Celebrating Your Appreciative Heart
As each one of my three daughters comes home for the Thanksgiving vacation holiday, my heart expands and I am overcome by all of the amazing gifts that I have in my life. Of course, also on the top of my list of the gifts and blessings I have in my life is Debbie Ford, the brilliance she shared with the world, and the legacy that she left behind. Simply put, Debbie’s work changed my life. She taught me concepts and tools that radically altered the way I viewed myself and the world. She gave me the gift of liberation!
As we enter the holiday season and this sacred time of introspection, Debbie’s words ring in my ear. Especially around this time of year, she used to remind us that:
“When you’re in the presence of your gifts,
you naturally feel gratitude.”
If you want to live a life beyond your wildest dreams, if you want to turn the ordinary into extraordinary and find the miracles that are dancing in front of you in every moment then start with the practice of cultivating gratitude and celebrating your Appreciative Heart!
So as we enter this week of Thanksgiving, we want to share with you one of Debbie’s beautiful prayers. We hope you take the time to read and listen. Especially during this season when we all literally and figuratively have so much on our plates, it is important to go within and connect with your blessings and all of God’s gifts to you so you can access and express your Appreciative Heart!
The Appreciative Heart
a prayer by Debbie Ford
listen to it by clicking here
download it by clicking here
Dear God,
Thank You for giving me my body, my hands,
my feet, and my heart.
Thank You for all the people who are in my life, and
thank You for giving me the ability to love, care for
and contribute to others.
Thank You for allowing me to grow and evolve,
to shed the old and make room for the new.
Thank You for my ability to see new opportunities
and to explore new paths.
Thank You for giving me the ability to think for myself,
and more importantly, to make wise choices.
Today I give thanks for my right to choose new perspectives,
new beliefs, new interpretations, new behaviors, new habits
and a new attitude.
All God’s gifts to me, all free, all accessible at any moment.
Thank You God for waking me up to how truly blessed I really am.
May the love that fills my heart right now go out
and enter into the hearts of all the people that are seeking it,
the ones that I know and the ones that I don’t know.
May I do Your will in all things.
May I stay present to how lucky I am.
And so it is, and it is so.
And gratefully I say “Amen.”
So in closing, this week as we turn our attention to what we are most appreciative for, we want you to know that we are grateful for YOU. We know that there is no greater honor than to be welcomed into your life and share in your emotional and spiritual evolution. We appreciate your openness and willingness to let us be a part of your process!
From our hearts, thank you, thank you, thank you…
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Transformational Action Steps
1. Make a plan to read or listen to The Appreciative Heart on a daily basis for at least a week.
2. Make a list of all of the gifts you feel blessed to have in your life.
3. Find a place that inspires and deeply nurtures you, a sacred place where you can ask your heart to tell you what it’s most appreciative for, allowing its own spontaneous and private prayer. Jot these words down and remember that they can serve to fill your internal cup and bring you peace at any time amidst the bustle of this holiday season.
