The Working Mums Podcast

Ep #50 - Book review - The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

• Nicky Bevan

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Imagine transforming your life by simply shifting your mindset—sounds intriguing, right? In my latest episode, I explore the profound impact of gratitude with insights from Rhonda Byrne's book "The Magic." Over a 28-day journey, this book offers a structured approach to creating a gratitude practice, and I'm excited to share it with you. 

I'll discuss reframing life's challenges and blessings, using a mysterious passage from the Gospel of Matthew to illustrate how a grateful perspective can lead to abundance and positivity. 

Whether you're seeking to enhance your sense of appreciation or just looking for a fresh perspective on life, this episode promises to offer valuable insights that resonate deeply.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube with Captions - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWorkingMumsLifeCoach

If you'd like to have a chat about how I can help you further, please don't hesitate to click here & book a time with me, I'd love to meet you.

You can also follow me on IG @NickyBevan_LifeCoach

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to this week's podcast. I'm doing a little book review. I'm going to try and put little book reviews sprinkled in between my podcast episodes because I read some really good books go. I did a book review on the Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers, and I think that that is one of the best books of all times. I think everybody should read that book. Another book that I really love is the Secret by Rhonda Byrne, but today I want to talk to you about the magic, which is by the same author, rhonda Byrne. So if you're on YouTube you can see a picture. It's called the Magic and the light's shining on it too much.

Speaker 1:

This is a really beautiful book about gratitude. It's all about creating a gratitude practice, all about creating a gratitude practice, and gratitude is a practice. We have to very deliberately direct our brain and tell it all the things that we can be grateful for. And this book it's not a storybook, it's actually 28. It's a 28 day process on how to create a gratitude practice. So it's it's really lovely.

Speaker 1:

Every day for 28 days she talks you through what to do and each day is slightly different and the first time still practicing. The first. The first day is all about count your blessings. The first day is all about count your blessings, and I read this book for the first time probably 18 months ago, and I've been doing this practice ever since. And you write down 10 things that you're grateful for that day and I've got to tell you this is sometimes a challenge for my brain. I have personally found it easier to do it in the evening before I go to bed, but I did start doing it first thing in the morning. So just pick a time that suits you, but it does take quite deliberate practice. For some of you, you will just be able to point everything out and you would probably look at me and think I was that sort of person, but I do have to really encourage my brain to look for these things. So I've been doing it ever since and I'm about to. The reason why I wanted to talk about this book is I'm about to start this 28 day practice again. So but part of the book that I I love the way she starts off.

Speaker 1:

So she, there's a passage and I'm gonna. I'm gonna read it. So if you're looking at me on youtube, excuse me for looking down, but um, there's a passage that comes from the gospel of matthew in the holy scriptures, and it's mystified and confused and has been misunderstood by many people over the centuries. And the passage is this whoever has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And she then goes on to say you have to admit that when you read this passage, it appears really unjust and it seems to be saying that the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. But the mystery to uncover and the answer to that mystery is the word gratitude, and that's the mystery that has been hidden for centuries is gratitude. So when you reread that paragraph with gratitude, it makes perfect sense. So let me read it out to you again Whoever has gratitude will be given more and he or she will have an abundance. Whoever does not have gratitude, even what he or she has will be taken from them. So this makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Because you could have all the wealth, all the things, all the health in the world, but if you're not grateful for it, it's meaningless, completely meaningless. So what you have is taken away because you don't appreciate it, you're not grateful for it. But even if you find gratitude in the smallest thing in the beauty of a flower, in the smile of your child, in the joy of the sun's heat on your skin, you will get more gratitude because that practice shows you more things to be grateful for and I just love that so much.

Speaker 1:

And she goes on to say she goes on to talk more about gratitude and things like I don't like my job, I haven't got enough money, I can't find my perfect partner, I can't pay my bills, I think I'm coming down with something. I mean, how many of us say that when we've got that cold brain? Oh, my gosh, I think I'm coming down with something. They don't appreciate me, I don't get along with my parents, my children are a problem and my marriage is in trouble. When you talk that way, that's what you're gonna get more of. Where she says, if you think about it from a gratitude perspective, like I love my job, or even if you don't love my job, I have a job. That's something to be grateful for, because there are some people that would dream to have a job. It could be that my family supported I had the best vacation. I feel amazing today. Today I feel good, I've got a tax refund, I had a great camping weekend with my son.

Speaker 1:

When you sincerely feel the gratitude, the law of attraction says you must attract more of those things into your life. It is a universal law. You get what you think, and what you think is how you talk, internally or externally, either in your head or out loud, and it is a practice. Gratitude is a practice because that part of our, that primitive part of our brain that I've talked to you about so often, is looking for danger. It's looking by design, is negative. So it takes engaging our higher consciousness and our higher wisdom to redirect that negativity into something positive. And there is always something positive.

Speaker 1:

And this is one of the reasons why I chose many years ago actually to not listen to the news. I do not listen to the news. If I need to know something, I go and find out the facts from a more factual site, the government site or the environment agency or whatever. I don't take what I hear on the news because the news is dramatic. It's dramatized because they need audiences, so they tap into that drama that we crave. I don't want that drama in my life. So if I'm going to find something out. I want to find out the facts and I will make my own interpretation.

Speaker 1:

And the news just gives us negative shit. It doesn't tell us the other 50 side, 50%. It doesn't tell us. It doesn't show us that when there's a natural disaster, the aid workers that come to help, the funding that gets given, the people that take families in they don't show us that side of it. That is all happening. People that take families in they don't show us that side of it. That is all happening. There's devastation and there's a huge amount of love and support and generosity that come along with that, but we don't balance it out.

Speaker 1:

So we're always the imbalance of the negative. When you take the weather, people are like, oh, it's always raining, and they say it's always raining at a point when it's not raining. So it feels like it's always raining. But in that actual moment they're saying it's always raining, it isn't. The sun's beautifully shining, and so when you take the moment as it is and when you realize you can be grateful for the dry spell or that little break in the cloud or the sun trying to come through, that's a balance. It's not false positive. We don't want to be toxic bullshit. That's not what I'm talking about. It's about a balance and it's about recognizing that both things are happening in the world.

Speaker 1:

Yes, there's death, rape, abuse and murder. There always has been, there always will be. And there's also love and support and people helping other people and raising money for charity. It's all happening and what I love about the magic is it really takes you through a 28-day journey to build that gratitude practice up. So this is my book recommendation for this episode the Magic by Rhonda Byrne. She's the same person that wrote the Secret by Rhonda Byrne. She's the same person that wrote the Secret and give it as a gift to yourself. It just makes you feel so incredible. Have the most amazing week and I'll speak to you again next week. Bye-bye.