Recently I accompanied a friend on a trip to the local library, and while I was waiting for her to check out, a book jumped out at me from a nearby shelf. Written by the author of the best-selling book “The Secret,” this book was called “The Magic,” and I had been meaning to review it for Elevated Existence. It was surrounded by books in all different categories, and since I know there are no accidents, I picked it up, handed it to my friend and asked, “Can you add this to the books you are taking out?”

I’ll admit, it sat in a pile on my desk for a while, and I finally picked it up because I knew it was due back soon at the library. I realized the book offered an introduction of about 20 pages, and the remainder was broken up into 28 chapters – each offering a new gratitude exercise to be done consecutively over the next 28 days. Knowing the act of gratitude immediately raises our vibration, and activates the law of attraction to bring us more of what we are grateful for – I decided to give it a try!

I even called a friend and asked if she wanted to it with me. I said, “What is there to lose. If we concentrate on gratitude consistently for 28 days, something good has to come from it.” She agreed, and told another friend, so the three of us embarked on this journey of gratitude. What we discovered is … this gratitude stuff works!!

The exercises range in topics from health and career, to money and relationships – each day applying a specific gratitude exercise in one of these areas. And it didn’t take long to start seeing results!

Within the first week, my friend did a relationship exercise where you find three pictures of people you want to improve your relationship with and find five things to be grateful about them specifically. She chose someone she was estranged from, but missed. That afternoon, out of the blue, the friend contacted her to get together!

Here are some other things we noticed in the 28 days:

• I got unexpected checks in the mail totaling more than $500
• My relationships improved immensely with those who I concentrated on during the practice
• One friend got free products in the mail – a coffee maker and coffee grinder – both things she had on her list to buy, but they just showed up for free
• One friend was concerned with how she was going to pay for a party she was giving her child, and she got a temporary job opportunity that lasted three days – just enough to pay for what she needed.

These are all exciting things, but honestly, the best part of consistently going back to gratitude is this – you begin to feel good about every area of your life. Things that would have bothered you in the past don’t seem to faze you anymore, and even when you face a disappointment, you bounce back much quicker than before. Gratitude has the ability to instantly pull you up – it lifts your vibration, your heart, your mind and your soul. To me, there is no unexpected check or free product that can even come close to that.

The three of us who started this experiment recently started round 3 of our 28 days – and we have been joined by many others through word-of-mouth. I wanted to share this with all of you loyal readers, in hopes that you might give gratitude a bigger role to play in the theater of your life. This book is certainly a way to start.

Blessings, love & gratitude,

Tammy Mastroberte
Founder, Publisher & Editorial Director
Elevated Existence Magazine
www.elevatedexistence.com