Generous-showing a readiness to give more of something than is strictly necessary or expected.
Some people are bright lights to all those they encounter because of their generous nature—giving more of themselves to the lives of others simply because it is the right thing to do, and it might make someone else’s experience just a little brighter. Today look at your life and see ways to be generous with your time, thoughts, actions, and personal gifts. These things can make a lifelong impression on others and teach them the value of being more generous. It will all begin by being more conscious of your generosity in thoughts, words, and actions.
Characteristics of A Generous Person
I have received more from the generous nature of others than I deserve. There have been people who have bestowed kindness on me throughout my life, and I hope that I have been able to regift that kindness to others. I know how fortunate I have been to have my life touched by great, kind, and generous people. It is more than the things I received. It was the feeling of worth that someone else’s generous nature toward you brings. Another human being values your happiness and well-being enough to do something special for you. The gift of generosity contributes positivity to life.
Many of the people who have shown kindness to me over the years have since passed on. Those kind souls are certainly missed for the bright lights in the world. THEY ARE NOT SO FAR GONE when I think of them and the kindness they showed me and countless others. A cycle of good stems from every affirmative, generous act ever committed. Be conscious of the way your generosity could shine through today.
Generous Means
If a person has never received excellent treatment from others, this suggestion might be in order. Giving more than is expected can come in monetary ways, but most of the charitable things I received were not money. Your time is the most valuable commodity, and how to invest that comes from noticing your interactions with others. If someone needs encouragement, you should take the time to encourage them. If someone needs a laugh, provide it. If you see someone needs to vent, let them vent.
Look at all of the situations that you are in and ask yourself the question, “Is there any more I can do here?” Most often, the answer will come to you. Treat all people with respect and kindness, and they will well accept your generosity. When your intuition says, “do this or that.” because it will make another person’s experience in life a little brighter, follow it. Do something that you don’t have to do for someone because you want to, and you can. Generosity will always make someone’s day a little better because it shows a level of caring that touches the soul.
Examples of Generosity in Everyday Life
It is everywhere. Be aware of the needs of others, and look to give a little bit more of yourself than is expected. Be extra conscious in your thoughts, words, and actions each day when being generous. Make someone else’s life a little better and the world a little bit better place.
Being Generous Quotes
“Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness.” ~ William E. Gladstone
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” John Holmes
“That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.” Simone de Beauvoir
“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Giving and Gratitude- You must provide to receive.
One of the better-known but often forgotten forces in the universe is giving and gratitude. These are two separate things but work together to bring a lot of good into the world. The old is replaced by the new as a person lets go of something without reservation, allowing for something new to enter its place. You can only hold on to so much at a time. What if the things you are grasping onto are old, outdated, or heavy and cumbersome. The only way to move to something new is to give them away freely. Then when new things arrive in your life, practice a pure, honest feeling of gratitude for them. This simple process will help you live a more fulfilled life. Develop an attitude of giving and receiving that keeps the energy of life flowing around you.
Mentality of Giving
It is easy to say, “Give!” to someone else, but there are always issues when it comes to yourself. If you have had feelings of lack your whole life, those will have to be conquered. Scarcity is not just referring to finances, it can also be applied to love, caring, nurturing, or any other aspect of life. When we fear there isn’t enough for us, we develop a lack mentality. It is a catch 22 because there won’t be anymore if you hold onto what you have for fear. There probably won’t be anymore.
The mentality of giving is that you can give freely and without fear because there is no lack in the world of what you seek or desire. If you give freely and without a doubt, what you need will come back to you in all areas that you provide. It will also allow for new and exciting things to enter your life. This can be intimidating and scary because change is always a little unsettling. But to keep your positive energy flowing, giving is a must. Give with an open heart and mind and expect nothing in return. All you need will come to you.
Gratitude is the Thing
How often do you look at someone else and envy what they have? It is a waste of time looking outside and being envious or angry because someone else has something you would like. Look at your life, enjoy the things you have, and feel grateful for them. All of us have something to be thankful for. The basics, eyes to see, ears to hear, food to eat, a place to live, freedom, love, family, or anything else has come into our lives. If you don’t appreciate what you have, why would you attract more into your life? Learning to be appreciative is a skill that is not taught to many but needs to be determined.
Honest feelings of gratitude are essential to practice every day. Note a grateful sense in your mind for all the things you have that make your life better. If you do this consistently, you can’t help but be in a good mood. We all have something. The joy that gratitude can bring will make life a better experience and allow for more things to be grateful for coming into your life. It has been a tradition in many religious teachings to count your blessings because you will see what has already been created for you. Knowing all the things already coming your way allows more positive things to enter your life.
The Good of Giving
Many people think having a lot of money will make them great, or having a powerful job will give them respect, but the truth of the matter is that how much you give to the world is going to determine your value to it. Our view of life can get blocked by pursuing material goods and financial well-being. There is nothing wrong with having money, but giving is also essential for energies to flow. Giving is also something that becomes contagious. Giving something to someone often sparks them to give to someone else.
Giving also makes all parties happy. It feels good to offer, and it feels good to receive. If you look at the act itself and perform it with a pure heart, then the benefits of giving will shine through. Joy and happiness are the results. The only way they can’t is if fear enters the picture. Either the person giving is afraid they will never receive anything back. Or the person receiving is worried about what the gift means. Either way, give because you want to accept someone did something beautiful for you and let the process spread the happiness it should.
Take some time today and think of ways that You can give. Compliments, caring, Kindness, understanding, or love are all excellent ways to provide that cost nothing at all but a bit of thought and consideration. Receive all of these things as best you can and know that they are given positively. Smile and spread positive feelings to those that you come in contact with. Giving is the first step in receiving, and gratitude is the doorway it walks through.
“The heart that gives, gathers.” Tao Te Ching
“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”- Khalil Gibran.
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”- Lao Tzu.
“Don’t wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly, lead the way.” Steve Maraboli
Each day you wake up and have a simple choice as to what type of day you will experience. Is it a great day? A good day? A boring day? A bad day? A disappointing day? The decision that you make will determine how your day goes. Our attitude is the most significant factor in how much we experience life, and life is what you choose to make it.
One of the most critical factors that determine our attitude is how we look at our lives and the world. How do you spend your time? Do you look for ways to give to others? American society is centered on personal gain. The more you have, the more successful you are. This measurement leaves out a lot of important factors that measure not only your worth but your value to others. Joy and satisfaction often come from what you give to others, and the gain for you is not a monetary one but a spiritual one. Happiness comes from within. Seek opportunities to give to others.
All things each day provide us with the opportunity to find beauty and magic in all things. If you are spending your time destroying others or yourself, you are on the path to failure in reputation or feeling. If you know someone thirsty, give them a drink. If they are hungry, get them some food. If they are feeling low, treat them with kindness. If they need a friend, then be one to them.
Most of us were exposed to all of these values when we were young, but how many of our teachers and role models practiced them. This practice makes the lesson last and moves the action to a new generation.
You have total control over what type of day you will have. Is this a great day with the unbelievable potential for good? Or is this a day of boredom and perpetual letdowns? You are the one who decides the direction of your day and the course of your life, and your life will be what you make it.
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” James Dean
“Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” Frank Tyger
“Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want.” Alan Cohen
“Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever.” Peter Hagerty
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
How might you change your life and the lives of others by being more positive?
Give yourself a little positive boost today. These things will help us to develop ourselves as productive beings. There are certain areas of life we need to cultivate and others we need to leave behind us. As you look at the activities and conversations you have throughout your day, take a little time to evaluate how these things I am going to talk about work into your life. If they are not something you are currently developing, consider taking some time to build these things in your relationships, inside yourself, and life in general.
Generosity is something you can practice every day. You can give things to others, but giving yourself, your time, and caring is much more valuable. Giving will provide you with a path to find growth and learning. Being generous is also the path to receiving as well. Look at your life and see where you can be more generous with your time and give others the attention they need. Give time, give notice, give love to all areas of your life. The person who will be receiving it is you.
Discipline is another trait you can work on building into your daily life. Be in control of what you say and how you treat other people. All people are capable of causing harm to others with very little thought. Try not to be one of these. Your growth as a positive person should not, in any way, cause damage to others. Develop a sense of consistent learning and appropriate behavior as life gives you the lessons you need to become better than you were yesterday. Every day is an opportunity to stick to the good and let go of the negative, and to be able to do this consistently takes discipline in life, thought, and action. Work to develop this in your everyday life. My definition of discipline is doing what needs to happen to the best of your ability every time it needs to happen. Practice this in all areas of your life.
Patience is a different sort of learning experience. It’s human nature to want it all and want it now, but that experience may overwhelm you and not allow for an appreciation of any part of an experience. Let all things evolve at their speed and in their own time. By enabling each item to grow and develop as it needs, we allow an opportunity to appreciate that thing and a chance to grow from experiencing it. Growth is the opposite of forcing things, allow the moments to be the moments they are, enjoy the process. Let things develop as they should. Pushing your agenda in life always leaves you empty-handed. Set a goal, ask for what you want, then let it grow as it should.
Acceptance of ourselves, others, and life’s situations is another key area we can develop. We all must give away our thoughts of perfectionism, which is always a lie someone else has told you. Instead, focus on the truth of who you are and the quality that exists in every moment. What is perfection but a created thought of the desired outcome? In other words, how we perceive a situation should play out. But who is to say what is best for us? What is the learning we need? Let go of the need for perfection and embrace the quality that naturally exists in every moment. There is a beauty in the imperfection and power there too. Allow all things to be perfectly imperfect. In this imperfection, we can find ourselves and appreciate the matrix that is life.
Use your mind rather than letting your brain use you. Or worse yet, letting someone else do your thinking for you. Control is gained by learning to relax and allowing your thoughts to flow. You are not identifying with any of them in particular but noticing each as they pass you by on their way. To think this way is meditation, and with practice, it can calm you physically and improve your mental capacity.
Most importantly, control of your mind will allow you to exist in this moment, which is the only thing you have. Thoughts of the past and future are all fantasy, created in our minds. The present moment is the only one we can live in and learn to embrace and enjoy it. Connect with the things in your life right now.
Cultivate your most powerful asset, your thoughts. This growth occurs just like tending a garden. The activities you participate in, the ideas you think, and the actions you willingly participate in will allow for the appearance of the backyard of your mind. Most people never realize how they are creating their existence and experience, primarily based on the tenor of their thoughts. Keep your mind open to experiencing new paths of positive experience. All of our feelings will result in an emotional response, and those responses will be charged with positive or negative energy. Positive energy will pick you up, and the negative will take you in the other direction.
These are all things you can add to your life today if you need a little positive boost. Who wouldn’t want that?
“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.”
“When you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”
“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you think about adding new good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”
“A great attitude becomes a great day, which becomes a great month, which becomes a great year, which becomes a great life.”
It seems like some people have just decided to be miserable with their lives. There are several sure-fire behaviors that we can all choose which are guaranteed to make you carry a negative attitude in your life, give you less happiness and cause your negative emotions to dominate your days. Practice these things, and you are guaranteed to be unhappy. Be careful because happiness will always seek a way into your life. We all have an inner desire to find happiness, so if you are not there right now, understand that probably many of these things are being practiced, and it is time you rethink your conscious thought choices. Do the following things, and you will join the ranks of the negative. Do the opposite, and you will find fulfillment in life.
Be Mean to Others
A great place to start is to make sure that you are mean to other people. Most people are mean and accepting of others because we see faults in them that we see and dislike in ourselves. So look at what you dislike about yourself, recognize it in someone else, and be mean to them. Gossip about them, name call and discriminate if you can.
Never learn to accept your flaws because being mean to others is virtually impossible when this happens. Once you start to show kindness, your urge to be kind will grow. Soon kindness will outshine any mean thought, and you will be accepting of others and yourself. Happiness is an uncontrollable byproduct of this situation, so beware.
Be Selfish
Whatever you do, worry about yourself only. Let’s face it, and you are the only one that matters. Everyone else only matters as much as they contribute to the value of your life. If they can’t help you, forget them and find “friends” who will be able to advance your career and wealth in some way. Never put another person first or care what makes others happy.
If you should start putting other people first, then your life would quickly become a happy experience. So be vigilant that this never happens. Once a person starts to give to others, it can grow into a habit. Giving is a precursor to receiving, so if you give love, you will also receive it. It is almost impossible to be unhappy when you get kindness and love from others, so be vigilant. Each day is a new opportunity to be kind.
Be Ungrateful
Never be grateful for anything in your life. Gratitude is a compelling thing and can make you smile, feel good, and be uncontrollably happy.
The funny thing is that if you allow a little gratitude for something, it will invite more of that very thing into your life. Soon you will be smiling all the time and happy without even realizing it. So make sure to be ungrateful to maintain a solid level of unhappiness in your life.
Send Hate
For no real reason other than you are completely miserable, send hate out to everyone and everything. That is sure to make you very unhappy. Be careful, though, because there will always be people who are going to want to love you despite all of your flaws.
Love is a potent emotion, and once you start to allow it in your life, it will tend to grow. Soon before you know it, you won’t even be able to fathom how you ever hated anything. You will start to care about people, and happiness will be the unstoppable result. You will send love to all people, and the momentum in your life will be moving toward uncontrollable, unstoppable, and unimaginable happiness. Who would want that?
Wallow in Self Pity
Finally, one of the best ways to build and maintain unhappiness is to continually feel sorry for yourself and blame all circumstances and other people for any misfortune in your life, real or perceived. Always ask the question, “Why me?” or “Why do these things always happen to me?”. Never accept responsibility for your actions.
Be careful here because once people stop feeling sorry for themselves, they could find uncontrollable happiness in their lives. You will recognize this possibility when you start looking for solutions rather than wallowing in the past or letting challenges overwhelm you. Once you get past the why me mentality, happiness is easy to attain and hard to get rid of, so be very careful about putting the past behind you. It will make your life better.
Complain……………..A Lot
Nothing makes a person as unhappy as unlimited complaining. Be unhappy about everything and share it with anyone you come in contact with. Never let any positive words pass your lips. Even when good things happen, complain about them. Not only will you be unhappy, but everyone around you will be unhappy too! It is a win-win.
The danger here is that some people will begin to use positive thinking. They will look at the good side of any situation, and that will definitely make them happy. When you speak with positive energy, you spread positive energy. So your positive talk can spread just as quickly as the complaining. Soon everyone you know will be happier, and it will all be your fault. Watch out for positive thinking, and it will make your life a happier experience.
As you can see from these examples that it is easy to make yourself unhappy if you want to. It seems like many people I run into daily don’t need my advice in this area. Remember, it takes just as much effort to choose to be happy as it does to be unhappy, so choose your actions and thoughts wisely.
Staying balanced in life can be difficult. Sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason why things happen, and dealing with sudden, quick changes entering our reality makes it hard to understand if there is something we should or could be doing better. In the end, shouldn’t we be happy? Shouldn’t our daily routines and struggles bring us personal satisfaction and make us feel valued as individuals? I think that it should, and one way to do this is to practice positive thinking. But what exactly does that mean?
In a nutshell, the thoughts you entertain will dictate your reality and the enjoyment or discomfort you experience in each moment. The feeling you give credence will bring a corresponding emotional response, words, and actions into your life. Format your thoughts in a way that the results will be what you want. If you can’t control your mind and thoughts, someone or something else will.
What Positive Thinking Means To Me
We all have programming in our subconscious mind determined by our experiences. It takes our reality and interprets it in a way that makes sense to us and fits into what we know. The thoughts produced from this are automatic and consistent and will dictate everything in our lives. From the amount of success we have, the money we earn, and the love we have in life. Our ability to change these often negative thoughts into more positive ones is our number one weapon in creating the life we dream about every day.
Remember, your experience conditions your subconscious when you look at your past and draw conclusions about your abilities and worthiness. What you believe determines your ceiling of creative ability in your life. Until you choose to change, that choice is positive thinking. In each moment, you can think in a more constructive and caring way about yourself. The decision to do this will allow you to grow. From what I have read, most of these conditioning experiences happen early on in life, but all of life’s adventures can add to it. Learning to recognize and ignore the negative comments from your past is the key to positive thinking to me and the catalyst for growth.
It’s Not a Cover-Up
We all make choices that we know weren’t good. I know I have, and in hindsight, I can’t believe how foolish and thoughtless some decisions were. What was I thinking? I used to beat myself up all the time about these choices, and they were a part of my daily existence. A choice is a choice and to learn from the result is the desired experience. If your choice was wrong, forgive yourself. The decision may have hurt someone else, apologize, and ask for forgiveness.
Positive thinking does not mean to forget or overlook these negative/poor choices. It is a way to put them into proper perspective. Accept that these things happened, then leave them in the past where they belong because no amount of second-guessing, longing, or fantasy replay in your head will change what happened in the past. But if you choose not to learn from it and seek a better future, then you are a fool. Positive thinking is knowing that you have the ability for growth and development. Pursue it and find questions leading to your growth. You can control the thoughts you think about any situation and experience. This choice doesn’t mean to sugarcoat things or ignore the negative, but deal with it and see the positives that can come from it.
Find A Positive Thought
I think that there are two schools of thought and emotion. They come from a place of love or a residence of fear. Fear brings hate, doubt, anger, jealousy, resentment, lies, inferiority, and ego. You can imagine that love brings with it peace, understanding, empathy, sympathy, kindness, hope, truth, and, of course, love.
Positive thinking embraces the thoughts of love and limits the attention you give to the ideas of fear. This consciousness doesn’t mean that you don’t have them because we all do. Someone makes you mad or treats you poorly, and the thoughts of fear will arise. You will always have a choice at this point, let them rule your actions, or recognize them, experience them, and don’t let them rule your actions. You are always in control of your thoughts if you choose to be. It starts with your conscious awareness of what you are thinking and where the view is coming from. Anger is the open face of fear. It is a natural warning system to let everyone know you are experiencing anxiety on some level. Passion means your needs aren’t being met, or you are afraid they won’t be.
You can manage these thoughts by focusing on theories of understanding, empathy, and love. That is your choice always.
Seek Another Positive Thought
When I started to realize that I could entertain whatever thought I wanted, it changed the way I looked at the world and the people in it. The power of knowing I was in charge of how I felt was a little overwhelming. It made me want to learn more because experiencing life through this lens was much more fulfilling and enjoyable. Even if a little unnerving.
This learning led to more social experiments, and finding the reaction of others is almost always a mirror of the emotions you show to them. Strangers smile and are friendly when you extend friendship. People appreciate you when you show them appreciation. It is not hard to look at what someone else does and enjoy the thought, time, and talent it took to create whatever it is. Being positive about life on a surface level is more natural than negative, and it makes the world a better place. Being positive below the surface takes a lot more work, but the results will be a life you truly enjoy and create.
Be Positive About Outcomes
It never ceases to amaze me that when something happens to you, good, bad, or neutral, almost always there is a path, the growth or development in front of you; all you have to do is take it. I have beat myself up and ridiculed myself for years about decisions in my past, only to realize I was wasting my time because of those things set in motion circumstances that greatly benefited me in the end. I also realized that those benefits would have never been able to occur in any other way.
When we relax and let events play out, and accept what is happening, we can achieve greatness. This letting go doesn’t mean we are off the hook on taking action because we always have a choice, and we can act. Don’t be afraid to respond, but understand that your activity may end up in failure, but that failure may be the step you need to take to reach the highest potential that you have inside you. It can be in creativity, your career, or your relationships.
You Are Great. There is Really Nothing You Can Do About it!
Now it is time to stop blaming yourself for the past. You made choices, you took your throws, and it didn’t turn out how you hoped. Accept it, learn from it, and move on to the rest of your life. You were not put on the Earth to let past programming dictate your ceiling of achievement. You are here to be great! Because you know what? You are fantastic, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it! It is a matter of adjusting your thoughts to reflect that reality to the world.
Everyone is born with greatness inside of them, and some easily find it. Some have to work harder because life is full of should haves, would haves, and could haves that will consume your mind. Regrets shouldn’t happen because I can’t even conceive of the level of greatness inside you. Only you can let it out. That is about all anyone can hope for in their life.
Be conscious of your thoughts, pursue the positive about yourself, and counteract the negative, limiting ones. The thoughts you think and react to are all up to you.
“You are the only one who can control the way you think. Make sure you nourish the positive thoughts and weed out the negative ones!” Catherine Pulsifer
“In essence, the bulk of our negative self-talk comes from adopting a worldly standard and worldly values as the primary standard through which we filter our thinking.” – John Stange.
“I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.” James A. Baldwin
“Over the ensuing years, it was my positive attitude that allowed me to tackle and complete and compete in many diverse assignments.” Catherine Pulsifer
“A major factor in determining how our lives turn out is the way we choose to think. Everything that goes on inside the human mind in the form of thoughts, ideas, and information forms our personal philosophy.” – Jim Rohn.
This song by Stevie Wonder is an excellent guide for positive thinking. Enjoy!
How to change thoughts- when one comes up, switch to the other.
I could never do that= I CAN DO THAT
I’m not smart enough= I AM INFINITELY INTELLIGENT, HAVE THE RESOURCES, AND WILL LEARN.
I’ll never be wealthy=I MUST BE WEALTHY!
I’m always sick= I FEEL GREAT
I’m too fat = I WANT TO BE FIT AND HAPPY
I’m unattractive =I AM BEAUTIFUL
I will fail= I’LL DO WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED
I am a loser= I WILL WIN
I can’t be bothered=I AM UNLIMITED ENERGY
I’m too tired= I MUST DEMAND AN ENERGETIC STATE NOW
That’s Really bad= WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT THAT
That’s impossible= ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
That’s really bad= WHAT IS GREAT ABOUT THIS?
I feel drained= I AM A POWERHOUSE
I can’t = I CAN
Maybe one day= I WILL MAKE THIS DAY
Hopefully= I’M CERTAIN
This is too hard= I LOVE A CHALLENGE
That’s a mistake= THANK YOU FOR THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
What if …. = IT’S NOT HAPPENING NOW, DON’T WORRY IN ADVANCE
I should have= I DIDN’T, BUT I AM IN CONTROL OF MYSELF NOW, WHICH MEANS I CAN!!
To give completely is one of the best things that you can do for your well-being. Giving completely means that you expect absolutely nothing in return. Whether it is money, love, or kindness, giving without expecting a return will change your life more than anyone who receives something from you. Think about the energy that you are giving today. Is it positive? Or is it something else?
There Is A Joy in Giving
There is a joy that comes from giving.
One of the most significant benefits that come from giving is the feeling that you get inside. There is a joy inside you that comes out when a gift is given, and you know that someone has received something valuable and cherished you were responsible for creating. This feeling of happiness stays with you. There is a huge difference between giving freely and what happens during the holiday season. Give free gifts, be grateful for the gifts you get from others. Giving doesn’t come out of obligation or for status. That is not giving, that is a job.
Giving Connects Us
When you give to someone, there is a natural closeness that develops between yourself and the receiver. It doesn’t matter if it is a person or an organization. When you give a gift, there is a natural connection and interest in the welfare of that entity that exists.
I think that often at Christmas time, there is a lot of giving that is just going through the motions, and the gifts are not for the benefit of someone else but out of a sense of obligation. Obligations don’t promote joy or happiness, and they produce a feeling of pressure and chore like a duty that does not lift your soul but drives it down. The connections built through giving can be powerful and enjoyable and can enhance your life. Look to give every chance that you can.
Receiving is a Part of Giving
Giving is reciprocal, meaning that to be a good giver, you have to also be a good receiver. For me, sometimes the receiving is a difficult thing to do. However, to get all of the things we are looking for in life, we need to be willing and grateful receivers. Having the humility to receive and appreciating a gift given to you allows you to have a much larger understanding of gratitude, caring, and love for other people. Complete the circle of giving and be a good and grateful receiver of gifts from all of those in your life.
Giving is Catchy
Like many things in life, giving has a way of spreading its joy around. The person receiving a gift is going to look for ways that they can give as well. Your thoughtful and caring gift to someone can inspire them to give. That can move that person to give as well, and soon your gift of giving has led to a flood of giving that never would have happened if it wasn’t for the initial giving. By giving, you could be responsible for a chain reaction of love that flows through many different gifting opportunities.
Giving is an act that is beneficial to all parties involved. If you are looking for ways to build wealth, then giving freely is a great way to get the energy of abundance flowing your way. The alternative is to live in a feeling of scarcity, and it is impossible to build anything substantial from that mindset. Give with a free heart, and receive the same way, and you will have a happier and more enjoyable experience in life.
“For it is in giving that we receive.” ―St. Francis of Assisi
“Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.” ―Ben Carson
“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” ―Albert Einstein
Christmas should be a time of wonder, and if it isn’t, look within yourself.
It is easy to see the problems with the world today, life’s issues seem to force themselves into our consciousness. There are those without enough to eat, no family, no home and no hope of anything any better. This is impossible to fix completely but Christmas gives us our best opportunity to make changes in the quality of life for all people. How come we so often miss the mark? Why is it that so many people are not really happy on Christmas?
Commercialism Robs Gratitude
Too often it seems Christmas lists look like this. Greed is not good.
The increase in commercialism around this time has made Christmas the season of expectations not of gift giving and gratitude. People, especially young people, spend the holiday wrapped up in what is being wrapped up for them. Rather than being concerned with the feeling of Christmas which has always been love, they are worried about what is in this for them.
I feel old when I say I remember a different time, but I do. There were small gifts that were really appreciated by those receiving them. I remember not only receiving gifts that were thoughtful, and just what I wanted, and I remember searching for just that perfect gift that cost under five dollars for my parents or siblings. It was a simpler time, even though Christmas was commercialized then, it was nowhere near the media advertising blitz it is today.
It is no wonder people are so messed up around Christmas, if your intake of expensive electronic gizmos and gadgets doesn’t equal the price of a small import car, the holiday is a failure. Where did we go wrong?
The Magic of Christmas
Try some of these thoughts and emotions this year.
It doesn’t have to be that way, and it is simple to reclaim. If you are Christian then remember the actual meaning of the holiday. The message is one of love, power, and wonder. If you aren’t Christian but like the holiday, simply remember that the act of giving is a good thing, and has the power to transcend culture, distance, and differences of all kinds. Giving is a two-part transaction, which should never be forgotten. On the one hand, there is the giving of a gift. It simply has to be given with an open heart, to make someone else happy. That is it.
The second part of the transaction is receiving, with gratitude, and appreciation, that someone else in the world cares enough about you to take the time to find you a gift. There was a time in life, that I took gifts for granted myself, but age and time have made receiving gifts of any kind a wonder. I appreciate the thought, even more than the gift itself, because that is the real treasure anyway.
This is the magic that comes with this season each year and seems to be lost in the commercialism and greed that pervades the holiday. The act of giving is powerful, but the feeling of gratitude for the gifts and love of another can carry you to new heights. Having a gratitude in your heart can allow you to find the strength to make it through tough times because it is not really how much crap you accumulate in this life, it is how much others care about you and your presence in their lives that matters in the end.
It Will All Be OK
So when you start to feel overwhelmed with the season and find that you are getting frustrated with the commercialism and greed that seems to be all around you, then you need to look inside yourself and find the spirit of giving and the gratitude for all that you have. If that is your focus you will have a much more pleasant holiday season and life.
Some people are bright lights to all those they encounter because of their generous nature—giving more of themselves to the lives of others simply because it is the right thing to do, and it might make someone else’s experience just a little brighter. Today look at your life and see ways to be generous with your time, thoughts, actions, and personal gifts. These things can make a lifelong impression on others and teach them the value of being more generous. It will all begin by being more conscious of your generosity in thoughts, words, and actions. 
how fortunate I have been to have my life touched by great, kind, and generous people. It is more than the things I received. It was the feeling of worth that someone else’s generous nature toward you brings. Another human being values your happiness and well-being enough to do something special for you. The gift of generosity contributes positivity to life.
What is Positive Thinking?
Christmas is:- Love and Happiness
The Gift of Giving.
Changes in Attitude, Changes in Gratitude: dog appreciation
It’s a Christmas wrap
