Abundance, Gratitude and the Joyous Heart

Candles, crystals and tarot cards - now that is joyful!
Corrine Kenner's and John J. Blumen's "Wizards Tarot"©
in the foreground

When we practice the abundant life, we strive to stay focused and positive on the people and things that makes us feel abundant.  We are told that it is essential to explore gratitude as we meditate on abundance and prosperity.  Today, in my meditation practice, I focused on gratitude.  Often when I do, I’m moved to tears as I count the blessings in my life.  Today I wasn’t and at first I didn’t understand why.

I love meditation.  It’s where I go for Divine connection, inspiration and comfort.  Today my feelings of gratitude, while they were sincerely meant, lacked the emotion, the elation that I often feel as I recount my blessings. My gratitude lacked the ‘kick-start,’ if you will.  I wondered why my expressions of thankfulness rang hollow until a realized that I was not in joy.  Joy, or rather a joyous heart is an intrinsic part of gratitude and therefore vital to the process of manifesting abundance in your life.  

Joy opens us to experiences.  Our hearts become accepting 

3 of Cups - celebration
from "Tarot of the Pagan Cats"©
by Lola Airaghi and Magdelina Messina

of pure possibility when we are in joy. Joy takes us away from negative projections and judgments about ourselves and others that confine and limit us.  In joy, we focus on the moment where life is lived in its entirety.  Within the present moment we can recount all that we are and hold dear without effort.  Joy links us to our Creator.  Joy allows us to examine the fullness of our gratitude and within that moment of actualization, we hold the creative force of the entire Universe in our hands. 

We all have moments, days, months, etc. when we are not happy.  I realized today that joy is different from happiness.  Joy is force all its own and not dependent on a happy state of mind.  I propose to you that true joy in the moment is not an emotion, but an energy field of its own.  As such, we can tap into joy, use it and direct it to power our meditative and creative processes.  Manifesting if a multitiered process.  Today i believe I reached another tier.

LADY ORACLE

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."

Melody Beattie - writer

For more thoughts on the workings of gratitude, please click this link and follow it to "The Moment Is Now"  our online radio show!