Daily Gratitude: I don’t think I would have realized the immense value of this concept until this past week. On Friday I got some not so great news and as we so often do, I spent too much time thinking about it (but I’m proud to say not nearly as much time as I would have in the past) until I was journaling about all the cool things that had happened during the week. All of a sudden it was as if I was hit over the head and realized two things: 1) I liked the feeling I got when I thought about those things a whole lot more than the feeling I had when I thought about the not so good news; and 2) It was stupid of me to essentially invalidate all the wonderful things that happened during the week. So I started listing all the good things and sort of reliving each one as i wrote about it. Amazingly (but not really amazingly) I started to feel fantastic and guess what – not thinking about that other thing so much. The other benefit of this realization is that I had been “trying” to develop the habit of having a pm journal, too, but just couldn’t get into it. There was nothing that got me into buying into it. But now I see a definite purpose for what i am going to journal about. And that’s a daily inventory. If I write the good things (even if all I have time for is a bullet list), then when I’m down or something else doesn’t go great, I can leaf back through those pages (yes I still write things out) and read them to make me realize how blessed I am. This will recreate those good feelings and help negate anything else that might be rolling around this head of mine. Writing them down every day insures I wont forget them because during times when you’re not on the top of a mountain, your memory might not be that helpful. But your journal will be. Try this for a while and see what you think. I know I am excited!

Daily Gratitude: Be honest. What was the first thought you had when you read this? Something like “here we go. What now?” Or worse. I would bet that these words instill dread in most people as soon as they hit their eardrums. I recently had an amazing experience with this. I was sitting with a gentleman at ABODE hewhen he was eating. He is dying. He has a lot of pain. But he kept saying “why me? What did I do to deserve this?” Fortunately I’ve been taught to just listen, not having to come up with a response. But I was expecting it to be a “poor me” question and I certainly wouldn’t have had any negative judgment about it because after all he isn’t dancing on top of the world. But then he surprised the dickens out of me. He said “what did I do to deserve all this kindness and attention? I am being treated in a special way but I’m not special. I’m just me.” I still have goose bumps when I write or think of this. I only hope I can Have one tenth of the gratitude this man has when I’m dying. Do me a favor and say a prayer of thanks for him and his lesson in love and life. You don’t need to know his name.

Daily Gratitude: I don’t know about you, but this really hit home for me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there are only a few concepts in life but there are a million ways to hear those concept – just about “one way per individual listening”. I used to be annoyed when leaders kept repeating themselves. But now I know that it’s essential. Everyone learns differently and a leader’s job is to find a way to teach as many people as possible. What does that have to do with this message? It’s a thought, an idea, a concept we hear all throughout our lives whenever the word happiness enters the equation. For some reason, though, this way of explaining it hit me right between the eyes. Each day is like a bullet list of events, thoughts, and emotions. If we look at this list of bullets each night, we stand a better chance, perhaps, of going to bed happier. For example. My daily call/hotline has been worrying me lately but because I started it, the most miraculous thing has happened in my life. The universe brought this exceptional man into my world (or me into his) and we have fast become friends. The “happy” part of that started with me listening and responding to his daily calls and then vice versa. Soon we were having a great dialogue even though it sounds weird to call leaving voicemails for each other a dialogue. But you see- the fact that I could listen to his 3 minute call at 4 am was a bullet point. Then he would leave me a message in response to my call and that would be another bullet point. And on top of that I pretty much can count on the great Karin Ababenal to also leave me an uplifting response. In the space of about one hour I had at least 3 bullet points of happiness. I didn’t wait til the end of the day to “see” if I felt happy. I experienced those 3 wonderfully happy moments and that filled my heart with joy and love. How can this change in thinking help you?