Daily Gratitude: I don’t totally agree with this because I think there are things you can do (such as a gratitude journal) that can actually make you feel better.

The basic concept here though is to not wait. Don’t wait until you feel “like it” to take action on something. Do it regardless of how you feel and then see what happens to your feelings later.

As I’ve said before, Nike got it right and it’s the only “bumper sticker” saying that I think is worth it – just do it! Who can argue with that.

Most of the time, once you start to do something, your feelings about it will change. Once one little feeling starts to make a turn around, the other feelings will begin to participate in the party. It’s not as simple as that but I just wanted to lighten things up.

Has that ever happened to you? If so, tell us about it

Daily Gratitude: This is one of those truisms we should all have tattooed on our foreheads.

I know I’ve talked about this before but everyone benefits from repetition.

We’ve mentioned the benefit of stopping and pausing between something happening to you and you responding. That pause is so that you can assess your response and see if it’s valid and appropriate. If you can wait 90 seconds then your body has a chance to eliminate all the stress chemicals that accumulated due to your original response. This helps calm you down even more.

Along with this saying it pays to remember that “nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so” (thanks to Willie for that one – you know – Willie Shakespeare). But it’s true. I could look at something and be ecstatic about it and you could look at the exact same thing
and be miserable.

Once we accept both of these concepts it allows us freedom to feel as if we have a choice and if we’re trying to improve our lives then perhaps we can alter our perspective and see things differently- trying to find the good in them.

Start on simple events and see if you can take that pause and change your outlook.

Daily Gratitude: Do you even know how many blessings there are in your life? I doubt it.

Most of us at least here in the US have more than we even think of. And remember that blessings come in forms other than material.

The more you acknowledge your blessings and gifts, the more gratitude you express, the greater the likelihood that you’ll begin to receive even more.

But how can you know if you don’t “measure” them. If you just mosey about, taking every day for granted, what will you have in your armamentarium to use if something not so good falls into your lap.

Maybe look at it as having a bed full of pillows and when you break a bone, you can just surround the hurt part and elevate it (lift it up) with as many pillows as you need.

I also think that without some of the not so good things, we don’t really appreciate the good and great ones. This is the Law of Contrast.

What can you do to ensure you have enough pillows to lift up your broken part up??