The Role of Gratitude in Your Life Plan

As those of you who have read either Your Soul’s Plan or Your Soul’s Gift know, the vast majority of what we plan prior to birth is planned not as a certainty, but rather as a possibility or probability. Whether a particular possibility or probability actualizes is determined by our free will decisions. In other words, the pre-birth planning we do creates what can be conceptualized as a vast, elaborate flow chart. What is a flow chart? It’s a series of decision points. If you do A, then X happens. If you do B, then Y happens. The plans we create before we come into body constitute a flow chart so immense as to be beyond human comprehension.

The timelines in the flow chart vary greatly in their degree of arduousness. The higher vibrational timelines have more happiness, peace, joy, abundance, and ease than the lower vibrational timelines, which contain much more suffering. One way to place yourself on higher vibrational timelines is to align with Love, which is your true nature. You can do this by asking in any (or every) moment, “What would Love do now?”

Another very powerful way to activate higher vibrational timelines is through the conscious use of gratitude. Before I explore how that works, I’ll first discuss the nature of suffering.

Suffering occurs when you resist something. The more you resist, the greater your suffering. When you resist a life challenge – let’s say one you planned before you were born – you’re giving a big, energetic “NO!” to the Universe. The Universe doesn’t understand that you intend to say no only to the challenge. Instead, the Universe takes your no as a global no: a no to abundance; a no to love; a no to physical health; a no to spiritual clarity, and so on. The Universe hears you saying no to all the blessings it wants to bring to you.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “When it rains, it pours.” This expression is a great description of someone in a state of resistance. At first something minor goes wrong (it begins to “rain”). The person then goes into a state of resistance to the “rain,” which gives an energetic “NO!” to the Universe. Blessings of all sorts then stop coming into the person’s experience and major things start to go wrong (it begins to “pour”). This is why it’s so very important to eliminate resistance.

Gratitude is a simple, easy, fast, and effective way to do that. The vibration of gratitude and the vibration of resistance are fundamentally incompatible frequencies. You cannot be in a state of gratitude and a state of resistance at one and the same time. So, if you’d like to stop saying “NO!” to everything you want, think of something – anything – that is positive in your life. Allow the feeling of gratitude to arise. The great thing about the conscious use of gratitude is that the gratitude does not have to be in regard to something big; rather, it can be for something as small as the sound of the birds chirping or the way the sun feels on your skin. This is why gratitude is a fast and easy tool to use.

The consistent, conscious use of gratitude will activate the higher vibrational timelines in your pre-birth plan. These are the timelines your soul hopes you will find, the timelines toward which your nonphysical guides and teachers are always steering you.

The Deeper Spiritual Purpose of Pets

The process of placing our energy within a body, and in so doing forgetting that we are vast, majestic, Divine Beings made literally from the energy of Unconditional Love, is akin to being struck on the head by a heavy tree branch and rendered unconscious, only to awaken with no memory whatsoever. What would happen if you actually had such an experience? All who love you, each member of your family, every dear friend, would come to your side and express great love for you. Though you would recognize none of them, their powerful outpouring of concern and affection would touch you deeply. You would conclude that only a truly loving person could be so beloved. And in that instant of realization, you would know, beyond any doubt, your true nature.

Such is the role pets play in our lives. In my new book Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born, I share the story of Marcia, who chose before coming into body to be a dwarf. In this lifetime Marcia is but 1.4 meters (less than 5 feet) tall. Marcia knew before she was born that people would reject and dismiss her because of her height, and she chose this difficult experience to foster her spiritual growth. She then built into her courageous plan a safeguard: she would always have the unconditional love of her pets. These animals are part of her pre-birth planning session. Her future dogs (Dusty, Brutus), cats (Snowflake, Goofy, Willie), rooster (Crooked Beak), and horse (Cheetah) all pledged in her planning session to support and care for her even when her fellow humans do not. Because she also planned to be clairaudient in this lifetime, Marcia has always been able to hear her pets’ thoughts when they communicated with her.

Just as people with amnesia do not remember those who were in their lives before the forgetting, so, too, do we not recall the pets who were with us before we were born. Yet, our pets come to our side and express their great love for us, reminding us daily that only we who are Love could be so beloved. And they remind us not only that we are loved but also that we are worthy of love. When Marcia came home from school and cried over the cruel words from the other children, Dusty was there to tell her she was perfect, that she “could always come home, and I would be there, and I would love you.” Cheetah also reminded Marcia that she was worthy of love: “It doesn’t matter what they say. Look what you and I can do together! Get on! Let’s go!” And so they would ride like the wind, the smallest of children on the largest of horses, both free and safe, in love with life and each other.

Too, pets bring healing. Indeed, our animal companions are master healers, in part because they embody love in an entirely nonthreatening form. The clear absence of threat creates within us a willingness to receive healing. We may fear accepting love from another person, but Marcia had no such fear with Brutus or Snowflake. When Marcia’s mother lay ill in the hospital, Brutus, tail wagging and big ears flopping, was a healing balm for Marcia’s heavy heart. When Marcia’s mother returned Home, it was Snowflake who healed Marcia’s grief, saying, “My job with her is done. Now I need to take care of you.”

How do pets heal us? There is no greater healing power in the Universe than that of unconditional love. Yet, beyond unconditional love, pets heal by transmuting energies. Even when we feel weak and small, our pets still come to us for care and so remind us that we are strong enough, capable enough to provide it. Even when we are enmeshed in anger or blame, they sit joyfully at our side, radiating contentment and instilling peace within us. When we feel shame, guilt, or unworthiness, they look at us and see only perfection. Our pets see us as light, the light of which we are literally made, the light we knew ourselves to be before we were born. When we lose sight of our magnificence, they remind us of it.

Sometimes a loved one, even a spirit guide, will incarnate as a pet because it is the best, and perhaps only, way to share a lifetime with us. I have a close friend who planned not to have children in this lifetime. A soul she loves and who loves her dearly incarnated as her dog so they could complete the mother-daughter relationship they shared in a past life as Native Americans. Both had been healers in other past lives, and they continued their healing work together in the current lifetime. My friend often brought her dog into healing sessions with clients, many of whom commented that they felt healed by the animal’s presence.

Ultimately, whether it’s Willie reminding Marcia to have fun, Goofy caring for Marcia and so healing her grief after Snowflake’s death, Brutus teaching compassion and kindness, Snowflake modeling independence, or Dusty, Cheetah, and Crooked Beak loving a little girl who just needed acceptance and friendship, each of these animals came to Marcia to love her and to receive her love. When we choose to take human form on the physical plane, our primary intent is to learn how to give and receive love. We select Earth as the school in which we will learn this lesson because here there are teachers who have mastered it. We call them dogs and birds, cats and horses. Yet, Love by any other name is still Love.

A Great Shift in Consciousness

As I describe in my new book Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born, a great shift in consciousness is now occurring on our planet. This shift depends completely upon those of us who are in body to raise our vibration, which means, quite simply, being the most loving people we can be. As we raise our vibration, Earth rises in vibration as well. Spirit guides, angels, loved ones, and others in the nonphysical realm can send love, wisdom, light, and inspiration to us, but we must receive and embody these gifts. The nonphysical beings who love and guide us cannot create a shift in human consciousness for us.

Victim consciousness—the belief that you have been victimized by a person, experience, or life in general—vibrates at a very low frequency. When we understand that we are the powerful creators of all we experience—even if we may not know how or why we created something—we move out of victim consciousness, raise our vibration, and, in turn, raise the vibration of Earth. If your intention is to contribute to the shift in human consciousness, know that moving out of victim mentality is a powerful and magnificent way to do so.

Victim consciousness is a false belief, one that has become part of our limited, habitual way of thinking. It has tempting secondary benefits: it’s a way to obtain sympathy from others and a means of bonding with others who also believe themselves to be victims. Victim consciousness and its secondary benefits are not to be judged, though. After all, it’s easy to believe what we have been taught, and natural to want support from, and bonding with, others. My intent is not to judge the choice to perceive ourselves as victims, but rather to clarify that it is a choice. The alternate choice is to come into remembrance of our identity and power as expressions of the eternal souls that planned the lives we now live, to know ourselves as the creators, not the victims, of our experiences. This awareness uplifts the entire world.

Victim consciousness tends to be self-perpetuating. If you believe yourself to be a victim, you vibrate at the frequency of victim and energetically draw to yourself experiences that will confirm in your mind that you are a victim. One key to breaking this cycle is to release blame, for blame places you vibrationally at the frequency of victim consciousness. We may more easily release blame when we take responsibility for having agreed to our life plans, and the personal stories of pre-birth planning in Your Soul’s Gift are intended to help you do just that.. Such self-responsibility is the fertile ground in which expanded consciousness and self-knowledge blossom.

Like victim consciousness, judgment resonates at a very low frequency. Judgment creates separation, separation creates fear, and fear creates most of the problems in our world. The current shift in human consciousness is in part a return to Oneness or unity consciousness, which is our natural state of being in our nonphysical Home. We cannot return to this state of Oneness consciousness if we are in judgment of, and therefore separate from, one another. An awareness of pre-birth planning makes it easier to release judgment of others, for then we come to realize that every life plan is birthed in love and founded on wisdom.

Society reserves particularly harsh judgments for people who have certain experiences such as homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and AIDS: “She needs to get her act together,” “He isn’t really trying,” “She’s weak,” and “He needs to pull himself up by his bootstraps.” The judgments of people who have AIDS are particularly harsh: “He must have been promiscuous,” “She deserves it,” and “AIDS is God’s way of punishing homosexuals for being homosexuals.” Yet, in truth these experiences are planned before birth, and they are plans of boldness, plans many would not dare to undertake. When we understand pre-birth planning, our judgments evaporate and are replaced by an abiding respect and admiration for the courageous souls who face such challenges.

Judgment may, however, be a useful tool for gaining insight into your life plan. Ask yourself, “What trait do I judge most harshly in the people who are in my life?” Then ask, “What is the opposite of that trait?” In all likelihood, before you were born you wanted to develop and express that opposite quality. In regard to the trait you have judged in someone else, it is likely you had that trait in a past life, and it is certain you have that trait (to some degree) now. All judgment of others is cloaked self-judgment. If you did not have the trait you judge, you would either be unable to recognize it in another or you would not judge it if you did see it.

Because what we experience outside ourselves is always a projection of our inner reality, it is not possible for us to be in nonjudgment of another until we are wholly in nonjudgment of ourselves. Speaking nonjudgmental words and engaging in nonjudgmental actions are not indicators of being in nonjudgment. The one true indicator of nonjudgment is how we experience ourselves, for that is how we truly experience others.

Care must be taken here not to go into judgment of judgment. Although none of us enjoys being judged, we chose for good reason to incarnate in a time in human evolution in which judgment is commonplace. Simply put, judgment is a powerful teacher for us, and some of us learn best through the experience of being judged. That experience is an effective means by which to develop empathy, compassion, and many other divine virtues. The lives we plan before we are born are opportunities to develop and express such virtues.