Last night I was on call with my dear friend, Susan, who was leading a discussion on the book, Happy Money by Ken Honda. Honda has been named The Zen Millionaire and believes that if you want more money to enter your life, you simply need to be thankful. He says, “If you appreciate what you have, you’ll be happy.” Simple enough, right?

We all participated in two separate exercise called, Arigato In and Arigato Out, which translates to: say thank you when money comes in and say thank you when money goes out; Arigato is Japanese for thank you. The Arigato In was easy, but it was the Arigato Out that actually brought me to tears. I used to think of bills and debt as liabilities—all of which had a negative connotation for me. But during this silent mindfulness exercise, I gave thanks for all that I was grateful for that I could pay. I realized how blessed I was. These obligations are gifts and blessing that I receive regularly and I was looking at it all wrong.

So if you have a minute, close your eyes and say thank you for all the money that goes out every month. Say thank you for your home, your heat and AC, your food, your car, your insurance, tuition, gifts, clothes, etc. Will you take a moment to absorb how astonishingly blessed you are? Are these signs of obligation or are they signs of how abundant your life is? We all get to choose. I hope you’ll choose ARIGATO.

With Gratitude,

Beth