I reviewed a webinar given by Linda Ryan on Gratitude. The following are excerpts from that webinar.
She reviewed a chapter in the book “The Science of Getting Rich” written by Wallace Wattles in 1903.
He says that getting rich is not the result of doing certain things. It is the result of doing things in certain ways. One of the certain ways if Gratitude.
The first step toward getting rich is to convey the idea of your wants to the formless substance, you may call it God or whatever you wish. This is true and you will see that in order to do so it becomes necessary to relate yourself to the formless intelligence in a harmonious way.
To secure this harmonious relationship is a matter of such primary and vital importance that I will give some space to its discussion here. I will give you instructions which, if you follow them, will be certain to bring you into a perfect unity of mind with God.
The whole process of mental adjustment and attunement can be summed up in one word: Gratitude.
First, you must believe there is one intelligent substance from which all things have come.
Second, you must believe this substance can give you everything you desire.
Third, you must relate yourself to it through a feeling of deep and profound Gratitude.
Many of people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of Gratitude. Having received one gift from God they cut the wires that connect them to him by failing to make acknowledgement.
It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we shall receive. It’s also easy to understand that a soul that is always grateful lives in closer touch with God, than one who never looks to Him with acknowledgement.
When good things come to us, the more gratefully we fix our mind on the supreme power that more good things people receive, and the more rapidly they will come. So when good things come and we feel grateful we express that gratitude more good things are going to come and they are going to come quicker. The reason for this is simply that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into a closer touch with the source from which the blessings come. So, what you chose to call it, God, the universe, whatever It is, It brings us closer to it when we mix in the gratitude.
If it’s a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energy, the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true. The good things that you already possess have come to you because of certain laws.
Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which these things come, and it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought.
It’s really easy to get into the competitive mindset, but when we understand these principles and these laws we realize competition just doesn’t exist. There is more than enough for everybody and when we realize that, and when we start living that way abundance comes to us.
Gratitude alone can keep you looking toward the infinite and prevent you from falling into the arrogance of thinking that the supply of riches is limited, and to think that would be fatal to your hopes. Linda says that she loves his choice of words here, he says it’s FATAL, so that if you do think that there is not enough to go around, that I’d better get my piece of the pie now, because who knows how long it’s going to be there, he says it’s fatal to your hopes.
There’s a law of gratitude, and if you’re to get the results you seek, it’s absolutely necessary that you should observe the law.
The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind and grateful praise to the supreme power, is a liberation or expenditure, of course, it cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed. And, as a result, God responds with an instantaneous movement towards you. So, it can’t fail if you put out gratitude for something you already have, a gratitude for something you know is coming, it can’t fail to reach God.
What does that mean? What is this law of gratitude? What does it mean that it is the natural principle that action and reaction are equal and in opposite directions? What does that mean?
It means you can be in command all the time.
Equal & Opposite: You give what you get. Whatever you put out you get back.
So if you are putting out gratitude, you are saying, thank you God that you are sending me what I am asking for, I know it’s coming, I have faith, you get that back. You get more things to be grateful for.
This morning LInda was getting ready to see a client, and she got a text message from her daughter, she’s 17, if anyone out there has teenagers, they are not always that nice. She had bought her a purse last week, she really loved it, and this morning she sent her a text message that says “I love my purse, Mom, Thank you.” She had been thinking about that all day. It made Linda want to do more for her.
If you are putting out negative vibes, that’s what you get back.
Compliments are remembered forever!
Give somebody a compliment every single day. Let someone know that you are grateful for them. Send them a Get Well card. Send them an email. Send them a text message. Let them know they means so much to you.
Draw nigh onto God and He will draw nigh unto you. That is a statement of psychological truth. If your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in the One with Substance, will be strong and continuous. The movement of the things you want will always be towards you. It does not mean that the things wills show up instantaneously, but it’s always towards you, closer and closer. Notice the grateful attitude that Jesus took. How he always seems to be saying “Thank you Father, that thou hear me.” It’s like he knew that his prayers were going to be answered even if it didn’t appear that way right off the bat.
You cannot exercise much power without gratitude, because it is gratitude that keeps you connected with The Power.
So many people seem to get what they want, and things get rolling they get excited and they forget, to just spend another moment in gratitude.
But the value of gratitude does not exist solely in getting more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot keep from being displeased with things as they are. Bob Proctor says we should always be happy and grateful, but we should never be satisfied with what we have. We should always be trying to get more, but we should always be happy with what we have. There’s a big difference between being happy and grateful, and being satisfied. We should never be satisfied.
The moment you permit your mind do dwell with displeasure upon things that they are, you begin to lose ground. As soon as you look at y our situation, whether it be financial, your career, your relationships, the minute you feel displeased with that, you begin to lose ground, and you certainly don’t want to do that.
You fix your attention upon the common, the poor, the squalid and the mean, and your mind takes the forms of these things. You will then transmit these forms through mental images to the formula, thus the common, the poor, the squalid and the mean will come to you. So basically saying, thoughts will become things. You transmit those forms and all those things come to you.
You are not just saying, I don’t want this debt, I don’t want this relationship, I don’t want this crumby job. The universe, where our thought energy goes, the vibrations go out, and they’re not judged, we just get more of whatever is on that level. So, think about how great it’s going to feel when you have more money. Don’t feel angry or resentful or worried about it. That’s a very distinct vibration. We have to keep in our mind the things that we want, not the things that we don’t want.
To permit your mind to dwell on the inferior is to become inferior, and to surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best and to become the best. The creative power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention. So, only, always, give your attention to what you want. The end result, not what is going wrong, not what seems to be a stumbling block, to what you want.
We are a thinking substance and a thinking substance always takes the form of that which it thinks about. The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best and it will receive the best.
Also, faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one’s own life produces faith. Every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith. The person who has no feeling of gratitude cannot retain a living faith, as we will see in the following chapter, without a living faith, you cannot get rich by the creative method.
In “Think and Grow Rich” chapter 2 is on faith. Napoleon Hill says that we are taught from the time we are little kids to have faith in this to have faith in that…have faith in God, don’t question it, but how do you develop faith if it doesn’t already exist? So you have got to have big goals. If you’re reading this you are goal setters and goal achievers, so if you’ve set a big goal and you’re not seeing any signs of it, how do you have faith? How do you get that faith going? You do it with gratitude. You just keep focused on it and you are grateful for every little thing that is going right.
It’s necessary to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you. To give thanks continuously. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? Give thanks continuously. How do you do that? It does become a habit.
Because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. Make gratitude a habit. Once something is a habit, you don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to remind yourself.
Paul Martinelli talks about during a power outage walking down the hall to the kitchen to get a flashlight with a candle in his hand. He gets to the kitchen and reaches on the wall and turns on the light switch. He knows consciously that there’s no electricity, why am I turning on the light switch? Because it’s a habit. It happens naturally, whether you want to or not.
Do not waste time thinking or talking about the shortcomings or wrong doings. It’s necessary to cultivate the habit of every good thing that comes to you. And his words still ring true today. He’s saying stop complaining about the government or your employer, or the economy, it’s all here for a reason, and it’s made our opportunity.
All that you have received really has come to you because of them. Do not rage against corrupt politicians, if it were not for politicians we would have anarchy and our opportunity would be greatly lessened. God has worked a long time to create things just as they are for us.
I believe that God will do away with plutocrats, trust magnets, captains of industry, and politicians, as soon as they can be spared, but in the meantime they are very necessary. Remember that they are helping created the lines of transmission along which your riches will come to you. Be grateful to them. This gratitude will bring you into a harmony with the good in everything and the good in everything will move towards you.
If there is one thing that we can all learn from this is that we all have the ability to be grateful for every good thing we have.
Gratitude is an attitude that we choose.
If you fail to have gratitude, it does not matter even if you follow all of the other chapters in the book “The Science of Getting Rich”.

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