Daily Gratitude: This is a big concept they taught me in the death doula course. To go into a situation with a know nothing mindset. This leaves you open to anything. You can expand your mind so much easier when you think you know nothing.

You’re judgement free and what better way to open your arms and accept whatever comes along. After all, you’re not the expert in someone else’s life are you? You may think you know more than they do but you can’t actually decide what’s best for someone if you haven’t or aren’t in their shoes.

Your external circumstances may be similar but I’ll bet that you have no clue what their upbringing and past were like and that’s what really determines how they are going to respond to something. So judgment is useless. Besides unless they specifically ask for your advice or thoughts, maybe you should just listen…and be open to whatever you hear.

Having a “know nothing” mind will actually enrich your life, not stifle it like making your opinions the important thing will.

Make a conscious effort when you go into a new environment or relationship. Go in like a child with all the curiosity of that child. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn.

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.