Tag Archives: appreciate

22

Your Time Is Ticking Away

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time is now
What Time do you have?

It is so easy to get lost in thoughts about your past and what you should have done. Our mind can transport you effortlessly to those moments where you perceive you were pleased or to places you think watershed moments occurred, changing your life. They seem so much more significant than the experience available to you today.

The problem with these trips to the past is that if you make them too often, you will find it difficult to enjoy your place right now. The other thief of the moment is the future. Everybody plans for the future. It would be crazy not to, but you cannot put off your happiness to tomorrow, or you will never be happy with what you are doing, the people in your life, or the events you experience. Now is the time you have today; this moment is all you will be guaranteed in life, and it is your obligation to yourself to enjoy it.

Live For Today

live-for-today_xLAs you experience the Time you have today,  there are opportunities to feel alive in the here and now. It can be time spent with a loved one where you share tender moments, or it could be a joke you share with a friend. The simple pleasure of seeing the beauty existing all around you can bring on a  laugh or make your day memorable all on its own. Since these moments are fleeting, a person must be ready and aware to catch them and make them count because they will be gone in a flash. All extraordinary things come with an expiration date. A perfect day must inevitably end, a winning streak will be broken, and the same can be said for bad luck. It will end eventually.

One of the things that I did, which helped me appreciate my experience, was to consciously note everything I noticed that was beautiful on that day. From the sunrise, I witnessed moving from a light orange film barely visible on the horizon to its culminating glory of creating an entire burning sky. The homes were silhouetted by the sunrise, with their chimneys gently puffing their stream of wispy smoke into a crisp winter sky. The list was long, but it allowed me to appreciate what I was experiencing in life, today right now.

Too often take today’s experience and brush it off as something we have to do and don’t appreciate that the new day is a gift. Talk to anyone struggling with a fatal disease and is not sure how many more sunrises they might see. How much o do they appreciate the new day and all of the little things that most of us never even notice? The sound f a car starting, the laugh of a stranger in the distance, the look in the eye of someone who loves you. Love them right back with all that you have. They may b  gone tomorrow.

Focus on The Positive

always-live-in-the-moment--sourceThis life is an endeavor that you can begin right now this moment. Many will say I will do this tomorrow or put it off until the new year, but waiting on the action is a losing proposition, and you know it. Before long, you will convince yourself that you will be happy when x, y, or z finally occurs. What do you o in the meantime? Your mind has a way of distracting you from being delighted by pointing out your flaws, worries, or doubts in the non-stop dialogue in your head, which is less than complimentary to you and often downright corruptive to your skills.

Ignore that foolishness because it all amounts to nothing in the end. When you are dying, will you wish you had only worked a little more, spent less Time with your loved ones, or had less fun? Of course, not look for the things that matter and pay attention to them. Forget the rest. A wise man once said, listen to your heart, and ignore the noise in your head. I believe you will have fewer regrets if you do, and I also think you will enjoy the ride a lot more.

Now, It’s All You Have

Finally, this moment needs to be treasured and appreciated because it is all you have. Looking at the p t is a fun escape, but no matter how long you think, yesterday is gone, and it isn’t coming back. Tomorrow may be g at, but there is no guarantee. Your life could be over in ten seconds. All of these thoughts are just fantasies we entertain ourselves with daily. There is only one thing: you and where you are right now in this moment. The choice to be happy in it, experiencing whatever is happening, is up to you and is exclusively yours and yours alone.

So you can spend your Time worrying about the future or be angry about the past and the supposed slights that others have perpetrated against you, but those choices will only make today less enjoyable. When you think about it, what benefit are you enjoying today less? None that I can see. Look at the day you’re in and what you are experiencing. Touch it, feel it, enjoy it. Now is the only moment  you have.

Enjoy the hell out of each moment you have because they are all you can ever be sure of.

Dream as if you live forever, live as if you’ll die today.

There are seven days a week and someday is not one of them.

A year from now, you will wish you had started today. – Karen Lamb

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

If not, now then when? If not you, then who? – Robin Sharma

One day you will wake up, and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now. – Paulo Coelho

People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness.

Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are so many tomorrows. -Michael Landon

Do it now. The future is promised to no one.

The best Time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best Time is NOW. – Chinese Proverb

The Time for the action is now. It’s never too late t  do something.

 

22

Being Grateful

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gratitude-logoOne of the simple things in life that we all know we should practice gratitude for the things we have in our lives that bring happiness.

It is easy to look at the struggles and challenges of life and forget to see all of the things that make each day a positive experience. One of the best practices is setting aside a time of day to look at the past day and decide what you are grateful for.

Build Your Mindset

MindsetIt is a great time to build your mindset of appreciation for whatever makes your life a little better. It is my practice to write ten things a day that I appreciate, and I try to make 2 or 3 new or original. This practice gets your mind looking for ideas that you might add to the list throughout the day. Seeking gratitude improves your focus to include good thoughts and moves you away from negative thinking and worry.

Open the Door for More

Being grateful and appreciating the positive things in your life opens the door for more of those things to come into your life. A gratitude journal is a reflective moment that will only make you happier and make you feel better about life and the things you experience in it.

Open-the-door-to-moreThe other choice is to complain about everything you don’t like about your experience. That only puts your focus more on those negative things, and of course, more of those things will come into your life. Nobody cares about your complaints; they are your issues. At best, anyone you are complaining to is just looking for an opportunity to share their grievances about why they are unhappy.

Like most things, it comes down to a simple choice that anyone can make. You don’t have to be intellectually superior to be grateful, but you must be smart. It will make your life better and bring more of what you want into your consciousness.

The Power of Thank You

hqdefaultThere is a lot of power in using the words Thank You! It has been clinically proven that if you thank a new acquaintance for anything they do, it makes them more likely to seek to further your relationship. Gratitude makes you physically and mentally healthier, enhances empathy, reduces aggression, improves the quality of your sleep, improves self-esteem, and makes you think more efficiently.

Best of all, there is no downside to the practice at all. Have you ever heard of someone being harmed by being grateful and saying a simple thank you? Of course not. Those two little words make others feel appreciated and open the doorway for more positive creation in your life.

Appreciation Game

A high activity that I read about is the Appreciation Game. When you are feeling angry, upset, or just in a negative mindset, it is because of the thoughts you are choosing to entertain. Our minds are fantastic tools, but they are only tools to be used by us. They are capable of thinking one thought at a time, and you decide the content, tenor, and tone of that thought. So you choose to find things in your life that you appreciate and think about. I understand the weather. I enjoyed my coffee today. It makes life better. I appreciate my spouse. I know the kind thing my kids did. I appreciate my health. I appreciate having money. I appreciate my success. I appreciate my life, etc. It will flip your mindset to the positive side if you let it.

Of course, you can choose to stay mired in the negative for whatever reason you want. Anger, jealousy, and judgment are just different masks of fear. These have something to do with not meeting your needs and some pain coming your way.

The choice is yours, live in fear, or live in gratitude.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” —Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.” —Zig Ziglar

“Learn to be thankful for what you already have while you pursue all that you want.” —Jim Rohn

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” —William Arthur Ward

 

21

Both Sides Now

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the flip side of lifeWouldn’t it be nice if all we had to deal with in our lives was a success in all we do and happiness in all experiences? I think everyone would feel the same way, no sadness, loss, or grief, just happy things that are easy to deal with, yet we all know that life isn’t going to come as quickly as that. We all must go through some difficult times, and I think that is OK because you will never appreciate the good in life unless there is the opposite aspect to compare it to in life. There is always a flip side. How do you know that life is giving you what you need now? You are experiencing it. Please take a moment and focus your conscious thought on this very thought of how opposites teach you lessons and see what words and actions arise from it. It will probably be a better version of yourself, and you will value the joyous times and good experiences all the more when they happen.

Sunshine and Rain

No matter what your preferred weather is, there is difficulty enjoying it thoroughly without having experienced the opposite of your desired temperature. For me, it is the weather of the fall in the northeast.

sunshine without rainWe are blessed with pleasant temperatures and cooler weather at night, which is perfect for sleeping. Each day it seems that there is a different and wondrous color scheme on display. Fall has a feeling in your heart that you can’t explain, feel. Yet the appreciation I have for this season is deepened by the hot, uncomfortable summer weather and the oncoming extreme cold and snow of winter. Those intense experiences help you tune into the perfection of September/October that you are experiencing in the perfect dance of autumn.

If the weather were as you like, all of the time, you would eventually find that you lose the special appreciation you have for it. It would be more difficult at any rate to find that appreciation for the beautiful autumn days, and they would be “days.”

I think this is true about all things in life. We need to have what we don’t want to know what we do want and, more importantly, appreciate it when it is in our lives and seek it out daily if you can.

Being Alone Leads To Growth

Most people long for comfort and company, yet many have this in their lives and manage to throw it away because of a bit of moment or slight that they perceive. If you

have ever been without someone who “gets you” and is forced to live your life truly on lonely makes you appreciate relationshipsyour own, then it is difficult to appreciate it when you have that connection partner in your life.

You would be much less likely to throw that relationship away if you knew what real loneliness felt like inside. The warmth of happiness and connection should stop people from cheating and taking their partners for granted.   The opposite side of this coin would help many a relationship find its way through rough waters.

Empathy for another and understanding the feelings, dreams, and ideas that make someone else tick is, to me, one of the most critical features of any relationship. It allows you to understand and be understood, give accordingly, and receive. When empathy is gone, and people start worrying about their own needs without concern for the needs of the other, trouble is not far away.

Sometimes you need to be alone to allow yourself to grow into the person you are meant to become. Much like a seed needs to be in the ground alone, you may need the same situation to allow yourself to grow in understanding and ideas. Life is a tricky game, and none of us have all the answers at the outset. That is why it is so damn impressive. You do not have to be lonely to appreciate the company of others, but it certainly does make it a lot easier to remember and keeps your empathy at the surface.

Loss Makes You Appreciate What You Have

If you have never lost everything, you do not appreciate everything you have quite as much. Everything is a subjective word that can apply to anyone and their situation. You may lose your family, friends, possessions, or guiding principles and strand you in life with no clear guidance or a place to call home.

Whatever it is that you lose, a friend, a family member, a relationship, it is through this loss, you will learn to appreciate what you do have. When you evaluate the things you have lost in your life, remember to include equal time thinking about the good that you have in your life and the appreciation you have for it — practice gratitude to some degree every day.

Sometimes the wounds of the loss are too big, and we can never move past them. Sometimes the pain of loss or the idea of the damage has engulfed us and our identity to the point that we can’t see around it. My experience tells me that once I have let something go, there is an appreciation for the people and things that are in my life that I would never have known.

You don’t have to lose everything to find this appreciation, and you have to look at what you have in your life and be grateful for it.

Seeing the Dark Side

To be human is to possess the ability to be very, very good, but each person also comes equipped with a dark side. Much like Darth Vader in Star Wars, we all have to choose which side of life our thoughts, choices, and actions will take us. There is power in being positive, helpful, honest, kind, and a decent human being society would fall without this attitude is prevalent. But there is a dark side in all of us.

One of the things that make good people so beautiful is that we make a choice each day to be that way. Sometimes, it can be a natural choice to follow the voices of fear and separate, ridicule, lie, gossip, or be selfish. Each of our actions balances out in our vibrational energy and just what you are putting into the world mentally, and with your efforts, you will get back to you. If you are not happy with where you are, look at your mental game and see how it is playing out. Take affirmative action, and positive will happen. Follow the light side of the force.

Look at the Flip Side of Everything

So my final urging is to look at the flip side of everything that you experience each and

Superman is not as great without a villain to compare him to.
Superman is not as great without a Lex Luther to battle against.

every day. Noticing that there is something positive for you to appreciate in every situation. Enjoy moments of downtime as well as deserved respites from the whir of activity that often rules your life.

Appreciate the moments of being by yourself as opportunities to grow. Nobody knows who you will end up with, but remember that making yourself the best person you can, will bring the person into your life who will make you better. With the heart-wrenching bitterness that death and loss of a loved one get to your life, there is an appreciation for those you live with still that can envelop your heart and touch your soul if you look for them.

That is why we should always look for and appreciate the flip side of the coin because we would never understand the value of moments in our lives without it. Light without darkness, happiness without sadness, love without fear, the experiences that we live define us by our ability to appreciate our journeys. 

“Belief systems thrive in circumstances of the collision. Their opposites energize them.”– James P. Carse

“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.” – Marc Chagall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPwviOUenA

 

 

21

Grateful

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Thank You For Being You!!

grateful Moving through your life, from task to task, work time to free time, one of the most important thoughts to keep in your consciousness is to be grateful for all of the things in life you experience every day. Some people and experiences bring joy, and some get lessons. All need to be appreciated for what they are because……….

Being grateful is an attitude that increases your positive energy, makes you more efficient and is in the doorway of abundance. In every situation, there is a choice of opinion. One can decide to be angry, disillusioned, bitter, or worried. Or a mind can be appreciative, grateful, accepting, and joyous. In each moment, the choice of gratitude exists, and I encourage you to be thankful in your thoughts, words, and actions today. Show that appreciation wherever you can by choosing the simple words, “Thank you!”

Don’t Take Things for Granted.

When life is going well in any area, relationships, financially, or achieving personal goals, take a moment and be grateful. Recognizing the presence of positive and enjoyable things in your life will open the doorway gratefulfor other “good” things to come into your life. Those who take things for granted tend to experience little to no joy, no matter what they have. Does it matter if you have everything if you don’t have the mental acuity to appreciate these gifts? Look to be grateful for the smallest of things, and joy will arise in you.

You never know when the good things in your life will pass away and disappear like smoke from a smooth summer’s fire. Each moment you have which are joyful and shared with someone you love should be appreciated, and a feeling of gratitude should accompany it. We are not guaranteed anything in this life, only a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is up to you to either appreciate your life and those in it. Or you can choose to take it for granted and be angry. This decision is one we make every day. Where are your choices leading you?

Say Thank You Often

In the course of your activity in a day, seek out situations to use the phrase “thank you.” Be mindful of why you use the term, and you will see more conditions the words can describe in your life. Each time you are grateful, from your heart, for something someone else has done, you increase the positivity of the world in just a fraction. Thank you have the power to show, share, and transfer the feelings of being grateful to other people.

It is also essential to be able to accept gratitude from others. If they take the time to acknowledge your acts of kindness with the words, thank you, make sure to keep the positive flowing by responding with a heartfelt word. The best one I know, I was taught by my great-grandmother. When I would thank her for one of the millions of kindnesses she showed me, her response was always cheerful and heartfelt “You are very welcome.” It still transferred the joy she felt in giving and made me feel loved and appreciated. Spreading that feeling can’t be a bad thing. Be conscious of the opportunities to thank you today and show how grateful you are for all things, big and small.

Appreciation Game

One of the most reliable ways to turn your attitude around is to focus on the appreciation game. This gratitude is the mental process of shifting your conscious focus away from negative thoughts of regret or anxiety and being grateful for the positive things in your life. Look gratefulat how fortunate you are. All people can find something to be thankful for having. Some can never find anything. The choice is always up to you and your mind.

Look at your life today and list, either mentally or on a piece of paper, things you are grateful for in your experience. Good weather, people who help you, people who care about you, coffee, reliable transportation, a job you enjoy, the ability to learn, an act of kindness, something in nature you witnessed, or anything you can think of experiencing. Just a moment of being grateful for each thing, and your mood will flip because it is tough to be negative and thankful at the same time.

Be grateful today, say thank you often, and count the good things in your life. It will be impossible to be in a bad mood. You will be a light of positivity. All this comes by becoming more conscious of your thoughts, words, and actions of being grateful in life. I thank those who have lied to me because I learned how much I value truth. Thank you to those who have hurt me because, through suffering, we find our most authentic selves and understand what is important to us. I thank those who count themselves as my enemies; you have taught me to understand the opinions of others never define my value.

“Develop an attitude of gratitude and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” ~Brian Tracy

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” —Charles Dickens.

https://youtu.be/hQiipuDbbxw