Whatever we are waiting for–peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance–it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart! -Sarah Ban Breathnach

How open is your heart today? And how grateful are you for where you are at this exact moment in time? We can only experience that which we seek when we recognize what we already have–what already exists in our lives. It is in that knowing that more becomes possible. It is the gratitude for exactly where we are that allows us to open to new possibility.

I often find myself striving for the next thing, whether it’s an internal or external change. It may be something as profound as wisdom, new insight, courage, or strength; or it may be something as mundane as a new business opportunity, a new source of income, a more fit body, an occasion to travel, the next perfect day with my husband and/or my children. It’s about what I want to have in the future. Attached to what I want to have is the unspoken internal message of lack–what’s missing in my life right now. When I am focused on the next whatever, I lose sight of what already is in my life. I also start to feel like I’m chasing that whatever, and it continues to feel elusive and just beyond my reach. Even those sources of pain that may be in my life at any given moment are only sources of pain because I am not willing to look at the deeper meaning of their presence with an open and grateful heart–to see those sources of pain as seedlings–opportunities for growth and expansion.

As Jack Canfield says in Jack Canfield’s Key to Living the Law of Attraction, “You are a living magnet. You literally attract the people, ideas, and circumstances to you that vibrate and resonate at the same energy frequency as yours. Your energy field changes constantly, based on your thoughts and feelings, and the universe acts like a mirror, sending back a reflection of the energy that you are projecting. The stronger and more intense your thoughts and emotions are, the greater the magnetic pull becomes. Now, this is not a process that requires any real effort; a magnet doesn’t ‘try’ to attract anything–it simply does, and so do you! You are always in the process of attracting something into your life.”

Think of your open and grateful heart as the magnet. The more heart-centered we can be and the more open and grateful our hearts and minds, the more we’ll draw to us–or magnetize–that which we most desire. Acknowledging with an open and grateful heart that this very moment is the result of everything we’ve ever thought, done, believed, or felt up to now–and that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be–allows what we yearn for to flow to us.

Starting right here and now, look at your life with an open and grateful heart. And then get ready for all that you desire to begin to manifest in your life! It can be a bellisima life–it is up to each of us to allow it to happen!