lifestyle
How To Practice The Art Of Gratitude
My life has not been without its challenges. Nevertheless, I love my job, have a beautiful son, an adorable husband and supportive friends and family. Therefore, irrespective of current world events, I genuinely have a lot to be grateful for!
Gratitude is beneficial for all of us, including physically, emotionally and spiritually. For one, appreciating the good things in our lives helps us to be more tolerant and forgiving, with a higher sense of life satisfaction. Grateful people also tend to have more hope and inner peace and feel less anxious and alone.
God, Spirit, the Universe loves gratitude! Those who are sincerely grateful are blessed with even more to be grateful for. Like attracts like.
How does one ensure that you practice the art of gratitude ever day? The following guidelines should help:
Seek Out The Positive
In my own personal research into positive psychology, I became aware of something referred to as negativity bias. In case you have not heard of this, it means that our negative thoughts tend to be more dominant than the positive ones.
An excellent way of counteracting this negative way of thinking is to seek out at least three things in your life every day that you are well and truly grateful for. Try to make this a daily habit. By doing so, it should have you smiling in next to no time!
I remember when I was about 26 years old and in a particularly challenging place in my life. I was advised by a psychic, whom I reached out to with my troubles, to watch the film or read the book, The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It is some of the best advice I have every received. Once I had read the last chapter, I felt so grateful for whatever I had in my life.
Put Down The Phone And Start Living
I used to walk around the lake in the small town where I used to live. It was a picturesque hike that took you all the way around a large body of water that fed into the lake.
It was also a popular camping ground. Many city folks came to our little rural town to camp. Day after day, I saw them walking their dogs around the campsite, or relaxing on the park benches overlooking the water.
But nobody seemed to be appreciating much of the beauty of the natural surroundings. No, they were all too busy looking down at their phones!
In the good old days, people used to love breathing the fresh air, watching the children playing, looking for baby lizards on the sunbaked rocks, admiring a newlywed bride dancing on the beach, or marveling at the curious formations of the clouds above. These many beautiful nuances and subtleties in the world around us, are what make life joyful and precious.
Sadly, even seeing people walk their dogs saddens me these days. Everyone appears to be obsessed with their phones only. The dog owners hardly notice their own dogs, never mind anything else around them. They miss out on their dogs’ cute moments of joy and excitement.
Someday, when their dog is no longer around, they might regret missing these precious moments. So many lost opportunities and forfeited memories. Or maybe they will still just be staring at their phone.
Once, I saw a couple at the lake. They were also campers. They were lounging by the water, with their chairs far apart. Of course, this was of no concern to them, because they were both far too busy on their phones to even notice.
I’m sure they were posting pictures they took in front of the lake on social media. By the time they leave, they would have only those photos, but no real experiences or memories of ever being there. They were not at the lake, they were in cyberspace – the cell phone rabbit hole.
True Love Has No Time Limit Or Deadline
We live in a busy world where most of us have gotten used to a very hurried life. Everything is on a strict schedule and time limit, because we now judge everything this way. We have become a restless society demanding instant solutions and immediate gratification in all things.
If the line is too long at the supermarket or fast food restaurant, some of us get upset. If we have to wait for our doctor when we have an appointment, we become annoyed. Some cut in front of others, or even cross streets while the light is still red, because they hate to wait.
Similarly, if we do not get an immediate reaction from our latest love interest, some of us do not become just a little restless or anxious. No, they get really upset!
If this kind of hurried, rushed way of life plagues you, then you may definitely need an major attitude adjustment. Because your naturally loving heart and your capacity for love and romance may be in serious trouble.
Maybe your heart never got the memo that there was no need to constantly hurry up and adhere to time limits and deadlines. What happened to dating? Romantic chats? Patiently anticipated expressions of affection? Dozens of love letters, and more recently emails and test messages? The joint holidays and weekends away? The looking forward to new adventures together?
What happened? What happened to living wholeheartedly in the moment? What happened to just enjoying the ride without constantly watching the calendar or the clock?
The one joy that we all desire and cherish is being loved and feeling special in someone’s eyes. To be affirmed, to be accepted and appreciated, to belong. It gives us an inner peace and happiness that cannot be found in any other way. Love and belonging is a fundamental necessity in everyone’s life. No matter how busy you are. Continue reading
We Can Co-Create A More Caring World
Each part of our body has many functions, many parts. Some we can see and some, of course, we cannot. Each has a very important function and serves a role that helps our body to work and operate well.
For our body to continue to run well, we have to take care of all the parts. We must ensure, for example, that we don’t drink too much alcohol, or eat too many processed foods, because if we do it could ruin our health. But healthy living goes beyond our physical lifestyle. If we think negative thoughts, or are emotionally bitter or cynical, then we also promote disease in the human body.
It also goes beyond our own life and body. Our planet is also a living, breathing body and all the smaller parts of our wonderful world must also run smoothly, in order for nations and countries to survive and grow, and for all to live in peace and harmony.
If we all do our job, and we are all on the same team with the same values, such as harmony, love and peace, we could have a gloriously peaceful, harmonious world. We are aware of things like corruption, greed and dysfunctional politics. These evil practices go on and make for ripples of constant negativity. Sometimes we see it in horrible ways, where lives are ruined and destroyed.
We all have different talents and gifts. If we all listened to the messages from our higher consciousness, and acted on them, we could co-create a meaningful change in the world. If we all did our part, and maybe weren’t so complacent, and really listened and heeded our true calling, we may be able to work together – just like our body uses all of its parts to function. We are all one in spirit and we are all connected. We must all contribute.
Find The Eye Of The Storm
Your relationship is falling apart, you have lost your job, your finances are in a shambles, you suffer an unexpected loss due to a global pandemic. Chaos comes in many forms and at times it touches multiple areas of our lives at once.
The ripple effect starts in one area and then spreads insidiously, until every aspect of your life begins to look very bleak. Your emotional reserves are drained, confusion sets in and you feel stuck, powerless…reeling from the shock.
When things turn bad in your life this way it can have the force and power of a hurricane or tornado. It can be devastating.
Perhaps you sensed it coming. Your intuitive radar was ‘pinging’, sensing imminent danger, or maybe it caught you completely off-guard. Either way, the results are the same.
Now what? How do you get your bearings, recover your sense of direction, recharge your battery and get the inner strength to move forward?
All tropical storms have a center, or an eye. The stronger the storm the calmer the eye, which is characterized by lighter winds and a clearer sky. So, take a breath – a deep breath – and find your center. Find the eye of your storm.
Making decisions from fear or chaos always increases the strength and ferocity of the storm. Remember, all storms do pass. The beauty of life lies in the newness and change each moment offers us.
The Law Of Sacrifice
Are you in a rut? Not getting what you want out of life? Pandemic fatigue getting you down? Whether you are hoping to achieve something on a psychical or emotional, or even spiritual level, it is my believe that we must always give up something in order to achieve that which you desire.
There is always going to be some form of sacrifice necessary for what you want in life. The most typical sacrifice often required is that of time – time that you must sacrifice to get that career or relationship or whatever it may be.
If you have a goal in mind for travel plans or a vacation, for example, you may need to put aside time to plan accordingly, or put more time in at your job to generate the money necessary to fund your trip.
If you are married or in a committed relationship you will know that most days you must sacrifice something. You may be required to be quiet when you wish to speak or you may need to meet your partner halfway, when you would rather not. In order to make it work, to make anything work, you must always sacrifice something.
If you value something enough, then it’s worth the wait or the effort. The sacrifice that you are willing to make in order to have something, whatever it is, shows the value of what it is you want to attain.
Know that to work hard for what you want is not always easy. It shows your desire, your drive and your determination. When you get what it is you set out to attain, it makes you want to keep working for it, for example a relationship.
The Spiritual Power Of Sweet Solitude
In a meditation circle the other day, there were many of us who got the same message from spirit: that solitude is of vital importance for soul growth and for tapping into our spiritual well-being and psychic potential.
It reminded me of my childhood. I was expanding my psychic awareness and started tapping into my psychic abilities at a very young age. I remember vividly spending time in a tree house, meditating and feeling so free and relaxed.
As I grew older, I began recording my psychic perceptions and spiritual insights in a journal, which at the time I simply thought of as ‘my diary.’ Reading back in later years, I discovered that I had unknowingly recorded many predictions that came to pass.
I would spend a lot of time in solitude and quiet contemplation. I would focus on a certain things or persons that were important to me at the time, and I would then receive intuitive flashes about what needed to be done, as well as what would come to pass, or not.
Discovering the power of solitude and quiet contemplation at such a young age made all the difference in my psychic development and personal spiritual growth. I can hardly imagine where I would be without it today, had I not cottoned on to this in my youth.
If you can spend just a few minutes in sweet solitude every day, or even a few times a day, you will boost your mental and physical health and reduce your stress levels. You will find you will hear your body better for what it needs for healing and well-being.
Spiritual practice in solitude will also empower you to become more creatively inspired and you’ll receive more insightful messages and guidance from spirit. If you want to connect with your intuition and psychic abilities, it is vital that you spend more time in alone in meditation.