The Magic (12 page)

To Have A Magical Day you need to feel good. I don’t know of anything other than gratitude that guarantees to put you in a good mood almost instantly.

Whatever your plans are for the day today, whether it’s traveling, a meeting, work project, lunch, exercise, dropping off dry cleaning, playing a sport, going to the theater, meeting a friend, yoga, cleaning your house, going to school, or buying groceries, turn today into a magical day by saying the magic words,
thank you,
for each plan going well –
before
you live it! If you’re a person who writes daily lists of things you need to do, then you can go through your daily list and be grateful for each one having gone well. Whether you do this magical practice in your mind or on paper, the most important thing is that you feel the result of each plan or activity was the
best
it could have been.

When you use gratitude ahead of time to Have A Magical Day it wipes out unexpected problems or difficulties before they happen. The more you use this magical practice, the better your days will become, and from the smallest things to the important things, everything starts going well in your life. The bumpy days smooth out, and instead of frustrating or troublesome things happening in your day, your days start to have a magical flow about them, and things seem to magically go your way, with less effort, no worry, no stress, and far more joy.

When I first began to use gratitude to Have A Magical Day, I chose to give thanks ahead of time for the events in my day that I didn’t enjoy doing very much. One of those things was going to the supermarket. At the beginning of the day I said the magic words: “Thank you for the easy and joyful trip to the supermarket.” I had no idea how a trip to the supermarket could be easy and joyful, but I felt as much gratitude for that outcome as I could.

The result of gratitude’s magical power was that I got a parking space right at the door. I then ran into two friends. One friend I hadn’t seen for a long time, and we got together for lunch after shopping. The second friend I ran into told me about an amazing and inexpensive house cleaner, which was something I had been dreaming of having. As I did my supermarket shopping, wherever I looked, what I needed was magically in front of my eyes; everything was in stock on the shelves; one item after another was on special; and as I approached the checkout after doing my shopping in record time, a new aisle opened, and the checkout person signaled me to them. As the checkout person was putting my items through the register, out of the blue she asked, “Do you need any batteries?” It was the one item I had forgotten to buy! My trip to the supermarket was beyond easy and joyful – it was downright magical!

It only takes a few minutes in the morning to use gratitude to Have A Magical Day by giving thanks for the events in your day ahead of time, but this one practice alone will change the way your entire day unfolds.

To Have A Magical Day, when you wake up to the new day, either before you get out of bed, or while you’re showering or getting dressed, think about your plans for the day, and give thanks for each one going brilliantly well. Make sure you do this magical practice at the beginning of your day and in one session. In your mind, work your way through the plans you have for the morning, afternoon, and evening, until bedtime. With each plan or event, say the magic words and imagine that you’re saying
thank you
at the end of the day, and you’re immensely grateful because it did go brilliantly well.

You can use as many superlatives as you like to help you feel more grateful. “
Thank you
for the incredibly successful meeting.” “
Thank you
for the amazing outcome with the phone call.” “
Thank you
for one of the best days ever at work.” “
Thank you
for the thrilling sports game.” “
Thank you
for the effortless and fun day of cleaning.” “
Thank you
for the great night out with our friends.” “
Thank you
for the relaxing day of travel.” “
Thank you
for the amazing energy from my exercise session.” “
Thank you
for the best family get-together we’ve ever had.”

This magical practice is more powerful if you can say the magic words,
thank you,
out loud for each experience, but if you’re not in a position to say them out loud then it is fine to say them in your mind.

After you’ve finished using gratitude’s magical power for every task and event in your day, end the practice by saying, “And thank you for the great news coming to me today!” Without fail, every single morning when I finish using gratitude to Have A Magical Day, I give thanks for the great news coming to me that day. As a result, I’ve never received so much great news in my entire life. One week after another, one day after another, great news pours in! Each time I receive another piece of great news I am especially grateful and excited because I know I used gratitude’s magical power to bring it, and then even more great news continues to come in. If you want to receive more great news than you ever have before, then just follow in my footsteps.

Magic Practice Number 14

Have a Magical Day

1. Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write
   why
   you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say
   thank you, thank you, thank you,
   and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
   
2. In the morning, work your way in your mind through the plans you have for the day and evening, until bedtime. With each plan or event, say the magic words,
   thank you,
   for it having gone well. Imagine that you’re saying
   thank you
   at the end of the day, and you’re immensely grateful because it went perfectly.
   
3. After you’ve finished being grateful for all the plans in your day going brilliantly well, end this magical practice by saying:
   And thank you for the great news coming to me today!
   
4. Just before you go to sleep tonight, hold your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words,
   thank you,
   for the
   best
   thing that happened during the day.
   

Day 15

Magically Heal Your Relationships

If you have a difficult or broken relationship, are suffering from a broken heart, or hold any resentment or blame toward another person for anything, you can change it through gratitude. Gratitude will magically improve any difficult relationship, whether that person is a husband or wife, brother or sister, son or daughter, partner, boss, business client, work colleague, mother- or father-in-law, parent, friend, or neighbor.

When we are faced with a difficult relationship or a challenging situation in a relationship, in almost all cases, we’re not in the least bit grateful for the other person. Instead, we’re busy blaming the other person for the problems we have with them, and that means we don’t have a shred of gratitude. Blame is never going to make a relationship better, and it’s never going to make your life better. In fact, the more you blame, the worse the relationship gets, and the worse your life gets.

Whether it’s a current relationship or a past relationship, if you harbor bad feelings toward another person, practicing gratitude will eliminate those feelings. Why would you want to remove your bad feelings about another person?

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

Gautama Buddha (circa 563 BC–483 BC)
FOUNDER OF BUDDHISM

Bad feelings about another person burn
your
life, but gratitude will eliminate them!

For example, if you have an ex-partner who is connected to you through your children, and the relationship isn’t good, look at your children’s faces and realize that they wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for your ex-partner. Your children’s lives are one of the most precious gifts you have. Look at your children, and give thanks to your ex-partner for their lives every single day! As well as bringing peace and harmony to the relationship, through your example you will be teaching your children the greatest tool for their life – gratitude.

Or, if you’re suffering from a broken heart or grief due to a relationship having ended, you can use gratitude’s magical power to transform your pain. Gratitude magically transforms emotional pain into healing and happiness faster than anything else, and the story of my parents is a perfect example of that.

My mother and father fell in love with each other virtually at first sight. From the moment they met, they were truly grateful to be with each other, and they had the most beautiful marriage I have ever seen.

When my father died, my mother understandably suffered from enormous grief. After months of suffering, she began to use gratitude’s magical power, and despite her immense grief and pain, she looked for things to be grateful for. She began with the past, and she recalled all the wonderful times of happiness she had received through the decades with my father. Then she took the next big step, and she looked for things to be grateful for in the future. One by one she found them. She found or remembered things she had always wanted to do but didn’t have time to do when my father was alive. And with this courageous step of gratitude, opportunities to fulfill her dreams magically poured in, and her life became rich with happiness again. The magical power of gratitude gave my mother a new life.

For today’s magical practice you are going to look for a hot coal that is burning your life, and literally turn it into gold through gratitude! Choose one difficult, problematic, or broken relationship that you want to improve. It doesn’t matter whether the person is currently in your life, or if it’s a past relationship and the person is no longer in your life.

Sit down and make a written list of ten things you’re grateful for about the person you’ve chosen. Think back through the history of the relationship, and list the great things about the person or the great things you received from the relationship. The easiest way to do this is to think back to the way things were
before
the relationship deteriorated or ended. If the relationship was never good, then think hard about any good qualities in the person because they are there.

This magical practice is not about who is right or wrong. No matter what you feel someone has done to you, no matter what someone said or didn’t do,
you
can magically heal the relationship, and you don’t need the other person in order to heal it.

There is gold in every relationship, even the difficult ones, and to bring riches to all your relationships and your life, you have to find the gold. As you dig and discover a nugget of gold, write it down, address the person by name, and express your sentence in gratitude:

       Name       
, I’m grateful for
       what?       
.

1. Paul, I’m grateful for our time together. While our marriage did end, I learned a lot, I am so much wiser today, and I use what I learned from our marriage in many of my relationships today.
   
2. Paul, I’m grateful for everything you did to try and make our marriage work, because ten years of marriage means you did try.
   
3. Paul, I am grateful to you for our children. The joy I receive from them every day could not be without you.
   
4. Paul, I’m grateful to you for the hard work and long hours you put in to support our family, while I was at home taking care of our children. It was a big responsibility to have all of us dependent on you, so thank you.
   
5. Paul, I am grateful to you for the precious moments I had with our children as they grew up. I got to see our children talk and walk for the first time, and I know you didn’t have that opportunity.
   
6. Paul, I’m grateful for your support when I went through a difficult time of grief and loss.
   
7. Paul, I’m grateful to you for the times when I was sick, and you did your best to take care of me and the children.
   
8. Paul, I’m grateful for the great times we had, and we did have many.
   
9. Paul, I’m grateful that you want to continue to be a father to our children.
   
10. Paul, I’m grateful for your support and the time you want to give to our children. I know they mean as much to you as they do to me.
    

By the time you’ve finished your gratitude list of ten things, you should feel much better about the person and the relationship. The ultimate point you want to reach is where you don’t have any bad feelings toward the person anymore, because it’s
your
life that is harmed by those feelings. Every relationship is different, and if need be, you may choose to repeat this magical practice over several days until you reach the point where you don’t have any bad feelings toward the person anymore.