We live in a prosperous country, perhaps the most prosperous on Earth. However, our society is not without its challenges, not the least of which is the astounding number of our brother and sister Americans who find themselves homeless and without the safety, privacy, and comfort of a place to call home. As many as 3.5 million people in this country experience homelessness in a given year. This figure represents about 1% of the entire U.S. population and around 10% of its poor. In any given week, somewhere in the neighborhood of 842,000 people in any given week are homeless.

Researchers have found that when we think about someone or something we truly appreciate, and experience the feeling that goes with the thought, we trigger the parasympathetic or calming branch of the autonomic nervous system. With repetition, this pattern bestows a protective effect on the heart.

When you send out positive vibrations, you receive the same back from others. Showing gratitude passes positive energy from one person to another. It can positively affect someone’s day, week, or entire life. It also brings us happiness, which is healthy. Gratitude is a universal experience and has been a component of many religious traditions for centuries.

I read a short article in an in-flight magazine years ago that ignited my career and changed my life. The small publishing company I had started was about three years old; we had no capital and we were losing money every month.

The article I happened to see was about a Swiss hotel that had been losing money as well. The building was run down and employee morale was low. The owners interviewed a potential new manager, and he said if he was hired for the job, he would implement this simple formula: one-third of the profits would be plowed back into the hotel for renovation, one-third would go to owners, and one-third to employees.

Just after Christmas in 1993 I was diagnosed with cancer. Although the tumor had invaded the surrounding lymph nodes, it was treatable with surgery and radiation and fourteen years later I am thankful to be alive and healthy.  For me the cancer diagnosis was a great big message from the Universe that it was time to Wake Up And Smell The Coffee.  It was time for me to pay attention and live my life consciously.  Thus began my journey of prosperity, although it would take me more than a decade before I would understand this.  At the time I just thought of it as a journey of change – a lot of change.