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Now, I KNOW
Submitted by: Kordula Gil
Canary IslandsI am female (58), and just rediscovering what a blessed and rich life I have had so far and still have.
THANK YOU, Rhonda, for writing this wonderful book. Today I am at day 12, and you are my Magical Person No. 1.
Over the years I’ve read many very good self-help books (yours, wonderful and magical Louise L. Hay’s, Hicks’, and many others). I am almost 60 and have accumulated a huge amount of “garbage” that I tried to let go of. I’ve practiced a lot of things, including gratefulness. I did make some progress, but without real breakthroughs, and I wasn’t consistent. Somehow I just didn’t get it.
Until “The Magic” (I’ve only reached chapter 12 so far). It’s exactly what I needed, a day by day guide that makes a huge difference right from the beginning. Your book profoundly touches me. It is so sensitive, full of love and gratefulness, a wonderful reminder of all the riches one has. I don’t miss a day doing my lessons/practices, and a lot more, because it is inspiring and makes me feel wonderful.
I started writing this message yesterday morning, without having a really great “success story” to tell, I just wanted to thank you. And while I was writing, magic did indeed happen.
I try to make a very long story as short as possible.
A year ago I was diagnosed a strange illness, but refused to undergo the operation/amputation. I accepted it as a warning, as an opportunity to change myself. I remembered a story mentioned by Louise Hay which also appears in The Secret. A man who recovered from an illness by laughing, he just spent a couple of months watching funny movies. This is certainly a great story, but Louise Hay also tells us that this very man soon got some other illness, because he hadn’t really changed (healing of mind, emotions, soul).
I was convinced that I could get well within a few months, like Louise Hay, or the woman in The Secret with breast cancer, and I in my mind I saw myself tell the doctor my success story. – Well, I could not, it had even gotten worse, despite an alternative therapy, despite of all the things I had done to change. But I didn’t want to give up and postponed the operation for another 6 months.
I thought I knew exactly why I had not gotten better, because of my lack of discipline and consistency, because I hadn’t truly changed yet, and I felt quite frustrated and helpless sometimes. Then, a few months ago, something the Maharaji (Prem Rawat, Words of Peace) said, made me realize that I had to let go a bit of the “end result” (that particular body part healthy again) and instead focus more on the changing and healing process itself, enjoy every single step, every little progress. Just by shifting the focus, a huge weight fell of me, and I recognized the many important changes and progresses I had already made, and enjoyed every new one. I felt so much better.
But something was still nagging deep inside me. Emotional issues. And I also thought that maybe it was somehow arrogant to think “what they can, I can”. Although it is true, I felt that there is more to it, a certain humbleness, but I didn’t really know how to change that. I considered myself a grateful person, and many of those practices in the book are already part of me. But after practicing a few chapters of your new book, it dawned on me, that this had been THE point, the missing ingredient. I had indeed taken for granted many things in the past, and I had considered a lot of things “personal achievements” when in fact they were GIFTS I should have been grateful for. Wow, what a revelation! Truly felt gratitude for EVERYTHING contains that humbleness, and it also has a tremendous soothing and healing effect on emotions.
Right now, writing this, I see that this alone is already a “great success story” – for those who not only want to be a millionnaire or have a Porsche 😉 . But there is more.
Just when I was feeling really good and happy, our landlady told us that she wanted to move back into this flat for private reasons, that we had to move out within a month, that she was sorry … Totally unexpected. I had to digest it, and then try to find things to be grateful for, and continue with my practices. I thought maybe this is for something better, but then I would also need a magical gift of money for that. I started looking for flats and saw that there are many available, but only a few where I could keep my wonderful plants on the terrace.
Thanks to practicing gratitude, all in all I felt all right. Had it happened two weeks earlier, I would probably have “drowned” and made many steps backwards. But my stomach still felt heavy, despite my trying to ignore it. So, 3 days later, I decided to admit my frustration and worries, let it all out. After (!) counting my blessings, I wrote on a piece of paper how I truly felt about the situation, and then added, “But I must say I am really grateful to the landlady for…” The latter came easily, and the weight had gone! I threw the paper away and wrote into my Gratitude Book a “thank you letter” to the landlady. Then I asked myself what truly would be the ideal situation for me, right now. And I wrote it down: Best would be to be able to remain here (maybe she has a lucky streak, wins the lottery and finds something wonderful). Second best would be …. Third …. I was even capable of accepting to move into a flat without terrace, in a not so nice area. At the end I added, that I was prepared to accept anything offered to me, and I gave thanks for the perfect resolution, to the best of both parties.
I felt really good, calm and confident, and in the afternoon I called her to thank her directly.
Next morning, I felt so good and grateful for being able to feel so good and grateful in this situation, and I just wanted to thank you, Rhonda, for this wonderful book that came into my life at the right moment (through a dear friend to whom I’m deeply grateful), and while I was writing this very “letter” to give my truly felt thanks, my husband received an SMS: Stop looking for flat. I have found a solution. You may stay there for another year.”
Magic. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Now, I do not only believe – now, I KNOW. THANK YOU, …
PS:
The other day, when I went to my Yoga class in a public school building, I saw that probably a first-grader had written in huge clumsy letters (in Spanish) on an outer door: “Thank you, God, for my education at a public school”.
This small child has understood something that I had not until now. How wonderful, and how encouraging! Thank you for those children!