This little book showed me that the secret of lasting joy is within us. Whether we are six years old or a 100, we have the book of instsructions to fix our own happiness! We can do it just by thanking life, or God, or Heaven, or whatever we believe in, for all the goodies we receive every single day. By just thanking the people, places, pets or events around us for help and friendship and love, we become more hopeful, less bullied by trouble and troublesome trolls, we learn to think more smartly and wisely and we also live longer!
Deborah Norville who did a lot of research about this angel known as Thank You Power found that once you invite this small gem of thankfulness in your heart and head, your life will never again allow you to become the victim of rude and curdled pests spelling grief. Instead you will become more optimistic, you will feel like walking, playing and dancing more, you will be bursting with new ideas to solve old problems, you will be able to handle shocks and losses, and other dark events with more strength, you will become more interested and alert, you will feel so good you will want to help others out, you might even enjoy tests and examinations, and not worry so much about them!
You begin with a very simple test: in every thing give thanks! The writer describes one day in her life when she was held up at the airport due to dreadful weather and managed to survive just by saying thank you! You must read the book to understand what she is saying. That day could have been the worst of all possible days, but she remembered to say thank you, where she felt she had been helped, and then by some stroke of luck, slowly everything began to turn around, to improve the day.
Buy yourself a little diary, and on every single day, put in three to five things to thank the world for or God or your own personal angel. You will be surprised with what you will discover! In fact you can say thank you even for the troubling things: that conductor who grabs your money and shouts or the bus driver who rushes off when an old person is trying to enter, or the jealous, sad, person who locks up your good work, the teacher who plays favourites and the bully who frightens you. First of all say thank you for being able to deal with them, and not being like them! Then remember the better things to be thankful for.
I first of all thanked heaven for all the difficult, somewhat scary and dreadful people in my life who often drive me off to Lal Bagh where I met the most angelic birds, squirrels and flowers and all of nature’s bounty which I would never have got if I had sat around my rust and rubble!
Then I thanked heaven for second hand book fairs which always mysteriously have one book that I urgently need. I found a book on how to use the I Pod just when someone had gifted me one, and I hadn’t a clue how to put my Mozart treasures into it. Then I said thank you for the 60 adorable and gentle cats I am allowed to meet every day on a friend’s terrace where they wash off all the grime from my day of disappointment, jealousy, lies, envy and malice.
I say thank you for the maid who never grumbles if guests arrive suddenly, the people who come to collect the mounds of rubbish from our gates, and the two people and many doctors who saved my life after a terrible accident. Most of all these days I say thank you for having discovered the astonishing magic of Mozart, Beethoven and Handel. It seems like a free flight to heaven.
As Eric Hoffer said ‘’The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” I was never good at arithmetic in school and dreaded every maths lesson, but I find that saying Thank You is becoming more fun every single day. You can learn more about putting Thank You Power in your life by checking out www.thankyoupower.net.
My Thank You Angel carpeted my life with a million tiny, angels who come out of the oddest places. They are solemn, sweet, and always willing to make life shimmer with silver grace.