Last year, I hosted Thanksgiving at my home. It was the first time I hosted that holiday in many years. It was also my first Thanksgiving since moving to San Diego from Chicago, which happened only two months prior.
My twins were spending the holiday with their dad and his side of the family, so I surrounded myself with my “California” family. My dad, my sister and her family, and two of my best friends and their children. In total, there were thirteen of us. I love the holidays. I love having everyone together. I love the craziness and the chaos that goes on in the kitchen. I love the laughter, and the music we play and the dancing we do while we are preparing all that food. My family definitely knows how to have fun. It’s one of the many things I cherish about them.
When we were gathered around the table, I handed out a sheet of paper to everyone. It is a tradition I decided to create. I call it the “I Have Today Thanksgiving Gratitude and Intention Sheet.” Listed on the piece of paper is a place for you to write your name and the date of the holiday. Then, inside the boxed area are four statements:
I AM So Grateful For:
- This Year, The Best Thing That Happened To Me Was:
- My Life Is Different From One Year Ago Because:
- By Thanksgiving 2016, I Will Be, Do, and/or Have:
At the bottom of the sheet it says: I WILL IT! I EXPECT IT! I DESIRE IT! SO BE IT! THANK YOU!!!
We all took a few minutes to think back and reflect on our year while also thinking about what life would look like one year from now. I do exercises like this quite a bit all year long, and I mostly write all of this in my journal. Since I live my life intentionally each day, I find these practices very effective in creating the life that I want. It’s amazing how easily things manifest into my life because of these practices. People ask me all the time “Diane, how is it that you barely say something or think something and then it shows up in your life?” This is how, my beautiful beings. You’ve got to think about what you want, write it down, give it a “by when” date, then let it go from your mind and release it to the universe. Our job is to just DECIDE what we want, think about what it would be like to have it, what it looks like, the way it would FEEL to have it, and just imagine it as if it is already done. That’s manifestation.
I saved my sheet and pulled it out of the drawer where I have kept it stored since last year. I wanted to reread it to see exactly what had happened to me since the year after writing it. Guess what? EVERYTHING I put underneath the last statement has manifested into my life! Every single one! I’m always pleasantly surprised when that happens. I’m not necessarily shocked by it, but I sometimes have moments of awe in the power each and every one of us possess. It’s really magical.
Tomorrow, when I arrive at my sister’s home in New York for Thanksgiving, with a massive crowd of 40 people in attendance, I will hand out this year’s sheet for everyone to complete for themselves. I will let them know the purpose of it and read to them my list from last year so they know that, truly, ANYTHING is possible.
I’m making this template available for you, just Click Here and download it, and perhaps for your family as well. I hope you adapt this tradition as your own, or something similar to it.
I am sending you all many blessings and wishes for a safe Thanksgiving filled with love, laughter, good food, organized chaos, dancing and singing, beautiful reflections from your last year and powerful intentions for the year to come. Keep me posted on your progress. I love hearing stories from all of you on how I Have Today has shifted your life in some positive way.
Quote: I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. – Henry David Thoreau
Happy Thanksgiving Diane
The same to you and your Family, Roseann! Many blessings!!! XOXO