Madeleine P. Wober, ‘Maddie Sparkles’: How Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness

An Interview With Karina Michel Feld

Be grateful for the tiniest things — Make it your business to be hyper aware and alert for any reason to feel grateful. Do this throughout your day. Maybe it’s clean, running water, electricity, or the taste of a delicious cup of tea/coffee. Maybe someone smiled at you, or a dog licked your face. This will leverage the power of gratitude and help you feel radically more positive about your life.

As we all know, times are tough right now. In addition to the acute medical crisis caused by the Pandemic, in our post COVID world, we are also experiencing what some have called a “mental health pandemic”.

What can each of us do to get out of this “Pandemic Induced Mental and Emotional Funk”?

One tool that each of us has access to is the simple power of daily gratitude. As a part of our series about the “How Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness” I had the pleasure of interviewing Madeleine P Wober, aka Maddie Sparkles, America’s Scottish Sparkle.

Madeleine P Wober (aka Maddie Sparkles, America’s Scottish Sparkle) delivers Sage wisdom with Childlike enthusiasm. She helps connect people with their Internal Light so they can release their fears, step into their power and live a truly magical life, with a feeling of divine guidance. Using her Empowerment Coaching skills combined with intuition, she helps people find the clarity, inner peace, power, purpose, and positivity in their lives. Having traveled all over the world, connecting with people of all ages and backgrounds, she has over 20 years of experience in uplifting and empowering others. Maddie Sparkles now dedicates her life to inspiring people with her magnetic personality using practical pieces of positivity. She is the author of Inspirational Poetry book “Sprinkles of Glitter, your 12 month guide to a sparkling year” which offers insightful reflections, aspirations and inspirations from the beauty of nature and finding the silver linings around the challenges that color our dreams. Her trademark is her sparkling glitter that she wears on her eyes every day, hence the name Maddie Sparkles. https://linktr.ee/Maddiesparkles

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about you and about what brought you to your specific career path?

I was born and raised Jewish in Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest of 3 girls. I was never religious but felt a real affinity with the traditional and cultural aspects of Judaism. From the age of 10, I already felt very connected to non- denominational spirituality, and I wholeheartedly knew I wanted to leave home, travel the world, meet lots of different people, and my big dream was to end up living in America.

This was made apparent, when at 2½ years old, I ran away to the swing park across the main road, about half a mile from my parents’ home. I met a lovely lady who gave me some chocolate, and was having the greatest adventure of my life. When a policeman brought me back home, to my then frantic parents, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. This was the beginning of my need to express myself, my passion for travel, the joy of meeting people, and seeing the world. During the rainy days in Glasgow, I grew up watching shows on TV, such as: Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, Magnum PI, and the Kids from Fame, declaring “Yes! That’s where I want to live, either New York, or, a place with sunshine, palm trees, and red sports cars! California!” Some years later, my unconventional, spontaneous, slightly rebellious ways of living my life, made no sense to anybody but me. I wanted to follow my heart, and have as much fun as possible. Even back then at that young age I had no greater delight than making my little sister laugh, or a few years later, bringing in a giant lost poodle named Jason into our non- dog-friendly home, and feeding it crackers until it was sick,(he looked so hungry and I had no idea what dogs ate). I always wanted to be of service, and make the world a better place, uplifting people, talking to strangers, and making new friends.

Empowering, entertaining and uplifting others always came very naturally to me.

I started writing poetry at the age of 10, as a way of expressing my emotions, because I always felt different, and with that came a feeling of loneliness and of being misunderstood. I found that if I was ever around nature, especially trees, I could feel calm and at ease. On reflection, I know that’s where my passion for helping others feel seen, heard and empowered originated from.

I had my first experience with Angels in Loch Lomond, Scotland, when I worked for a summer in a castle turned Youth Hostel, which was known to be haunted. That fascinated me. I was hoping I’d catch a glimpse of this so-called ‘ghost’, but what followed changed my life forever.

My job in the castle was to open up all the communal rooms early in the morning before anyone else was up. I had a big master key, Harry potter style. One morning I unlocked the huge oak door to the communal dining room to prepare breakfast for all the backpackers, and on my way through to the kitchen, I said Hi to an old lady, with long white hair, dressed in all white, sitting all the way at the other end of the dining room, at the big bay window, overlooking the castle grounds. As soon as reached the kitchen, I stopped in my tracks and wondered who this woman was, and how she’d gotten in to this big empty locked dining room at 5.30am. Immediately I walked back into the dining room and she had vanished. I walked over to the beautiful big bay window and sat exactly where she was sitting with my back to the rest of the room and the exit door. I started asking her questions, I could no longer see her but I felt this intense heat all down the right hand side of my body from my face, down my legs to my feet. After a few questions, I intuitively knew this woman was somehow related to Veronica, the ghost of the castle, who at age 18, had apparently jumped from the 3rd floor tower to her death, due to a forbidden relationship with a commoner, a young boy who worked on the grounds. After asking this old woman a number of questions, for example what she wanted to tell me, what help she needed if any, she must have just gotten up and left because I turned around and saw the huge door open, and gently close behind her.

There were many other incidents during my stay at the Castle in Alexandria, Loch Lomond, this time with Veronica herself. She once left me a message in the gardens made from stones spelling out the words Be Happy. I was struggling emotionally at the time, which is why I had taken this job out in Loch Lomond, in the Castle to begin with.

I was catapulted into a deeply spiritual journey involving past lives and meeting travelers from the other side of the world whom I’d felt I’d met before. This lead me to past life regression sessions and many beautiful serendipitous encounters.

Throughout my adult life, I was drawn to a variety of different careers: I professionally trained as a Beauty Therapist in London and worked in world class spas in Turnberry Hotel in Scotland, and in all the 5 star hotel spas in London and Australia. I trained as a Theater & Voice-Over Actor in New York City, and later an Empowerment Coach & Intuitive Healer in London & California. During the pandemic I amalgamated all my skills and starting incorporating my healing with Angels. Shortly after I received my green card and moved permanently to the US, I had my book of Inspirational Poetry (‘Sprinkles Of Glitter, Your 12 Month Guide To A Sparkling Year’) published in 2018, which I wrote over 5 years in 3 different locations: Glasgow, Scotland; London, England, and California, USA.

During the 3 decades of my travels and exploring possibilities and opportunities, there was both immense joy and severe health challenges. In my mid 20’s I experienced chronic anxiety, debilitating panic attacks and severe depression which lead to suicidal thoughts. With professional help and guidance I was thankfully able to overcome this, and then in my mid 30’s I had 3 bouts of Ovarian Cancer, which I survived. This wasn’t the end of my health obstacles which I saw as opportunities to grow and evolve. In my mid 40’s, I was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis), now living in the US (yes my dream came true, but that’s another story).

In 2019, I had to take a step back from the corporate world which coincided with the timing of the global pandemic. With more time on my hands to heal myself from burnout, and unable to work full time, I wanted to find a way to make a difference in the world and help others feel more uplifted and less alone. I had come full circle and my passion for entertaining, uplifting, supporting, and encouraging others, only grew stronger over the years. From my personal experience of healing myself by listening to the guidance of the angels, including following the voice of my own Guardian Angel, I began offering this help to others combining my professional Transformational Empowerment coaching skills, with Angel/Oracle card readings.

Over the years I have been approached by many different businesses to be their VP of New Business Development, Senior Sales Executive and Trainer, or Brand Ambassador, because of my natural affinity towards connecting with and, building great relationships with people. Whether they were the janitor or a celebrity, it never really mattered to me, I just wanted to hear their story and be of service. It’s no surprise that I became a Certified Professional Co — Active Coach. (CPCC, training with the Coaches Training Institute, CTI).

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

There have been so many amazing stories of serendipity, but here’s one that comes to mind! My fiancè and I were driving from California to Texas to start our next chapter. To move to another State, where it doesn’t snow or get super cold in the winter! We had everything planned to a ‘T’ including 3 overnight stops at 3 different hotels along the way. All was going accordingly, until we were 2 hours away from Austin, our final destination. The big winter storm came out of nowhere, and very quickly it was incredibly difficult to drive on the icy roads without a 4 wheel drive. I was driving his car and he was driving the truck, with my car towed behind. We were stuck on the Interstate for 8 hours with our wee dog, in 2 separate vehicles. It took us 3 hours to drive half a mile to the nearest exit. We had no idea where we were and when we drove off the Interstate at 2 miles an hour, in the dark, at 3am, we managed to find our way to a parking lot of a motel. We slept overnight in the car, and when the sun came up, I did a google search on my Iphone and called the nearest Best Western Motel. It had a room for us. Every other hotel/motel, B&B in the area were full. All the roads were still closed, including the Interstate, but we happened to be 5 minutes away from the Best Western on the back roads and just across a scenic bridge. It looked like a scene from ‘The Bridges of Madison County’, except we had landed in Junction, TX. We were in Junction for 11 days, extremely fortunate for the electricity and running water, incredibly helpful staff and a walk away from the only place in town that had a Subway and cooked food. During this time, I felt like we were living in our own series of Schitt’s Creek which actually helped me see the funny side of this unbelievable situation. I love that TV show!

During this whole period, I had all my Angel and Oracle cards to hand, and I was still able to do my Facebook Lives and Angel readings for people all over the world. I felt incredibly grateful that I could still be connected to my clients globally via the internet and of course to my dear fiancè who would take the dog out for walks during my readings.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why do you think that resonates with you? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

I have so many, but here’s a great one. ‘When you get better, the game gets bigger’ (Andrew Matthews). I love this quote because it reminds me that we are never given anything that we can’t deal with. And as we progress through life, growing, learning and evolving, our challenges or obstacles match our life at that particular time. It reminds me of being a child at school. Each year we learn more, we move up to the next level and though it might be harder, we are ready for new information because we have reached a certain stage. This is how I look at my decades of different health issues. I was only ever given what I could deal with and each time, it taught me to focus on being grateful for the parts of my body that were working perfectly and all the wonderful blessings I had in my life, despite the difficulties.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story about why that resonated with you?

Actually there are three! ‘The Alchemist’ by Paolo Coelho. My cousin Elliot gave me this book right before I left Scotland to go backpacking around the world in the late 90’s. I loved the story of the shepherd’s travels, all the different people he met and he only had the bare minimum in his possession. It mirrored the journey I was embarking on and I loved the quote, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” I clung to that quote from that moment on, and it still speaks to me now. The other thing I loved about this book, is that wherever you go there you are. We often spend our lives in search of something outside of ourselves, seemingly unobtainable from where we are sitting, only to discover years later, that what we were looking for was right in our backyard all along. We just needed to take that journey to learn and experience everything we needed to learn, to bring us back home (to Self).

The 2nd book that impacted me greatly was ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James Redfield. This book introduced me fully to the power of synchronicity and how nothing in life is a coincidence. I cherished the stories of adventure and discovery and spirituality. I remember practicing looking for the auras around trees. I was reading this book while living in London in the early 90’s and numerous times when I had the book with me in my bag, I would have a chance meeting with a stranger, who later became a close friend, and I even ran into a childhood friend I hadn’t seen for 20 years. I was walking up the stairs from the tube in West Hampstead, and Lisa was walking up th steps at the exact same time. It turned out she was living a few streets away from me, and, she was running a Celestine Prophecy workbook circle at the time, which I went to and enjoyed discussing the chapters in detail with other readers. It was very magical.

The 3rd book that made a significant impact on my life was ‘Conversations With God’ by Neil Donald Walsh. The first time I encountered this then trilogy (he has since brought out a 4th book in the series), I was traveling in Thailand. I was sitting in a beachside Tiki Hut restaurant/bar sheltering from the afternoon monsoon downpour, and I noticed beside me, a thick book, it was resting on top of the phone booth. I started to read this trilogy, and instantly I was shocked and appalled and clearly not ready for it. I was angry, thinking, who is this guy, claiming he has all the answers to life and speaking like he is God. I put it down and waited for the rain to stop. Many years later, I was working in a sales role in Glasgow, and a girl in the office asked me if I had ever read ‘Conversations With God’. I told her it wasn’t my thing. She told me how amazing the 3 books were and that I should buy them, so I did. But I still didn’t read it. A few years after that, while I was recuperating at my parents’ home after my first surgery from Ovarian Cancer, I was digging through my books and found the 3 CWG books. I started reading book 1, and couldn’t put it down. It blew my mind, this time meeting me where I was at on my spiritual path. I loved it and I am so drawn to people who have the gift of ‘channeling’ the books they write.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

YES! I am highly engaged with numerous, exciting projects. I am always working on building the Maddie Sparkles Brand, bringing more love, light and joy to the world. I use various social/multimedia platforms to do this i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, TikTok, Clubhouse, YouTube, TV, Radio and Print.

I am often lending my Scottish accent for Voice Over projects, most recently Video Games, Empowerment MP3’s, and Guided Meditations.

Since the pandemic, I have been connecting with incredible people all around the world, and I was recently approached by a savvy business owner in Italy who has been following my work with Angels and my Facebook Lives. She invited me to run my ‘Living Magically’ workshops in Italy, next summer, in May/June 2022. I am so thrilled about this, because I have been manifesting this for many years. I know it will bring immense joy and inner peace to all the participants, given the stunning grounds, wonderful nature, exclusive, luxury accommodation and location of the quaint and picturesque town of Sabbioneta. I will be offering both group and 1–2–1 Angel readings, Group Meditations in nature, Guardian Angel guided visualizations, Transformational Empowerment sessions, Sacred Circles and more, with wonderful opportunities for self-reflection. We will also be exploring different cities together: Verona, Pisa, Florence, Milan and Venice, another wonderfully uplifting way to enhance our mindfulness and awareness of a fresh environment, all of which I know will allow them to access their inner sparkle.

I am currently collaborating with various Podcasters, and sharing my top tips in TV segments for various life situations, i.e.: 3 Tips On How To Deal With Life’s Challenges And Live A More Magical Life; Moving Forward, 4 Tips For Following Your Passion and Doing The Work You Love; 5 Tips For Empowering Others And Feeling More Empowered As A Result.

I have been nominated as a Face of WOHA 2021 Finalist (Woman of Heart Award), which is a wonderful cause set up for Inclusion and Diversity, empowering women and children in Africa to feel confident in school through the WOHA well-being and self-esteem initiative to build their confidence in the classroom.

Additionally, I am running a Living Magically Clubhouse room on Mondays discussing topics such as Gratitude, Connecting with Angels, The healing impact of nature and music and so much more. I love the connections made in these rooms and the uplifting, personal stories people share.

I am also currently writing an interactive book of short stories for young people, based on the true serendipitous adventures from my life, filled with life lessons, and a space for journaling about their own thoughts and lessons they have learned.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My dear friend, Maggie Steele, has always been a rock for me. She is a phenomenal social worker who teaches mindfulness to high school students and youth serving professionals. The work she is dedicated to is changing and literally saving lives every day as she supports adolescents in cultivating self-compassion, self-love and an unshakable knowing that their being here matters. So, you can imagine how our conversations have been over the years. Maggie is my go-to kindred spirit whenever I need to reframe a situation and I am immensely grateful to have her in my life. In connection to Gratitude, I literally bumped into Maggie while on a New York subway. We got on the same carriage and I recognized her from our Professional Acting Program at the American Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA). I sat down beside her and we had a conversation. We were not in any of the same classes until our 3rd year at the school, when we were both accepted into ‘The Company ‘. We were soon in plays together, once acting side by side as mother and daughter in an Irish play, and became close friends. Now, over 20 years later we are closer than ever. All from a subway ride in New York City! Deeply grateful.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now that we are on the topic of gratitude, let’s move to the main focus of our interview. As you know, the collective mental health of our country is facing extreme pressure. We would like to explore together how every one of us can use gratitude to improve our mental wellness. Let’s start with a basic definition of terms. How do you define the concept of Gratitude? Can you explain what you mean?

For me, Gratitude is a practice, much like meditation. It requires mindfulness, awareness and a deep connection to the here and now. For example, I can simply say I’m so grateful for something, and although I may mean it intellectually, in my experience, pure gratitude consumes me, only when I am fully immersed in the deep love for the thing I am grateful for, in that moment. When I truly feel gratitude for something I love, it is way more than just a thought. I often feel extremely emotional and may even shed tears, because the feeling of gratitude engulfs my mind, body and soul and for a moment I am connected to something much greater than myself. It’s a deeply spiritual encounter, in which the feeling brings back a long forgotten realization of what it is to be alive, and what it means to be in existence. It feels like a deep longing my soul has, to connect with all the good in the universe, and that transcends the ego, or the thinking mind. The abundance of nature, the limitless possibilities, the freedom our soul longs for. All of this flows through me with ease and grace when I am truly feeling grateful. It is highly fulfilling and this feeling, I believe, is why we humans desire to have material things or romantic relationships. We are longing for that feeling of complete peace, fulfillment and joy. The exact feelings we get from a deep feeling of gratitude.

Woah…that question took me on a wee journey!

Why do you think so many people do not feel gratitude? How would you articulate why a simple emotion can be so elusive?

I think many people underestimate the power of gratitude, and don’t think it makes any difference, whether or not they have it in their life. It is also connected to mindset, and if a person generally focuses on the things they don’t have, or things that seem to be going wrong, it can be a foreign concept to look for the gift, or the lesson from the person, place or thing they are encountering. I was taking a course with Michael Bernard Beckwith and I loved when he said we can choose how we want to perceive life. Are we in Victim consciousness (things are happening TO me); Manifestor Consciousness (Things are happening BY me); Channeler Consciousness (Things are happening THROUGH me) or Being Consciousness (Things are happening AS me).

If we can take a seemingly tragic or painful experience, and be grateful for it regardless, we are in a fantastic position to grow and learn something. This reminds me of another great quote by the award-winning Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”.

The truth is, ‘gratitude is the propeller of miracles’, (I discovered this quote a while ago, but I have no idea who said it. If you are reading this and it was you, I thank you!). I think the emotion of gratitude is extremely powerful and empowering because it comes from the heart. The concept of gratitude is simple but the feeling of gratitude runs deep. Even for the simplest things. Especially for the simplest things. I remember once in Scotland, holding a beautiful flower in my hand, and as I studied it, and inhaled its fragrance, it literally brought me to tears. I had an epiphany that this was a beautiful creation of the universe and wasn’t man made.

This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be constructive to help spell it out. Can you share with us a few ways that increased gratitude can benefit and enhance our life?

1. Increased gratitude can help you feel calmer, and less worried, because you realize you have much more going for you than you think. This works really well if you write a gratitude list. By seeing it on paper you realize how blessed you truly are.
2. Increased gratitude puts things in perspective. There will always be someone better off than you and someone lesser off. We are all on our own separate paths through life with brilliant, specifically designed lessons that we can only learn through our unique experiences. When we realize this, we can let go of ‘compare and despair, measuring ourselves against others, and instead learn to be grateful for the path we are on.
3. Increased gratitude can come through writing a FUTURE gratitude journal, where we write a future date on the page, and then write as though all the things we want for ourselves have already happened. i.e., January 1st 2023: I am so grateful to wake up in this beautiful home, surrounded by acres of woodland, which I bought 6 months ago. The beautiful spacious swimming pool is my favorite feature and allows me to keep fit in my favorite way, every single day. My business is thriving because I am living my dream, surrounded by exceptional people and being of service to the world etc. After a few minutes of writing out this incredible future life, in present tense, it fills us with anticipation, hope and excitement for what is possible. We feel different in our body and that feeling is the reason we want this lifestyle in the first place. We don’t have to wait for these dreams to materialize before feeling hopeful, supported and abundant. If you have never tried this, I invite you to give it a go. If anything, it is an uplifting exercise that can bring you joy in this moment.

Let’s talk about mental wellness in particular. Can you share with us a few examples of how gratitude can help improve mental wellness?

Being someone that has overcome anxiety, depression and panic attacks, I can tell you that frame of mind is everything. It is very challenging to take yourself from a place of high anxiety or chronic depression, to feeling fine, however, if you really want to improve your mental health, you can decide on a plan of action. You can write a simple gratitude list of 3 things every day, for example: I’m grateful I can see/hear/breathe/have a friend etc. A gratitude list can help us look at life in a more positive and optimistic way. When we think positive thoughts, our brain releases Serotonin, which creates a natural feeling of wellbeing, which then allows us to feel calmer, less anxious, and more emotionally stable.

Gratitude is also highly motivating. It will make you feel naturally inspired, which then allows for creativity to flow and your energy levels to rise. It is greatly healing being in nature and moving your body. If there is a place you love to visit, go there. Take a walk or a drive and seek out the birds and other creatures that make you feel happy. I love when I see butterflies or hummingbirds, even squirrels. Joyful things bring about a sense of gratitude. Take your ‘inner child’ to a swing park and swing. Feel grateful for being alive

Ok wonderful. Now here is the main question of our discussion. From your experience or research, what are “Five Ways That Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness”. Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Create a gratitude ritual — Keep a journal by your bedside and every night before you go to sleep write down the 3 things you are most grateful for from that day. If you want to amp it up, do this first thing in the morning as well, expressing gratitude for waking up to a brand new day, something you are looking forward to and for something great happening today that you don’t know about yet.
2. Be grateful for the tiniest things — Make it your business to be hyper aware and alert for any reason to feel grateful. Do this throughout your day. Maybe it’s clean, running water, electricity, or the taste of a delicious cup of tea/coffee. Maybe someone smiled at you, or a dog licked your face. This will leverage the power of gratitude and help you feel radically more positive about your life.
3. Share what you are grateful for in someone else — When we get out of our own way, and focus our attention on someone else, it can be extremely rewarding. Give someone a compliment, tell a colleague or family member what it is about them that you are grateful for. They might be surprised, but when you see how it made them smile, it will make you feel happy too.
4. Say ‘Thank you’ to all the challenges in your life — No matter what happens, see if you can say thank you for the inconvenient things, the painful things, yes even the sad things. What if all of these circumstances happened for a reason that you are unaware of right now. Steve Jobs said ““You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” I love this because when we are going through something painful, ie a break-up, an illness, losing a job, or the death of a loved one, we usually have no idea why it’s happening at the time, but when we look back on our life, we can see that it needed to happen for us to learn what we needed to learn, gained strength , and /or wisdom, maybe even felt a renewed gratitude for life, which brought us to where we are today. Having this understanding will help you feel calmer, and more trusting of your life path.
5. Practice self-care and appreciate your body — So much of the time, we are making sure everyone else’s needs are met before our own. By taking good care of yourself, you will feel more worthy, and grateful for the parts of your body that work effortlessly. Thank these parts i.e. your feet, your neck, your back, your hands, your fingers. We take them for granted and they continue to work hard for us unconditionally every single day. If there’s a part of your body that is not workin0g so well, ask it what it needs from you and listen to your body’s wisdom.

Is there a particular practice that can be used during a time when one is feeling really down, really vulnerable, or really sensitive?

• It is imperative to commit to some sort of spiritual practice every day for a healthy mindset and a more meaningful life. The power of breath work is incredibly grounding and brings us back home to Self. You can use a number of different methods, whether it is doing a guided meditation from YouTube, or joining a meditation group. I personally love to sing Kirtan Chanting which is a highly beneficial devotional practice.
• It can also be helpful to write a letter to your inner child, telling it that this too shall pass and, remind it of all its wonderful qualities and strengths and all the things you have both overcome over the years.
• Listening to a favorite song can rapidly alter your state of mind. Choose a song, play it loud and sing along or dance. Music is a huge mood changer.
• Walking in nature is also very powerful and healing. Connecting with trees and their healing benefits. Walking barefoot on the grass or sand is also very grounding and naturally healing.
• Talk to someone and share what’s going on. It might be a professional therapist that you see weekly, or maybe it’s a person in your life that you trust and respect.
• My personal favorite is connecting with my Guardian Angel and talking to it as I would a dear friend. We all have one, whether we believe it or not, but we need to ask it for help because it will never intervene without our asking.

Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that you would recommend to our readers to help them to live with gratitude?

Any books by Louise L Hay, or Ram Das.

‘Being Happy’ by Andrew Matthews — helped me during my darkest times

‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran

Abraham Hicks on YouTube

My Inspirational Poetry book: ‘Sprinkles of Glitter, your 12 month guide to a sparkling year’

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

CHOOSE HAPPINESS — UPLIFT *INSPIRE* CREATE *MANIFEST*

Happiness is a choice and we can choose to create an intention each morning that allows us to focus on the direction of our dreams and feeling good!

UPLIFT:

Being open to Angels — we all have a Guardian Angel, no matter our background, and if we ask them for their help, they will start guiding us (If we don’t ask they won’t intervene), and then if we pay attention to the signs that repeatedly materialize, this is one of the most uplifting things we can pay attention to: chance meetings, serendipity, the ease and flow that emerges.

INSPIRE:

Living with an attitude of gratitude, and giving thanks regularly, will make us want to focus on all the things we have, rather than the things we lack. This brings us a feeling of inspiration and leads to sharing pieces of positivity, good news, and focusing on the things that inspire us and bring us joy. Gratitude and Joy help raise the vibration of the planet and the collective consciousness, which, in turn, creates wonderful opportunities, and possibilities, big and small, just waiting for us to accept and claim them. We are then left feeling so inspired ourselves, we become an inspiration for others. We live from a place of inspiration rather than motivation.

CREATE:

Taking responsibility for our actions and reactions — owning that, and then showing up authentically, without judgment of self and others, we can begin creating an expansive, wonderful, unique expression of self. Be it art, music, dance, writing, singing, cooking, baking, gardening, photography, inventing, engineering etc., know that life itself is all about creating. It starts with an idea, the idea becomes an intention, the intention becomes a seed that grows into a beautiful manifestation.

MANIFEST:

In order to manifest, we choose what we focus on with great intention, we start noticing the silver linings in all of life’s ‘seeming’ disasters, remaining open to receiving all the great lessons from any challenges that show up, understanding that we attracted that challenge to learn the lesson we needed to learn. Once we have learned these lessons we make healthier choices and break the cycle of past patterns. From this place of clarity, we are free and ready to manifest the things we truly want.

What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?

Go to www.maddiesparkles.com or www.mybrilliantself.com

Join the Maddie Sparkles Facebook Group: Uplift* Inspire* Create* Manifest*

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2535242876563100/

You can also find much more information at:
https://linktr.ee/Maddiesparkles

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!