On August 1, 2011 I started a 30 day trial of expressing love and gratitude to one person per day. I mentioned I would write about the experience when the trial was complete and also gather and share some thoughts and experiences from other readers who did the trial with me. If you did the trial and would like to share your experience with my blog readers, submit your story to me today through my contact form and I’ll post them on Thursday, Sept 1.
To start, this has definitely been one of the most profound and transformative trials I’ve ever done. When I first got the idea to do this, I knew it would be powerful, but I didn’t know how powerful and what a shift this would create for me and, apparently, some of those who received my emails.
I decided to use email as my source of communication, but it was originally suggested in the article that you could do it in person, by phone, text, or body language. As long as your recipient felt your love and gratitude, you did it right.
I crafted my first email to my twin sister, Nicole. I told her how positively she’s impacted my life and how grateful I’ve always been to have a twin sister who I know will always have my back. By the time I was done writing out my two paragraphs, tears were sliding down my face. I sent it to her, already feeling amazing just from what I had written. Then she responded to my email with some tear-creating thoughts of her own. By the time we were done going back and forth, I was bawling. And it was good. The rest of my day was awesome.
On the second day I sent a note to my mother. I love my mother very much, but there have been times throughout the years that we’ve disagreed so vehemently on things that I lessened my contact with her to avoid arguments. Still we have a pretty good relationship. As she is getting on in years and beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease, I realized that now was the time to tell her how much she means to me, not after she’s gone! So when I wrote the email to my mother it was probably the most cathartic thing I’ve ever written. I realized that I chose my mom for one reason and one reason only… to learn love. She was an extremely loving parent to me growing up. Despite the fact that we never had healthy food or clean clothes (not her strong points!) I realized all of a sudden that none of that mattered. She gave me exactly what I needed most. Love. And suddenly I was able to forgive her for all the things I thought she “should have” done and became simply grateful to have had such a loving parent growing up. She was beyond tears when she called me to thank me for my letter. I have a lot more patience for my mother now. Our relationship was completely transformed with that one expression of love and gratitude.
On day three my father got his email. He wrote back, “I couldn’t read your letter to the end because of all the tears in my eyes. Your mom had to read it to me.” I told my father how dearly I love and appreciate him and how wise I think he is. I thanked him for all the loving time and attention he gave me growing up and how special I always felt to be his daughter. Again I went through a transformative experience just acknowledging the gifts he’s given me throughout the years.
Day four was for my brother, someone I don’t communicate with a whole lot as our lives are just very different. He was completely stunned by the sentiments I sent him, and it connected us in a way that I never thought would happen.
I was on a roll and loving the trial! I spent the next several weeks sending these love and gratitude notes to friends and other family members. Each and every time as I wrote, my eyes would tear up. I started to realize how many truly awesome people are in my life and how each one has given me a gift.
The responses I got back were heartfelt, and surprisingly similar. “I’m speechless” was common. And several people told me they were so moved by what I wrote that they were going to keep the email and re-read it whenever they felt down. One of my friends told me that when I told her how I see her, it finally gave her permission to see herself that way too. She had suspected she was a certain way and she suspected she was having a certain impact, but when I shared it with her it gave her some validation that it wasn’t all in her head.
I encouraged everyone to pay it forward and send a love and gratitude note to someone in their life. A lot of people expressed to me that their vibration was raised the entire day after they received my note. That was definitely part of my intention and what I suspected might happen when I thought up the trial.
I think the most profound thing I learned from doing this trial was that we shouldn’t wait to tell people how they’ve positively impacted our lives. Often we wait until we are giving a eulogy to talk so positively about a person, but how about we tell them now when it will do even more good?!
Tell them now!
Connect with all the people you have in your life today or from the past, and tell them why you are grateful. Tell them how much and why you love them. It’s an amazing gift to give and to receive.
To tell someone that they are loved and that you are grateful to have them in your life is priceless. To tell someone how they’ve positively impacted your life is immeasurable.
Don’t wait until they’re gone.
Tell them now.
P.S. Since today is the last day of the trial, I want to thank each and every one of you who support my work. I appreciate all of you! Thank you for letting me express my thoughts to you. Thank you for guiding my articles with your questions and desires. Thank you for trusting me, letting me help you, and for being there for me when I have my own challenges. I could never have hoped to have so many people appreciate my work and support what I do. I am grateful to have the opportunity to impact so many lives, and I will continue to do this work with the wisdom and insight my own guides give me. In love and light… Erin.
