The Magic (9 page)
If you’re paying a bill for gas or electricity, think about the heating or cooling you received, the hot showers, and every appliance you were able to use because of the service. If you’re paying a phone or Internet bill, imagine how difficult your life would be if you had to travel vast distances to talk to each person individually. Think about how many times you’ve been able to call family and friends, send and receive emails, or access information instantly through the Internet because of your service provider. All of these remarkable services are at your fingertips, so be grateful for them, and be grateful that the companies trust you by providing their services
before
you have paid for them.
Ever since I discovered the phenomenal power of gratitude, I write the magic words, “
Thank you – Paid,
” on every bill as I pay it, and I never miss a single one. At the beginning, when I didn’t have the money to pay a bill, I would still use gratitude’s magical power, and would instead write across the bill, “
Thank you for the money.
”
Then when I had the money to pay it, I would add, “
Thank you – Paid.”
Today you are going to do the same. Take any currently unpaid bills you have, and use gratitude’s magical power by writing across them, “
Thank you for the money,”
and feel grateful for having the money to pay the bill, whether you have it or not. If you receive and pay most of your bills online, then when you receive an online bill forward it to yourself as an email and write in the subject line in capital bold letters,
THANK YOU FOR THE MONEY.
Next, find ten bills you’ve paid in the past and write across the front of each one the magic words, “
Thank you – Paid.
” As you write on each paid bill, feel as grateful as you possibly can that you had the money to pay the bill. The more gratitude you can harness for the bills you’ve paid, the more money you will magically magnetize to you!
From this day forward, you could make it your regular practice that whenever you pay a bill, you briefly think about the great service you’ve received from the bill, and write across the face of the bill the magic words, “
Thank you – Paid.
” And if you don’t have the money to pay a bill, use gratitude’s magical power and write, “
Thank you for the money,
” and feel as if you’re saying thank you because you
have
the money to pay the bill!
Feeling gratitude for the money you’ve paid out guarantees you will receive more. Gratitude is like a magnetic golden thread attached to your money, so when you pay money out, the money always returns to you, sometimes equally, sometimes tenfold, sometimes a hundredfold. The abundance you receive back depends not on how much money you give, but on how much gratitude you give. You could have so much gratitude when you pay a bill for fifty dollars that you could receive back hundreds of dollars.
Magic Practice Number 9
The Money Magnet
- 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. - Take any current unpaid bills you have, use gratitude’s magical power, and write across each one:
Thank you for the money.
Feel grateful for having the money to pay the bill, whether you have it or not. - Take
ten
bills you’ve paid in the past, and write across the front of each one of them the magic words: “
Thank you – Paid.”
Feel truly grateful that you had the money to pay the bill! - Before you go to sleep, take your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words,
thank you,
for the
best
thing that happened during the day.
Day 10
Magic Dust Everyone
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
Saint Ambrose (AD 340–397)
THEOLOGIAN AND CATHOLIC BISHOP
Ancient spiritual teachings say that what we give to another person with a full heart returns to us a hundredfold. So being grateful and saying
thank you
to another person for anything you receive from them is not only urgent, it’s vital to improving
your
life!
Gratitude is a powerful energy, and so whomever you direct gratitude’s energy toward, that’s where it goes. If you think of gratitude’s energy looking like sparkling magic dust, then when you express gratitude to another person in return for something you’ve received from them, you are literally sprinkling them with that magic dust! The powerful, positive energy in magic dust reaches and affects whomever you sprinkle it on.
Most of us make contact with many people every day, whether on the phone, through email, or face to face at work, in stores, restaurants, elevators, buses, or trains, and in many cases the people we make contact with deserve our gratitude, because we are receiving something from them.
Think about the people you encounter on a typical day who provide you with some kind of service, like those working in stores or restaurants, bus or cab drivers, customer service people, cleaners, or the staff at your work. The people who work in service are
giving themselves
to serve you, and you’re
receiving
their service. If you don’t say
thank you
in return for their service, then you’re not being grateful, and you’re stopping the good from coming into your life.
Think about the maintenance workers who keep our transport systems working safely, and those who maintain the service of utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and our roads.
Think about the cleaners of the world who clean our streets, public bathrooms, trains, buses, airplanes, hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets, and office buildings. You can’t personally say
thank you
to all of them, but you can sprinkle them with magic dust by saying
thank you
next time you pass one of them. And you can be grateful next time you sit at your clean desk, or walk on a clean sidewalk, or across a polished floor.
When you’re at a café or restaurant, sprinkle magic dust by saying
thank you
to each person as they serve you. Whether cleaning the table, giving you the menu, receiving your order, filling your glass with water, serving the meal you ordered, clearing the table, giving you the bill, or giving your change, remember to say
thank you
every single time. If you’re in a store or supermarket checkout, sprinkle magic dust and say
thank you
to the person who serves you or packs your groceries.
If you are traveling by plane, sprinkle magic dust by saying
thank you
to the check-in people, the people in security, the person who checks your ticket as you board, and the cabin crew who greet you as you enter the plane. During the flight, say
thank you
to the cabin crew every time they perform a service for you. Serving drinks and food or removing your plate or trash is a service. The airline thanks you for flying with them, the captain thanks you, and the crew thank you, so do the same and thank
them
as you leave the plane. And every time you take off and land at your destination say
thank you,
because the fact that you can fly is an absolute miracle!
Be grateful to those people who assist you in your work, whether they are clerical staff, receptionists, canteen staff, cleaners, customer service people, or any of your work colleagues. Magic dust them all with
thank you!
All of them are doing you a service, and they deserve your continued gratitude in return.
Store assistants, waiters, and waitresses work very hard to serve people. They have chosen a job to serve other people, and serving the public means encountering all kinds of people in varying moods, including those who are ungrateful. Next time you are being served by another person, remember that the person who is serving you is a precious daughter or son to parents, an irreplaceable brother or sister to siblings, a mother or father to a family and children, and a loved and adored partner or friend, and they deserve your kindness and patience.
At times you may encounter a person in service who behaves rudely toward you or doesn’t give you the attention you think you deserve. It may be more challenging to be grateful in these situations, but your gratitude cannot be dependent on another person’s behavior. Choose to be grateful no matter what! Choose magic in your life no matter what! It might help you to remember that you don’t know what difficulty someone might be going through at the time you connect with him or her. They may be feeling unwell, they may have just lost a loved one, their marriage might have just ended, or they may be in desperation and at a tipping point in their life. Your gratitude and kindness might be the most magical thing that happens to them that day.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Philo of Alexandria (circa 20 BC–AD 50)
PHILOSOPHER
If you thank someone on the phone for his or her help, don’t throw away your
thank you;
instead, give the reason
why
you’re grateful. For example, “Thank you for your help.” “Thank you for going out of your way for me.” “Thank you for giving me so much of your time.” “Thank you for resolving the situation for me, I’m very grateful to you.” You will be amazed at the response from the other person when you do this one simple thing, because they will feel your sincerity.
When you say
thank you
to someone in person, look at his or her face. They will not feel your gratitude or receive your magic dust unless you look directly at them. You’ve wasted an opportunity to help that person and to change your own life if you say
thank you
to the air, or say
thank you
as you’re looking down, or
thank you
while you’re on your cell phone, because you’re not really sincere when you do that.
A couple of years ago I was in a store buying a gift for my sister. The store assistant who served me listened to what I was looking for, and then went on a search for the perfect gift as though it was for
her
sister! As the store assistant handed me the bag containing the perfect, beautifully wrapped gift, I received a call on my cell phone. I was finishing the call when I reached the front entrance of the store, and suddenly an unsettled feeling swept over me. I immediately returned to the store assistant who had helped me, and I not only thanked her, but I told her all the reasons
why
I was grateful to her, and how much I appreciated everything she did for me. I showered her with gratitude’s magic dust! Her eyes filled with tears, and the biggest smile you’ve ever seen swept across her face.
Every action always has an equal reaction. If you really mean it when you say
thank you,
the other person will feel it, and you will not only have made another person feel really good, but your gratitude will fill
you
with an indescribable happiness. That day I walked out of the store indescribably happy.
I don’t use magic dust only for the people who serve; I use gratitude’s magic dust in all kinds of situations. When I say goodbye to my daughter before she drives to her home, I feel gratitude for her having arrived home safely, and I wave my fingers in the air and imagine sprinkling magic dust over her and her car. Sometimes I sprinkle magic dust on my computer before I begin a new project, or sprinkle magic dust ahead of me before I walk into a store to look for something in particular that I need. My daughter uses magic dust when she’s driving, and if she sees another driver who seems to be stressed and is speeding, she sprinkles magic dust over them to help make them feel better and keep them safe.
Today, take gratitude’s magic dust with you for the people who work in service, and look for every opportunity you can to sprinkle magic dust on everyone by saying
thank you.
Thank at least ten people who perform different services you benefit from today. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the opportunity to do it in person; you can mentally acknowledge the people whose service you benefit from. The magic dust will still reach them. As an example, mentally say to yourself:
I’m really grateful to the cleaners who work through the early hours of the morning, making sure that the streets are cleaned of trash every day. I’ve never really thought about how grateful I am for that service, which is done like clockwork every day. Thank you.
Make sure you keep count of the people in service you are grateful for, so that you know when you have thanked ten different people for their services and sprinkled magic dust on them all. If you imagine the sparkling magic dust falling over people when you thank them, you have a picture of what really happens in the invisible with the power of gratitude. With this picture in your mind, it will help you to believe and know that the magic dust of gratitude really does reach people, and that it will be available to help them to improve their lives. And every time you sprinkle magic dust over another person, it also returns to you in your own life.