Daily Gratitude

Daily Gratitude: If you’ve ever tried to meditate but think it’s useless since you end up with more thoughts than when you’re not trying to “still your mind” (ha), then try this. Many people tell you to imagine you’re a mountain and all the thoughts you’re having are like clouds flowing past you, the mountain. This works-sometimes- for me. But sometimes a thought or two just hangs out over the mountain and doesn’t move. I’m sure you’ve seen that when looking at a range of mountains. So, I was thinking of my addictive experience on Amazon where they show “more” books all in a row and you can see them when you swipe left. If you want to to see more about one book, you can click on it instead of swiping. But I look at my thoughts when trying to meditate as “oh that one is interesting but I want to see the one next to it and oh wow, there’s another…and another. All i need to do is keep swiping.” That way you can acknowledge you had this thought and then swipe left to het to the next one. Try this if you have issues with “too many” thoughts.

Daily Gratitude

Daily Gratitude: You’ve seen funny video after funny video about some animal that has intense focus. Maybe it’s a dog in its crate staring through the bars at its favorite toy (or if your dogs are anything like mine were, they are coveting that scrap of food they see on the floor next to your chair). Then they decide they are going to get it. No matter what it takes they work and work to get themselves out of their crates to be united with that special object. I have been amazed at the confines my contortionist Siberian huskies were able to escape. Have you ever been like that? Have you ever been in a situation where you see nothing else but that goal? Nothing can stand in your way and you reschedule everything on your calendar so you can devote every moment to that thing. That is focus. The more you focus on it, the better you get. An obstacle comes along? No problem. You’ve got it covered. You’ll find a way around or over it, just like my huskies. The more you work at achieving this one thing, the more it takes over your life. Then the more it takes over your life, the more invested you are. Nothing will stop you now! Then “all of a sudden” (which really isn’t all of a sudden if you look at it objectively), what you were working for appears in your life. What is your focus in life right now? Are you happy with that? Are you easily distracted? What will it take from you to bring your focus back to where it belongs? You must answer this (and other) questions. It takes great effort and desire to break the inertia of sitting around wondering “what should I do?”. You have to have something that makes you want to bust through the inertia and make you focus. Find that, get a support system, and there will be no stopping you!

Daily Gratitude

Daily Gratitude: I definitely believe everything is a miracle! It’s all in how you look at things. You can make your own determination as to whether you think something is a miracle or not. It may take some creative thinking and thinking way beyond your immediate sight. Something that seems to be wrong for you may end up helping someone a thousand miles away and who’s in a pinch. We just can’t wait to see that before we declare something a miracle. Believing it is a miracle for someone is what’s required. Catherine Ponder (a great metaphysical minister) always would say “I declare it good!” No matter how anything looked. Don’t feel that you have to see “it” to believe it. The great authors like Wayne Dyer and Emmet Fox tell us that we will see it when we believe it! You don’t have to have the evidence, just the faith!