Spicy, dark drinking chocolate

Sitting on a park bench reading the underlined passages in my copy of Ask And It Is Given, I was reminded of the power of feeling good. “There is no greater gift you can give than your own happiness.”

Esther and Jerry go on to say that when we are happy, everyone around us benefits (which is now scientifically proven by Fowler and Christakis).

I don’t know about you, but when I think happiness, chocolate is almost sure to follow. This is an opportune time to practice seizing the moment.

In the interest of happiness and the greater good for all, I quickly texted my two chocolate-loving co-workers and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves sitting at Cacao.

Cacao is a heavenly place.  It’s nirvana smack-dab in the middle of Portland, Oregon. And we three, sipping, savoring our drinkable chocolate were elevated to levels of joy untold.  The spicy dark chocolate with a touch of cayenne is my favorite.  I pledge my undying love to it.

We were all so thrilled with ourselves and the liquid loveliness before us that we decided we should do something fabulous every single week. Tuesdays are a good day for fabulousness, we decided. “Treat Tuesdays,” affirmed Kristin. And so it is.

From now until forever we are celebrating Treat Tuesdays with something marvelous. I highly recommend you join us.

In addition to being very intentional about experiencing joy at every opportunity, I have been working on making friends with money.  This may sound silly, but financial stress can be a serious downer and I know when I’m worried about money I’m not as likely to see or feel joy.

It seems that money is like one of those super popular kids in school–so cool and mysterious and utterly uninterested in hanging out with me.  And what I’ve been learning is that, just like the popular kids, money is just money.  If money was a person (popular or not), it would have bad hair days, get a pimple now and again, burp and fart and even have moments of insecurity and low self-esteem.

Money is just money; in and of itself it’s nothing more than paper, or even a mere idea imprinted on paper. AND, it’s a wonderful tool.  Not too dissimilar to a good hair gel or a facial astringent, money can help us get to the good stuff. 

In a fabulous book by Esther and Jerry Hicks, there’s an exercise I’m having some fun with. Every day (or almost every day) I write myself a check from The Universe in increasingly larger amounts.  Starting at $1,000, then $2,000 the next day, then $3,000 the day after that, and so on. And every day I spend every penny of it.  Just like real money, this is all on paper.  I cut out the check of the day, put it in the Bank of Abundance (which is a glass jar on my desk with a sticky note on it that says Bank of Abundance), then I log in the register all the things I’m able to bring into my life with that money, ie: take the family to Disneyland, pay off a credit card, replace the back deck, take my friends out to a champagne brunch, etc.

So far, I’ve deposited $45,000 in 9 days and I’m already seeing a shift in how I think, feel and experience money.  A few items have already made their way into my hands and I’m pretty excited about that.  I feel like I’m on the verge of discovering the secret to the Rubik’s Cube or a cure for the common cold or a way to eat chocolate every single day without gaining an ounce.

Wanna try?  Print out ISpyJoy.com’s Checks from Universe and give it a whirl. 

See you at Disneyland…