Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, I went to a psychic for clarity about my career, which was her specialty. She asked me to shuffle two decks of tarot cards. I did. She began flipping each deck of cards into elaborate spreads on the tabletop, then sprayed rose water at me and toward the four corners of her tiny office.

Eager to get started, I took a deep breath.

“Hmmmmmmmm,” she groaned, studying the cards with a wrinkled brow. After sipping iced coffee, she murmured, “No, no, no. Not good.” She immediately flew into the reading describing how I grew up poor. Which set the tone for the next 50 minutes.

The first thing she told me was how my past, dictated my future. She pressed on with, “If you’re born poor, you grow up poor. And if you grow up poor, you die poor.” She moved the cards into new formations between us.

“Breathe, Bitch! Breathe”, I reminded myself. Hoping for good news. I paid close attention while trusting that my resting-bitch-face didn’t expose the hollow pit I felt growing in my stomach.

Tapping her watch, she wrapped up the session with, “You will never outrun your inherited poverty!” She hammered her index finger hard on the table, “No. One. Can!”

My face was burning. I felt numb.

Holding up a random card she said, “For you, it’s generational poverty. Being poor is your destiny.” She continued, waving the card around in the air between us. She took another sip of coffee, “It’s what you came here to do.”

I inhaled, hoping my voice wouldn’t crack. “You mean, I followed my dreams to Los Angeles. To. Be. Poor?”

“Not L.A”, she snapped, drawing a giant circle in the air with her index finger. “Earth!”

“Earth”, I asked, more confused than ever.

“Yes”, she continued, leaning in my direction. “You came to Earth to be poor!”

Not wanting to make eye contact with her again, I looked at the card formations. “It’s your destiny!” she repeated, thumping the card again, “Now own it!”

I wanted clarity. I wanted to inner-stand her perspective, but I knew not to go there. I politely thanked her and left the reading feeling deflated. After walking a few blocks and climbing into my car, I could still hear her pounding words, like sledgehammers in my heart, demolishing what was left of my brand-new dreams.

LOVE IS THE HEART OF PROSPERITY

That was 29 years ago and I’ll be honest, I was mad as hell after that reading. I understood just a little bit about tarot, and there had been good cards in my spread. The reader ignored them and reiterated that, “being poor” was my destiny. And with such conviction and frustration aimed at me. But why, I wondered? Especially when I also had promising cards in the spread.

After the reading I drove to the park and took my shoes off. After a long walk I finally felt grounded again. I focused on the beautiful landscape around me. Which was easy because I’ve always loved being outdoors. I found a place atop a picnic table to rest while watching squirrels and birds milling around in the grass. I couldn’t get over how much the woods and meadows in Griffith Park reminded me of the foothills back home.

I looked up at the sunbeams pouring through the canopy of trees and relaxed further. My peaceful thoughts took me to the familiar dirt roads, back woods, and the winding creek that fringed the trailer park where I grew up. Memories of playing in the creek, running barefooted, and climbing trees filled my senses.

In that moment, I realized I was doing the same thing in Griffith Park, I had done a million times as a child. When bad things happened, I escaped into nature and harmonized with the Earth’s healing energies. That same energy I felt as a boy, now moved through my adult mind in Los Angeles, bringing a series of déjà vu sensations with it.

I sat in this blissful awareness a good 20 minutes before noticing the tarot reader’s harsh words had all but disappeared. I grinned, fully aware that her words were now limp and wispy and floating away, much like a faint string of smoke that vanishes once you blow out a candle’s flame.

That afternoon reminded me of how I often felt growing up. Despite the poverty around me, I still found things to be grateful for. Even then, gratitude came naturally to me.

APPRECIATION IS A HEALING FORCE

What is prosperity anyway? Prosperity is the condition of enjoying wealth, success or good fortune regardless of the state of the world around you. Meaning, you can experience full-on prosperity consciousness right now, regardless of what you have in your bank account and wallet.

Bob Proctor teaches, “It doesn’t matter how you grew up, or what you’ve struggled with in life – your mind is unscathed by any circumstance you’ve yet to live and it’s phenomenally powerful.”

Since childhood I wanted a better life. Mainly because I saw how poverty negatively affected everyone I loved. Helplessly I watched as invisible mountains of worry, fear and sadness continued to pile up on top of them, suffocating every corner of their lives.

Once I left home I immediately studied every spiritual author, teacher, and universal principle I could find. And once I moved to Los Angeles, Bob Proctor, was at the top of that list. Bob taught me, “That you can only attract to you, what you are in harmony with. It’s called a mindset.” Proctor explains that conscious creators, “…set their mind on the frequency that they have to be in, in order to attract what they want to attract.”

A mindset is harmonizing our purest thoughts with our desired outcome. I likened it to:

When we think, feel and focus on poverty, we match the frequency of poverty.
When we match the frequency of poverty, we attract poverty.

When we think, feel and focus on prosperity, we match the frequency of prosperity.
When we match the frequency of prosperity, we attract prosperity.

Over the years, people asked how I broke free of my negative beliefs about poverty. I answered, with hard work and using the law of attraction. Which was true. Looking back, I know the exact principle that transformed my life, and I use this principle every day. This miracle principle is, gratitude!

“Gratitude is the key to an abundant life, because it puts us in a state of mind that attracts even more of what we are grateful for. Love, appreciation and thanks are the essence of prosperity.”
          —Tom Butler-Bowdon

As a kid daydreaming by the creek, I didn’t know anything about the right mindset or how to create my reality. I just wanted to feel good. Which my love of nature provided. I was too young to know that my bare feet on the Earth caused my vibration to expand. Or that my heart chakra radiated outward when I felt love and appreciation.

I’ve always loved nature and the invisible world that governs it. Of course, we know the invisible world governs everything on our planet, seen and unseen. We also know our thoughts create our realities and the easiest way to manifest the life we want is to deliberately focus on what we do want. Simply stated:

• When we focus on love, we match the frequency of love.
• When we focus on appreciation, we match the frequency of appreciation.
• When we focus on gratitude, we match the frequency of gratitude.

Again, “Gratitude is the key to an abundant life, because it puts us in a state of mind that attracts even more of what we are grateful for.”

GRATITUDE ELEVATES YOUR FREQUENCY

As for the iced-coffee sipping, rose water spraying, tabletop tapping, tarot reader, I have just one thing to say to you.

“I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank You. I love you.”

In the spirit of the Hawaiian Prayer, Ho’oponopono I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. Looking back, I am so grateful for our time together. Mainly because you reignited a fire in my belly. Your guidance inspired me to be more focused and dedicated with my intuitive life path.

Until that card reading, I’d been a tad lax about my spiritual disciplines. Not lazy, just not as on-point as I could’ve been. For some reason, I thought being out of my home state would somehow change everything for the better.

Well, duh. It didn’t!

That 2,600-mile move amplified every good and horrible belief I ever had about money – and lack thereof. During the card reading, I innocently believed I’d somehow outrun the poverty that’d clawed at my guts since birth. Now I know better.

Over the years, I’ve loved studying all about the subconscious mind, how we create our realities, and the art of impressing pure thoughts in our hearts. Which is how I learned that our beliefs, both good and bad, still exist within us. All of them.

I’ve learned poverty beliefs simply hibernate inside of our greater consciousness. This poverty continues hibernating ever-so peacefully, unless we hit it with a metaphorical stick and wake it back up. And why in the world would we deliberately whack that sleeping giant? We can’t outrun it and it no longer serves our highest good.

I’ve now spent decades applying new habits, new beliefs and new energy patterns into my subconscious mind. Each one more anchored in love and gratitude than the last. This is my new-normal. My go-to-mindset. Not because I’m trying to outrun poverty. It’s because nothing feels as good as living in a consistent state of well-being.

Charles Fillmore says, “Prosperity isn’t just about material wealth, it’s a state of mind and spirit.” I second that.

I was born in poverty. I grew up in poverty, but I will die in a pure state of mind, rich in love, appreciation and gratitude. You can bank on it.

And there you have it my friend. I hope your summer is filled with all of the love and appreciation your heart desires. And until we meet again, remember to keep your thoughts, feelings and frequencies high, fast and pure so that you can Unlock the Universe Within.

With Appreciation Always,