When I started a new job selling door-to-door, it seemed like heaven. I was ecstatic from the first minute of the first day. Every house I walked up to, my heart sang and I said over and over to myself, “I am SO-O-O-O-O-O glad to be out here and not trapped in that cubical.” Then, after a few weeks, something quietly changed.
Finding inner peace is the focus of this article. Practical steps to releasing emotions provide techniques to assist you in achieving this ‘peace of mind.’
Thank you very much. I am obliged. Gratitude, a quality that is a must to live a good life.
Gratitude. I’m sure you have heard of this word before and you probably know that it simply means a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. Gratitude may be a mouthful to pronounce but the act of showing it is actually rather simple and effective to implement. Knowing the power and potential of showing gratitude and subsequently applying it accordingly can be the single most decisive factor in ensuring better degrees of success for yourself.
Let’s dwell a little on exact…
In the 1980s, I started a daily practice that I still maintain today. I was attending an intense personal growth workshop at Deerwood, Minnesota. One night, as I lay on the top bunk in a rustic dorm room filled with a dozen women, someone mentioned her practice of gratitude.
Aware of my natural tendency to focus on the half-empty cup, I decided to try it that night. I did it again the next night and the next. Now, more than 20 years later, I still continue with a gratitude…
In life, there are cycles of good and bad. Times when our lives seem joyful and easy, and times when we’re struggling through what seem like endless difficulties. Then there are times when the two seem to co-mingle. These are the times I call bittersweet. Perhaps you’ve had a bittersweet period in your own life? Usually it begins with something wonderful, followed immediately by something awful. You get a great promotion at work, then your spouse loses his or her job. Or you …
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, the holiday that has its origin in the Puritan’s tradition of giving thanks for a good harvest. The Puritans weren’t the first in this regard. Many religious and societal traditions are based in the concept of gratitude. What all these traditions may or may not have known is that recent scientific studies point to a direct link between gratitude and a deep satisfaction with life. Not only is it good to give thanks, it is good for you to do so!
In a study at the University of California at Davis, Professor Robert Emmons came up with some very interesting and illuminating results from his research project on gratitude and thankfulness. Professor Emmons found that people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. In addition, participants who kept the journals were more likely to make progress towards their personal goals in life.
I find myself thinking about blessings a lot lately; more specifically, the concept of feeling blessed.
In a recent article, I wrote about the bittersweet periods in life when we find ourselves struggling through difficulties at the same time we’re experiencing moments of joy, and the importance of focusing more on the happiness and gratitude we feel rather than pain and fear.
After a couple of weeks consistently focusing more on blessings and gratitude, I’m beginning t…
“Miracles happen every day. Not just in remote country villages or at holy sites halfway across the globe, but here, in our own lives.”
- Deepak Chopra
Miracles are amazing and wonderful occurrences. Expect miracles and we just might be happily surprised. We should always expect great things and stop expecting the worst in every situation. And to expect miracles, we must believe in ourselves and maintain our positive outlook. As staying positive is a habit, just apply…
Gratefulness is a powerful force in the world. When we show gratitude every day for all the good things that we so often take for granted, then we can really claim to have the Gratitude Attitude.