The power of belief and gratitude

For most of my adult like I have been an avid student of whatever lessons life had to teach. But more recently, I have taken an ever more active stance towards, self empowerment. I spend a part of each day reading and learning from leaders in the field of personal growth.

I am always looking for evidence of the things that I have learned and made a part of my life. An example presented itself recently that I will be sharing here.

In The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles, a concept was introduced that says you should be grateful for the things that you are working towards, even before you achieve the results. Have faith that they will come to you and be thankful for them.

To a logical reasoning person that may seem strange, and it should. Faith is not logical. For a time, I had some trouble with this concept. However, I decided to put my thoughts on the matter aside until I had given it a chance. And over time I have seen that having that faith and gratitude made easy many circumstances that had been difficult before. Resistances seemed to melt away and results appeared where none had been before. Doorways which before were closed and locked seemed to open on their own. So I made this way of being a part of my way of being.

It was also stated that you should not get upset at your failures. If you have faith that the things you are working towards will happen and are grateful for them, even before you receive them, any seeming failure will only be temporary and a thing much greater than that which you were working towards will be the eventual result.

Again, I was skeptical of this, but open minded and in the past few months there have been a couple of large examples of this, both involving our home. First, we knew that Bank of America was charging us way too much for lender placed insurance and we wanted to fix that. But when we called our own insurance company there were numerous delays and obstacles preventing us from getting the insurance handled. For months we were getting nowhere. Then this principle of faith and gratitude was applied and headway began to occur.

Several times though, when it seemed like we might be at the end of the process, something would come up and halt our progress. It seemed almost as though some force were actively working to prevent what we were working towards.

Initially we were expecting to pay about $5,000 per year for our insurance and every cent out of our pocket. After multiple obstacles came up to drag things out over time, what actually ended up happening is we paid $3,500. Also, BOA had recently sold our home to another mortgage company and cancelled our insurance. The escrow had not been adjusted after the sale. So money for insurance was going into it every month but not coming out of it. Due to the exact timing of things there was enough money in the escrow so that we did not have to pay a cent up front.

The second example of this is that we have for a long time also known that BOA was treating us unfairly and unethically. We wanted to find a way to sue them for our home note. We did some research and found that it was possible and even likely that we would win if we sued them.

So, we got a lawyer and began the process. At first things seemed to be going well. Then another lawyer took over our case and it began to look like all the problems we had been having with our insurance were magically being applied to this instead. The new lawyer has been difficult to contact. He almost never has any useful information and just recently told us he does not have any of the dozens of documents that we sent.

Just yesterday, I was talking with one of my roommates and saying how I wasn't going to get upset about this and that things are taking exactly as long as they need to take in order to get the results we want. By moving on with faith and gratitude, accepting and believing in the eventual result we received some good news today.

The first lawyer called us to do a follow up and see how things are going. When she heard that we had paid more than twice the retainer that she had told us he was going to charge and that in the past several months no progress at all has been made, that he has in fact not even started to work on our case, she took our case back. Someone else in her office will be taking it over and not charging us, as her way of compensating for the treatment we have received from the lawyer she advised us to work with.

So,unlike many, I didn't jump on  board and just accept this faith and gratitude concept right away. I tested it with an open mind and found it to be true and very powerful. I encourage you to make it a part of your life as well.

A few more words on gratitude pt2

Now imagine that every person on the planet is born with a certain internal reserve of energy and at that person's birth a certain amount of the energy in the universe is set aside to handle working with that person to assist them in making all their hopes and dreams come true. Assume that the amount of energy the universe puts aside for each person is an order of magnitude higher than the amount that any person can ever achieve, so that the universe can always adequately reflect the amount that the person gives off no matter how their emotions and thoughts fluctuate. What a person gives out the universe will give back. Like breeds like.

With this in mind, imagine that a person is working towards a goal that requires 100 units of this energy to achieve, getting homeowner's insurance for example. Positive energy is a creative force and negative energy is a destructive force. Achieving a goal is about making an improvement or about building something, gaining or increasing. So we will need 100 units of positive energy to achieve this goal. Each point of negative energy in what we say do or think will decrease the amount of positive energy. They cancel each other out.

So the person working towards this goal is excited and happy about their vision and puts out their maximum effort that they can at one point in time and let's say that's five units of positive energy. You as the universe see this person with that vision, are impressed with their excitement and positivity and you reflect their energy with five units of positive energy.

Now they are ten percent of the way there. The next day occurs and they are working more towards their goal and everything looks great. They provide five more units of positivity and so do you. Then they are twenty percent of the way there.

Day three comes around and while they are working towards their goal an obstacle comes up. The insurance agent tells them that there is going to be a delay because inspections need to be done. The best thing for the person to do would be to say okay cool how do we do that. Let's get it done. Then today could be another day of ten percent achievement. Instead the person gets frustrated with the delay and becomes negative. Here is the important part of this lesson.

You as the universe are saying we're about a fifth of the way to you having this goal are you sure this is what you want? And the person's reply is totally negative. Five units of negative energy are generated by the person and you as the universe decide that the person does not want what they have said they do. You respond by applying five more units of negative energy. Now they are back to the 10% of the way towards their goal that they were on day one. And the way this will show up is by more obstacles and challenges occurring as the universe again asks what they really want.

As you can see, in order for any real forward progress to happen, the person is going to need to focus all of their thoughts, words and deeds positively towards accomplishing their goals.

If a person is putting their best effort forward, while living with faith that they will receive that for which they are working towards and are grateful for those things which they have yet to receive there can be no doubt about the results. The universe is constantly being updated with the truth that they want exactly what they have asked for and they are sure to receive it.

Keep in mind also that things will sometimes not happen on the timetable that you would like due to the fact that you as a person do not know the amount of energy required to bring you what it is that you desire. But, often when things do not happen when you want them to, when they finally do, something about them will be even better than that for which you had originally planned.

Be persistent in maintaining an attitude of gratitude,while putting your best foot forward and faithfully believing you will get what you want, and all your dreams will come true

A few more words on gratitude pt1

In some previous posts I have mentioned that being grateful is an important part of being successful in life. Some recent real life experiences have caused me to do some more thinking along those lines.

We have been attempting to replace the lender placed insurance that we have had for the past several years with actual homeowner's insurance. I say attempting because this has been going on for the last four months.  There have been multiple roadblocks all along the way. We have always been polite and professional with the people over the phone, but once they were off the phone we were cursing the circumstance and wanting to take out our frustration on the customer service or insurance people.

Recently my point of view has changed and now things are moving along pretty smoothly. Some data even came up while working with the fourth insurance agent that looks like it is going to save us from needing to make a big up front out of pocket payment. This would not have happened if the first insurance agent months ago had been able to help us right away.

What caused this change? Essentially I realized that I was not showing an attitude of gratitude which I will explain shortly.

If you have read some of the other things that I have written, you probably already know that I believe very strongly in the power of positive/negative energy. What you say do and think creates a response from the universe. If what you say, do and think is positive the universe will bring you positive results. If what you say, do and think is negative the universe will bring you negative results. If you send out mixed messages the universe will bring you back mixed results.

Now about gratitude. It is easy to be grateful for the things that you have and you should be. That is awesome and positive and does tend to bring more good things to you. But what is even more powerful yet is being grateful for the things which you do not have as of yet. I know that may not make sense to you, but bear with me. Here is how it works.

First, you decide that you want something. Next you put into motion a plan to go about getting it. While you are working towards your goal, put forth your best effort in every step where your participation is required and live in faith that the thing that you are working towards will soon be yours. Be thankful as if that thing were already yours and imagine the things that you will be able to do once it is. This gratitude creates a sort of vacuum in the universe between the vision of what you want and what you have, pulling the two together until they become one.

Sometimes things do not always go according to plan though. And just today a new way of looking at obstacles has come to me. Imagine, if you will, any obstacle that comes up as the universe asking you if you are sure that this thing you envision is something that you really want. The way of saying yes it is what you want is to continue putting forth your best effort with faith that it is yours and gratitude as if it were already yours. The way of saying no is allowing your thoughts, words or deeds to become negative in any way shape or form.

Doing the latter halts all forward progress towards you and causes you to start the process of positive thinking all over. Every time you tell the universe that you do not want the things which you have asked for more and more obstacles will come up and those things will move further and further away.

Think about this. Some of the things in your vision will likely require less time and effort to achieve. Some of them will take more. And some that you think will take less end up taking more. But the fact of the matter is everything is going to take a certain amount of energy. Before you begin any process you do not know how much of each will be required. Let's say that instead of being you, you are the universe and the universe does know how much energy needs to go into each portion of your vision in order to see it realized.

The universe

The universe provides.

I do not remember where I first heard that statement. But it has been the cornerstone of much of my philosophy about life. And In my personal life I can say without the slightest bit of doubt, that it is true.

Whatever it is that you really need, a way to obtain that thing will be provided. Now maybe, when the opportunity comes along, you might decide not to take advantage of it because of how it looks or strings that may be attached. But salvation will always be offered.

Have you ever noticed, that some people just seem to have all the luck? Good things always happen to them and life just seems so easy for them?  I would be willing to bet you money that whoever it is that you see that has their life work that way believes as I do that the universe provides. It is not luck. It is positive thought driven by faith.

A friend of mine always shakes his head when I go on about this because he sees that for me it is truth but for him it is not. And all I can really say about that is he does not have faith in anything unseen. He's a huge math nerd and very logical about things.  We are both very intelligent and know a great many things about the world. But I know there is much more to the world than what can be seen and heard. There are things that can only be felt and directed by one who has faith that things will turn out in an acceptable way.

The best decisions that I make are often made when they are done on the principle of faith alone. It is important to know where you are going and it is important to plan how you are going to get there. But the decision to get somewhere has to come first. After all no person has the time or inclination to plan out every single step of every possibility for what they could do before deciding to do something new. The fact of the matter is that you want something. Declare that you will obtain it. Do not worry about how. How will come along afterwards.  The universe will provide the way if you provide the desire.

What has occurred to me only recently is that in not wanting to seem greedy, I have never asked much of the universe, just enough to get by. And I have been very successful, in just getting by. I was content to just float through life neither rising nor falling, just maintaining.  It has also recently come to my attention that many of the things that I would like to do are not going to happen if this habit and pattern continue.

The universe and I get to have a new conversation.  If you have been reading along with me for awhile now, you may know that, I feel my purpose in being is to positively impact the lives of as many people as I can for as long as I can, as part of a goal to make the world a better place.  Making a few hundred dollars a month is not going to make that happen.  I have discovered that I can do more for the world with wealth, than I can without it.  My desires are changing and as such my results will change. Having found the vehicle that I intend to use to create that wealth, now it just falls to me and the universe to make it happen.  The universe will provide the plan and I will take the action.