Daily Gratitude

Daily Gratitude: I strive to live by this although it’s not always easy. It’s much more handy to get caught up in the “same old, same old”. You know- bemoaning and complaining about how things stink and maybe some “genie” moments – the ones where you exclaim “I wish things were different”. You expect the genie to pop out of the magic lamp and tell you that they will fulfill your one wish. That’s not going to happen, BUT you can work your own magic. This is not a pill or injection that will make you feel better NOW. It takes work and commitment, sort of like going to therapy. Take some time – preferably a lot of time. Visualize how you want things to be. Get this as a clear picture with as many details as possible. Use the visualization many times each day, especially when you start to focus on (or even just think about) how lousy things are right now. You want to stop that neural circuit from playing over and over and the best way to do that is to have another circuit in place so all you have to do is flip the switch and start playing the new one. Your mind doesn’t know what’s real and what’s imagined. It will start following the circuit that’s played the most and we want that to be the new one. In essence, we’re putting up “road closed” signs and “detour” directions. I actually use those road signs as part of my visualizations. As soon as I start to think about a “problem” I immediately see a road closed sign. Then I look for the detour. If I’ve been diligent and done my “homework”, the new neural circuit pops up right where the detour sign is pointing. If I haven’t been diligent, I immediately start to create the scenario I want to happen and the act of creating it helps to take my mind off the problem and onto the solution. This takes time and work and often people stop doing it because they think it’s futile. But I believe that this process coupled with “everything always works out for me”, will help you greatly. Things do not change with wishing and hoping. Your mind and energy is powerful and using this technique will show you that power.

Daily Gratitude

Daily Gratitude: They may not be the same wonders as we see in the external world but they are even more amazing and spectacular! If, when you’re feeling down or troubled, think about everything that happens inside of you that you’re not even aware of. Take an organ or system a day and ponder the miraculous way it operates by itself….and as part of a system. Each cell, each nerve, each everything is connected in some way to others and there usually is no competition, no rivalry, no interference. The problem with this arises when we get out of sync emotionally and clamp down on our emotions. Don’t be like a volcano and keep things buried until they erupt (like i did). Emotions are chemicals. They are molecules and energy. Unregulated emotions can disrupt this beautifully working bit of machinery inside of us. Can you think back to a time when something in your life was disrupted and your emotions had to he buried. Did you start to feel less well in some part of your body? Did your gut act up? Did you “get a cold?” How about a headache? Take some time to talk to parts of your body. Start with your heart or lungs and then move to the cells. Pick an Individual blood cell and follow it around your body thanking each organ it visits. If you don’t see the wonders inside when you’re done, I’ll be surprised. Then look around you and see what wonders you can spot in your immediate surroundings. I imagine it will look a lot different than before you started your inner trek.

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.