I obviously share my health and wellness journey here, but I want to remind you that there is more to it than just workouts and eating well. Personal growth + development is also a key part to my transformation and wellness.

Since starting this journey and incorporating personal development into my daily practice, I have read easily 30 or more books, most of which have been 100% worth spending the time to read. And here’s the thing- I don’t read a whole book in a weekend or anything like that. I read 10-15 pages per day, consistently. Just like everything else in this journey, slow and stead and consistent wins the race.

I started a new book this week called “The Magic,” which is a 28 day journey of daily, dedicated gratitude practice so I thought this would be a great book to share my 28 day journey in a few blog posts, and also to keep myself accountable to this practice. I go through phases where I spend a few minutes in the mornings being thankful for areas of my life for a week or two, and then fall out of practice and forget about it for a few more weeks. I want to make gratitude a purposeful, DAILY practice so that I start and end each day being thankful for this life. Life is freaking SHORT y’all. Not sure if you knew that or not… but I want to spend the days that I do have acknowledging WHAT I have and being happy and thankful for it. My upline coach and friend Alison gifted this book to me at the perfect time in my life, and I am hoping this will help solidify my practice and make it a daily habit.

I am only a few days into this book, but the basis is this: The “magic” of abundance is created from being thankful for what you have. Those who practice more gratitude will be given more, and those who do not will not. It is a passage from the Bible that does not include the word gratitude, but when inserted makes perfect sense. When I first read that it was a Bible passage, I’m not going to lie I was like 🙄🙄🙄… but then the book made mention that you do not have to be religious or a believer for this to apply to you and I was ok with it. (I am also trying to have an open mind about spiritual thoughts/ideas vs. what is propagated from organized religion- and there is clearly a difference.) I digress.

The first day you write down 10 things you are thankful for and why. Then you re-read the list and say thank you, thank you, thank you after each item.

Day two you repeat the list of 10 + thank you’s, and then you get a magic rock that you can hold on to and you think of all the BEST parts of your day, and you think really hard about the very best part and give thanks again while holding onto this rock right before bed.

Today is day 3 which has to do with relationships. Repeat days one and two practices, plus get pictures of the three people with whom you have the most important relationships. Several times throughout the day you look at these pictures and think of the reasons why you are thankful to have them in your life. I have these three photos saved to my phone and will look at them throughout the day.

So far, I can totally get down with these practices. I like the way the book is set up in small daily increments, and can easily be done in short times during the day. I will continue to share my gratitude practice in future blog posts and let you know what I think of this book, so if this interests you don’t forget to like my Facebook page so you can stay up to date on blog posts and daily wellness inspo!