If you’ve ever seen a school of fish swim right past your 3-D goggles through the cool dry air of a movie theatre, you know the impact of 3-D technology. It makes your moment more vivid. It places you deep at the heart of things.

Adding a 3-D effect to your moments of gratitude can pop you right into a wonderland of day-to-day life.

The 3 dimensions of gratitude function as a mantra that goes like this:

“I thank you. I thank Me. I thank God.”

Each segment of the formula serves a function. By feeling deeply into the meaning of each statement, you can soak your senses in the richness of the 3-D present moment.
Thanking Others

“I thank you.” Here’s a commonplace phrase that finds itself tossed about mindlessly on the waves of conversation. Sometimes it barely skims the surface of the deeper issue. And yet, the words, “Thank you,” when spoken from the heart, satisfy a need in the sender and touch the soul of the receiver. These words, when truly uttered and openly received, birth a river of relationship that needs no further embellishment.

Structure: Thanking others gives us the first dimension of gratitude. It ranges from thanking a stranger for picking up the pen you just dropped, to thanking the unknown, unseen planners of your city for the convenience of your streets and sidewalks, to thanking your mother for nurturing you through your infancy.

You can thank those you know and those you don’t for good things large and small.

Function: Practicing thanking others cultivates relationship. It heightens your sense of interconnectedness with your world. It strengthens your awareness of the whole of which you are a part.

Try This: Revise the words, “Thank you,” in your internal dictionary. Call upon these words to establish deep awareness of how your spirit touches others and how the good intentions of others stream energy into your experience.

Wake up every time you say, “Thank you.”

Say, “Thank you,” often.

Thanking Yourself

Here’s a less used phrase. Saying, “I thank me,” to yourself means, “I thank myself.” Although you may not be in the habit of acknowledging your own efforts with gratitude, it strengthens your energetic field when you do.

Structure: Thanking yourself gives you the second dimension of gratitude. It may take the form of coming home tired and thanking yourself for having made your bed in the morning. If you are a student and you create study sheets for yourself, you may want to thank yourself when you prepare for an exam and your previous efforts speed up your study process.

You can thank yourself for things you did, thoughts you pondered or any efforts you made, this morning or during childhood, that benefit you in your now.

Function: Practicing thanking yourself cultivates centeredness. It expands your energetic field and fortifies your spirit. It fosters independence.

Try This: Embrace the words, “I thank me,” as a new addition to your phrase vocabulary. Call upon these words to deepen your roots and heighten your reach.

Close your eyes and say, “Thank you,” to yourself. Or say, “I thank me.”

Thanking God

If you spend all your time thanking others and yourself, you can paint yourself a pretty good life, but it won’t pop into 3-D until you include the Infinite in your scheme of appreciation. Nurturing a sense of awe deepens your capacity to authentically thank God.

Then you thank God, you must consider who or what God is. Doing this, you realize that God is impossible to comprehend. As you feel the incomprehensible nature of your relationship with your Source, your own gratitude blankets you with the same divine love for which you are grateful.

Structure: Thanking God shifts your gratitude into 3-D. It takes you from flat, textureless tedium into grace.

You can thank God for anything and everything.

Function: Practicing thanking God cultivates your relationship with the Source from which you flow. It relieves you from the burden of thinking you must control circumstances. It inspires you to thoughts, words and deeds that harmonize with your heart’s intention.

Try This: When your mantra takes you to the phrase, “I thank God,” release all tension in your chest and abdomen. As you thank God for the blessings already apparent in your life, open to allow in even more. Let your thanks act as a vortex through which even more good can flow to you.

Release some tension, let go of some holding, open your spirit every time you say, “I thank God.”

Now, as you walk through your life, even though you have no special 3-D glasses on, your world will be deeper, lighter, richer and a much friendlier place. Walk with this mantra: “I thank you, I thank me, I thank God.” You’ll live vividly at the heart of things.

© 2005 Rebbie Straubing

Dr. Rebbie Straubing’s free e-course, 7 Secrets for Manifesting Your Heart’s Desire is available at www.YOFA.net and her meditation recordings are available for download at www.AffirmativeContemplation.com. To get news and updates on Rebbie’s offerings, send a blank e-mail to yofa@GoldenReports.com.