computer,” I said, like I say “good girl” to my dog, Sasha. And I meant it. My computer is a workhorse and a friend. It helped me write this piece.

• All my surroundings have, in a way showed up for my benefit, and stand ready to serve me. They are part of the 3d reality that I occupy. Metaphysically, part of the 5D reality that surrounds and infuses 3d with its form and function. Today I threw away a razor and thanked it for its usefulness to me in my shaving endeavors. Make it a point to praise all things useful.

• If you do, more stuff will want to be with you. This is also true of more/better circumstances and more/better people. To hang out with you. To be liked by you. I know that sounds strange, but it is not odd from a 5D perspective. From that perspective “stuff” is a metaphor, an idea that somebody had, thought through, and many had a hand in shaping for my use. It could be a lamp or a bowl or a telephone or a plant.

To quote author and speaker Jim Rohn, “There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens the windows of opportunity, for ideas and things to flow your way.”

• Take the dangly mobile that hangs over my head as I sit here writing. Some creative, artistic person dreamed up what a bit of copper could turn into and sketched it out. Then took the materials and formed them into something striking. But there was more to be done — marketing, and selling, and shipping, and receiving, and finally getting hung up in my house. For my pleasure, which it does give. I thank The ALL for unfolding in this way so that at this exact moment I am sitting here writing about The ALL and how it unfolded.

• As I open my heart more and more, my heart center gets bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger. And I see how my thanking the people, the happenings, the furnishings benefit me. How it is a way to be more loving, heartfelt, and compassionate. A way to raise my Awareness. To experience Higher Consciousness more frequently and deeply.

Revere All Things/Beings

Another story comes to mind to take this point to a deeper level. Here is what I wrote earlier this year.

“This morning just before beginning my yoga routine I was nearly overwhelmed by a reverence of all the things that were in the room. All the things we have collected to surround us in our living room — furniture, pillows, rugs, plants, an Amazon Echo which drives the wireless speaker, the ceiling fan, and the room itself that came with the house — all its parts. All waiting for me this morning to show up and envelop me in their embrace.

I returned the embrace by taking a deep breath and radiating love and appreciation back to my buddy atoms, cells and electrons that welcomed me into their presence. Sounds a bit strange, I know, but that is the way of the mystic. As I breathed a bit the distinction between my surroundings and me faded a bit. I could feel my body sheath becoming more porous, blending slightly with my surroundings.

Then as I broadened out my view through my eye holes, and took everything in, including the areas outside of the windows. I encompassed the whole scene. No particular focus on one thing but pulling back into my Awareness, listening to myself breathe. And I had a flash of being One with all of what I was perceiving. I was not focused in my head, but my Awareness had broadened out until there was no distinction between me inside the body and me outside the body.

Reverence dawned for the whole thing. The complete amalgamation of all the particles and space that danced in a unified whole. It did seem like a dance, a dance of those “things” outside of me, gathered to serve and interact with me, fusing with the “things” inside of me into a seamless Whole”.

This experience reminded me, yet again, of an earlier core realization I had, “Revere all things, revere all beings, from the ant to the spouse, for what and who they are — a part of me”.

The phrase I came up with to capture this way of seeing is “Oneness Eyes”. Using my Oneness Eyes to see the Oneness of myself in “here” with the Oneness “out there”.

Appreciation To/For The ALL

This sense of Oneness is not an unusual experience. It is the core purpose of the new meditation process I have developed. One in which I acknowledge The ALL (my words for “God”, which for me has less “charge” than my childhood religious concept of the Divine). The process, if done with a sufficient level of mindfulness and awareness, naturally takes me to an experience of Omnipresence.

This Oneness that I speak of in which I am just “being” and can say to The ALL, “Thank you, Isness (another word for The ALL) for your Beingness. For your breath, in and out of Infinity. For your Omniscience, your all-knowingness of that which Is. For allowing me to participate in the dance of the stars and the microbes and sense, incomprehensibly, all things, in all directions.

(I use the word “incomprehensibly” because this experience cannot be comprehended by my human mind. If it could be I would be able to put better words to the experience. As it is, words at best provide metaphors for approximating the experience. The writer’s dilemma.)

Practical “Application” of Appreciation

Before I float away and you stop reading this as being too “Woo Woo”, let me offer a story that is more down to earth. Several years ago, with some difficulty, we bought a house in the Bay Area. Here is what I wrote about that.

“Yesterday we crossed what might be, barring some unusual circumstance, the last hurdle to buying the house we have been trying to acquire for the last two months. We were approved to proceed by our lender. We have been working for in the past 3 years to make this happen. This has been very much an up-and-down journey, full of twists and turns, and some amazing synchronicities.

Today, as I used to say in North Carolina, “I bought me a house”, or, in this case, more correctly, “We bought ourselves a house”. We went to our agent’s office to sign loan documents with a mobile notary representing the title company for the loan. Everything was pretty much as we expected, and we signed a very thick pile of papers to be presented back to the lender for final, final review. We are only days from the money from the bank being released for the sale.

Whew. Yeah. And now the fun begins, the next steps in the process of our creating — follow through on that which has unfolded itself as desired. In this case, remodeling a home in significant need of upgrades and updating. To keep the cost down we will be significantly involved in every stage and I, having a lot of experience with home remodeling projects, will do a lot of the work myself and/or supervise others in doing the work.

Often, working on a goal and having it begin to unfold as envisioned, is followed by additional work on the details required to bring the thing desired to fruition. The work needed to shepherd the project along and launch off into the mystery of the project itself. I say mystery because, as much planning as I do to manage a project, the plan seldom turns out exactly as expected. There are a lot of things that will require problem-solving and creativity in order to have it all “turn out”.

We took a moment late this afternoon to go over to the house and do a walk-through with our agent to see the condition the owner has left the house in. He brought a nice bottle of wine and we sat out on the deck, enjoyed the view, and celebrated our meeting a key milestone. I think it is important to celebrate along the way. Not only is celebrating an acknowledgment of everybody and everything that has contributed to a success but celebrating is a high vibrational thing to do.

Celebrating is also a time to thank internally and externally everybody who has contributed, to acknowledge the magic that occurred along the way (especially if the journey has been difficult), and to offer appreciation to Spirit for Its contribution to the success. For some time now, our creative process has been about allowing and encouraging Spirit to be present in the process.

Offer Sincere Appreciation to Others

Another form of thankfulness is sincere appreciation to others for the contribution they have made to our lives. Something I learned years ago when I began leading my first work-group. Frequently expressed, specific appreciation for the work that my team did to contribute to our success was part of the reason for our success. Something I had learned from several excellent leaders I had been blessed with knowing.

One of the things we did six years ago when we first moved to Vallejo was to join a fitness center and begin taking a Tai Chi class. I continue to do this gentle form of Chinese martial arts to this day and expect to continue indefinitely. We had a great teacher in Peter Paul, a true master of the art. My story about that:

“I decided yesterday, after a particularly satisfying Tai Chi session at home, that after today’s class I would go over to Peter and thank him for being my sensei, my teacher, and to express how much I appreciated his guidance and teaching. (In alignment with my recent deepened appreciation for the value of thanking all things in my life for their existence and support.) Lynne and I had not been to class for several weeks and there were some new people in attendance. This usually slows down the proceedings as Peter attempts to integrate the new people into the ongoing group and that can sometimes be a bit unsettling.

Today was different. I found myself in a particularly good mood. I found the warmup exercises exhilarating as I did them in a very mindful way. Something was up. When we began the day’s execution of the Competition Style (one of three we sometimes do) I could feel the ease and focus on what I was doing. And my concern with technique, and sequence, and breathing disappeared. I was just moving. Illumination came upon me. I was flying. Wow. Fabulous. For the balance of the session, I remained in that state. Happy. Joyful, really. At peace. Connected to everybody around me.

When I went over to Peter he lit up. Because he could see that I was lit up. I expressed my appreciation for him as planned and then I said, “You know, 6 months ago you mentioned that flying was an experience I might have at some point in the future. I did not understand what you meant at the time and was determined to find out. Today I experienced it. Flying.” He replied, “I can see on your face that this is true.” “It’s an experience of Higher Consciousness while doing the sequence, isn’t it?” “Yes”, he replied. “Exactly right.” “I felt myself massaging the Universe, and the Universe was massaging me.” He nodded.

“Furthermore”, he went on, “The experience is even stronger when you are in a group and everybody in the group is having the same experience. There have been times when only a few of the die-hards in the group show up and we fly together.” “Ah,” I replied, excited at the thought, “The next step for me to experience. I look forward to it.” And he departed.

Now that was a magical conversation,” I concluded in my journal.

This One is Not Always So Easy — Bless Difficulty

Everyone has difficulties that come along in their lives. Master Teacher stories are full of difficulties overcome. Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, and others had them. One desirable response to an unexpectedly high expense to fix the car that your neglect caused, is to say,” Thank you. I will take care of it. I created the problem., I’ll deal with it.” And to go straight to Buddha mind for the appropriate response to the situation. A Spirit-stimulated response, not a human one.

Fortunately, we have an ally in our Higher Consciousness. To bring into focus the Power of the Now, and benefit from just being Here. In the Moment. With the difficulty. As it is unfolding right in front of us, when it seems that there is nothing that we can do but be swept along. And then can we remember to say to ourselves, “Peace Be Still”. And breathe. Allow Spirit to flow through and go to work on our behalf. And guide our actions. Or remember to ask for a Best Possible Outcome.

Our difficulties are of our own making. They are our children, the outgrowth of our physical/mental/emotional/spiritual makeup as it emerges into the world. It has been said that, while we cannot control all of our circumstances (an arguable premise but let’s accept it for the moment) we can control our responses to those circumstances.

And if we take full, personal responsibility for being cause, creator of the problem, we can go within to our Divine Selves where a number of options emerge that can neutralize the situation:

• A Sacred Breath

• A Mediation

• Channeling our Higher Selves into present time.

• Self-examination for personal patterns that cause such difficulties, in order to forgive and transform them.

• Checking our hearts and our gut for revelation.

• Reasoning with trusted ones to look for clues to the answer.

All good ways to work through difficulty by going Within.

Lastly, Thanking Higher Consciousness

If you have read any of my books you know that I refer to my Soul as my Higher Consciousness. Affectionately, “HiC”. I have developed a strong relationship with that part of myself. It is truly my Buddy.

Here is how I thanked my Soul recently.

This morning I found myself in a state of thankfulness to The ALL. For being The ALL. And birthing my consciousness, within ITS consciousness. For being the Mother force, if you will, for that birthing. I was aware that I was an Eternal Being and happy about being That.

Made of The ALL, and surrounded, out to Infinity, by The ALL, I could perceive the underpinning substance that supports what I was seeing. And the intelligence that somehow dreamed all of The ALL up. Existence, consciousness, is a gift.

“Thank you ALL and HiC (my personalized Higher Consciousness Presence) for the opportunity to evolve back to You.” is how I put it in words.

Next Steps

Here are a few gratitude meditations and exercises:

• Make an ongoing list of the things you are grateful for. And answer the question: “What about these are you grateful for?”

• In the morning, before you get up, name 5, or 10, things you are grateful for.

• Consider things that have ended up in your home and thank each step that got them there. I thank the supply chain for the furniture that is distributed around my house, thanking the many people who have made that possible.

• Serve another person to show your gratitude for them.

• Say simply and sincerely “Thank you”, for things done for you. Offering something specific about what you appreciate can amplify the gesture.

Blair Abee is an author, poet, YouTuber, and ordinary mystic. His 5 award-winning books are available at Amazon Books, and his YouTube videos at Blair Abee Higher Consciousness.

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