Shift Your Attitude to one of Gratitude – Take the Gratitude Challenge:
A Way to Help Shift from Fear and Worry to Faith and Trust

This Blog Post was originally written in February 2010. Although some things have changed since this post was written, the importance of shifting into a state of gratitude, especially when you are not feeling well, will always remain true.

Last week, a few days before a scheduled surgery, my spirits began to fall and my ego was conjuring up some horrific stories of doom and gloom and I was living in the past and future rather than in my present. My ego virtually pushed my Higher Self out the door and I felt as though I was spinning in a fast downward spiral. I know I am not alone in experiencing this process. This happens to so many people, probably too often, especially in these challenging economic times. So how do you shift out of deep worry and fear to a calmer, more hopeful place of peace?
First you come back to the present and you also invite your Higher Self back into your heart and mind. And then you reconnect with your deep sense of faith and trust. As Brent Law, musician and husband of my friend and spiritual teacher Anita Pathik Law, has said, “Faith just feels so much better than fear.”
If you can’t find a way to re-balance and return to faith and trust by yourself, and if you don’t have a deep sense that all is in Divine order and timing, then you can ask for help and talk things over with family members, friends or a trusted professional or spiritual teacher. On that day, Anita, also known as “Ani” to her students and friends, helped shift me to a better space and place. After talking with her, she challenged me to write down 100 things I was grateful for and to post them to my blog.
I had been listening to some excellent teleclasses that week hosted by Skip Lackey on Blog Talk Radio. He is listed on Blog Talk Radio under “The Journey.” He and his Journey Team, including his wife, Kristine Lackey, offered a wonderful week of wisdom to help ring in the New Year. In his final call, he, too, had an exercise about gratitude and asked people to journal about what they are grateful for in their lives. And then he added another exercise about abundance and asked people what they would like to do, have or achieve going forward in 2010.
I had been listening to some excellent teleclasses that week hosted by Skip Lackey on Blog Talk Radio. He is listed on Blog Talk Radio under “The Journey.” He and his Journey Team, including his wife, Kristine Lackey, offered a wonderful week of wisdom to help ring in the New Year. In his final call, he, too, had an exercise about gratitude and asked people to journal about what they are grateful for in their lives. And then he added another exercise about abundance and asked people what they would like to do, have or achieve going forward in 2010.
In talking about gratitude, Skip said, “Gratitude brings in grace.” That just sounds so sweet. Before, during and after my surgery, I experienced much grace from many caring people. And I was deeply grateful.
Then I caught a portion of Michael Beckwith’s talk on PBS television. He was talking about how draining worry is and how when you are in a state of worry, you’re not really accomplishing anything except causing your immune system and the cells in your body to weaken. Your ego, however, thinks it is accomplishing a lot by whipping you up into a state of agitation. It thinks it is protecting you or that maybe worry will help to change whatever it is you are worrying about. Your body knows otherwise.
Gratitude List

Ani challenged me to write down 100 things I was grateful for and to post them to my blog. Photo from www.iamthelawofattraction.com

Beckwith has a clever formula for turning worry around. One of the elements in his formula is gratitude. He asks that you be grateful not just for the good that comes into your life, but for the challenges too.
Beckwith notes that those challenges are sometimes needed to propel you forward to new beginnings that you might not experience if you continue to stay within your comfort zone. That comfort zone actually might not really be very comfortable, but it is what you have known and it is what has become so familiar and therefore feels comforting. When you hold on to what is not working, you leave no room for new experiences to enter in. It’s like the old cliché of doing the same thing over and over and expecting that you will get different results.
When you are stuck, unhappy and spinning your wheels again and again, sometimes Spirit will create challenges and circumstances that finally force you to move forward. That may mean the loss of a job, business or client, the end of a relationship or some outside event or circumstances out of your control shaking things up, ranging from the simple to the cataclysmic.
Spirit may have been whispering to you about something for a long time. That whisper gets louder and louder until Spirit starts shouting at you. And if you are still not listening, then you are eventually left with some huge consequences of not paying attention to all the signs you were being shown and all the ways Spirit and your Higher Self were trying to advise you.
And then it’s back to “Trust” and “Faith” that all is happening for a Divine reason that we cannot know or see from our human perspective as it is unfolding. However, given time and perspective, many things in our lives make much better sense when viewed telescopically. Sometimes it is only then that we can glean pieces of a larger Divine plan for our lives.
Angel Whispering

Spirit may have been whispering to you about something for a long time. That whisper gets louder and louder until Spirit starts shouting at you. Photo from www.freeimages.com.

Back to gratitude. Facing surgery is certainly not a pleasant experience for anyone going through it, and it can also be stressful for family and friends who are concerned for your well-being. I was humbled by the number of people praying for me and wishing me well and for the friends and family who let me know just how much they cared. Classmates from around the world in one of my spiritual teleclasses offered their prayers and good wishes. And one of my dear friends offered so much of her time and care. And I was so deeply grateful.
Let’s welcome gratitude and grace into our lives. And if you or I go back into scarcity and descend into worry and fear or even terror, that’s okay as long as we don’t stay there very long and have creative ways of shifting back into Faith, Trust and Abundance either by ourselves, with the help of Spirit or with the help of friends, family or a trusted professional.
Another way to shift is to communicate with angels, Saints or Ascended Masters and others in the spiritual realm through an oracle card reading. Often our angels come through with magnificent messages of love and faith and reassurances, and sometimes they offer advice about what is happening in our lives. I usually feel uplifted after an oracle card reading. It’s a wonderful way to check in with Spirit.
I am passing forward the challenge I received to all of you to write down 100 or more things that you are grateful for. And I encourage you to have fun doing it.
Wishing you all much gratitude and grace, faith and trust in your lives in 2010 – and some very great abundance pouring in with love, light and kisses from the Divine.
Here is my 100 plus gratitude list.
I am grateful for:
  1. Spirit/God/Creator/Source/Universe/All That Is/Tunkashila (one of the Lakota names for God)
  2. Archangel Michael (my protector and friend)
  3. Archangel Rafael (my healing angel and friend)
  4. All the other brilliant and beautiful archangels who have brought love and healing into my life
  5. My guardian angels who never leave my side.
  6. My spirit guides
  7. My Reiki guides
  8. Ascended Masters who help guide me
  9. Saints like St. Francis and Padre Pio who help guide me
  10. My family
  11. My dog
  12. Health and healing
  13. Love
  14. Friendship
  15. Any and all abundance
  16. New ideas and inspirations
  17. My clients and new clients
  18. Spirituality
  19. My cats that have crossed
  20. Ruby, a magnificent Husky and friend to me and my dog
  21. My friends
  22. My spiritual teachers past and present
  23. 23. My amazing spiritual teacher and friend Anita Pathik Law, who challenged me to write this list
  24. Friends from around the country and world whom I’ve met in teleclasses and over the internet
  25. Tellington TTouch®, a unique and extraordinary way of working with animals and also of helping people heal
  26. Linda Tellington-Jones, for creating her amazing way of working with animals and with people too, and for her extraordinary spirit, intellect and great heart
  27. Friends in the TTouch office in NM and assistants who help me with NJ Tellington TTouch trainings
  28. Tellington TTouch Instructors
  29. Reiki and all its blessings
  30. Satya Sai Baba and my other guides
  31. Nigel Taylor and his spiritual talks (and his wife Regina)
  32. Patricia Cota-Robles and her books, seminars and teachings
  33. Native American Indian traditions, especially of the Lakota Tribe
  34. Joel O’Steen and his inspirational sermons
  35. Nature
  36. Animals (domesticated and wild)
  37. Cats, big and small
  38. My friends in teleclasses
  39. Dogs big and small
  40. Animal Shelters, foster homes for animals and organizations and rescue groups that help animals in need
  41. Positive dog trainers and associations like the Association of Positive Dog Trainers (APDT) that promote education and positive dog training
  42. Yahoo Groups where like-minded people can share ideas and meet and learn about an array of subjects
  43. “The Whole Dog Journal” where I have learned so much about the training and health of dogs thanks to Editor Nancy Kerns, Positive Dog Trainer Pat Miller and others
  44. Alternative healing modalities for people and animals
  45. The beach and the ocean
  46. The internet
  47. Media organizations that try their best to keep the world informed
  48. Charities that help people and animals
  49. Music and song
  50. All my senses
  51. Delicious food (and chocolate)
  52. Italian, Chinese and Japanese food
  53. Beautiful perfume and soaps
  54. Health stores and pharmacies
  55. Vitamins, minerals and supplements
  56. Classical homeopathy and Samuel Hahnemann and many other brilliant homeopathsBeing an avid student of classical homeopathy
  57. My classical homeopath and friend TamarEssential oils
  58. Movies and DVDs
  59. Libraries
  60. Amazon.com and other online sites where you can shop
  61. My home and back yard
  62. Trees and flowers
  63. Beautiful skies and sunsets
  64. Mountains
  65. Art
  66. Theater
  67. Books
  68. Oprah – God bless Oprah for all the enriching and enlightening ways she has touched so many lives
  69. Eckhart Tolle and his teachings
  70. My first meditation for people and pets (and the ones to come)
  71. My teletalk on “The Principles of Tellington TTouch® for People”
  72. Animal communication and deepening the understanding between people and animals
  73. Oracle Cards and card readings and the affirmations they convey
  74. Psychic Mediums and their connections with the other side
  75. Blog Talk Radio
  76. Education, higher education and colleges and universities
  77. All the comforts of “home” and “feeling at home”
  78. Longwood Gardens and other botanical gardens
  79. Museums
  80. My car
  81. Excellent doctors and outstanding hospitals
  82. Caring nurses
  83. My primary care physician and my other doctors
  84. Alternative doctors
  85. Body work and Energy Medicine
  86. Yoga and stretching
  87. Walking out in the fresh air
  88. Comforts and conveniences of modern day living
  89. Purified water
  90. My ionizing air filter machine
  91. My new refrigerator (with automatic ice maker) and my new oven
  92. Fun stores to shop in (and coupons and discounts they offer)
  93. My new hair stylist (she’s so talented!)
  94. Health insurance for me and for my dog
  95. Dr. W. Jean Dodds and her pioneering research on vaccinations and auto-immune diseases for canines (http://www.hemopet.com) and her brilliant knowledge of canine hypothyroidism
  96. Don Hamilton, DVM, and his outstanding book on classical homeopathy for dogs and cats
  97. My wonderful vets
  98. The Rabies Challenge Fund Study by Dr. W. Jean Dodds and Dr. Ronald Schultz
  99. Dog shows and dog training classes
  100. The ability to learn about anything on the internet and connect with people around the world
  101. Laughter, humor and comedians
  102. Television shows that I enjoy
  103. DVRs to record television shows
  104. Talented performers: actors, singers and dancers
  105. “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” TV shows
  106. Guided Meditations
  107. Talented authors and poets
  108. Liz Gilbert and her journey in Eat, Pray, Love
  109. Poetry, especially by Lucille Clifton, Mark Doty and Taha Muhammad Ali
  110. Plays and playwrights
  111. Literature
  112. Photography
  113. The power of prayer and intention
  114. Joint ventures on the Internet
  115. Spiritual seminars and classes
  116. Concerts
  117. And so much more!
I hope you come up with your own wonderful gratitude lists. Feel free to share a few of your top favorites in the comments section below.
With gratitude, love and light,
Rev. Donna
Padre Pio

This is the beautiful statue on the grounds of the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, PA, of Padre Pio blessing children. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2015. All rights reserved.

My dog Socrates

My dog Socrates, an English springer spaniel

Ruby

Ruby, a beautiful Siberian husky and our neighbor and friend

Linda Tellington-Jones

Linda Tellington-Jones does some TTouches on Pearl who is wearing a Tellington TTouch wrap.

Debby Potts

Tellington TTouch Instructor Debby Potts does some TTouches on Naomi, a German Shepherd, at a Tellington TTouch training as my demo dog Hershey, wearing a TTouch wrap, looks on.

Beautiful trees and deep blue skies

I love and am grateful for beautiful trees and deep blue skies.

Norwegian Forest Cat

Bobby, pictured above, is an award-winning Norwegian Forest Cat. I met him and his guardian, Debra O’Shaugnessy, at a local NJ cat show.

Silken Windhounds

Pictured above are Barbara Kahn’s gorgeous Silken Windhounds. Barbara is owner of Wonder Dogs training facility in West Berlin, NJ. Aren’t her dogs fabulous?

A scene from Long Branch

A scene from Long Branch, NJ in 2009

My back yard garden area

My back yard garden area

Flowers in bloom

Flowers in bloom

Colonial Park

Colonial Park in Somerset County, NJ

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To learn more about my packages for people click here. For packages for guardians and pets click here. For those interested in a single session, click here. If you would like a free 30-minute get-acquainted phone or Skype session with me, you can schedule an appointment at www.meetme.so/donnaelhaber. You can also email me at info@lovehealingandmiracles.com.
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