In the book “7 spiritual laws of success” by Deepak Chopra, Monday is “GIVING” day and it’s my favorite day of the week. During this day you give something to everyone you meet. You can offer a flower, or a small gift, you can offer a compliment, a smile, or just a good thought or a blessing. Your love, your time, affection, attention and respect are the most precious gifts you can offer so be generous to everyone you meet today. Every thing in the Universe is Energy and dynamic exchanges of energy. So things must flow freely in and out of our life. When we feel stuck in any area of our life it means that the flow of energy must be blocked in some way. So in order to reactivate this flow of energy you can begin by giving exactly the things that you feel you lack in your life. It is kind of ironic but it works.
So, give as much as you can! If its money you need in your life, start giving money to people that have less then you. Or, even better, you can help someone earn some money. If it is love you want to receive abundantly in your life start giving your love to everyone you meet. You can spend a few minutes every day sending love to your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and to all the people in the world. Put love into your house, at your working place, in your car, spread love everywhere you go. Being surrounded by love is the most beautiful feeling! If you feel you lack time, you can offer a few moments of your precious time to the people who need it. If you want more fun and laughter in your life make someone feel good and smile.
Give with all your heart, with the intention of making someone happy or helping them when they are in need.
Giving is always a two ways action. It is a gift for the one who is receiving it but it’s even a greater gift for the one who’s giving. You will feel the joy of giving and you will receive back so much more! Whatever you give will come back to you multiplied. Always expect to receive from life what you are offering. So try to be honest, loving, supporting, grateful, tolerant, patient, forgiving, thankful and life will respond likewise.
Chopra also talks about being opened to receive the gifts you are given. You can graciously receive a compliment, the beauty of the sky, the fresh air, the joyous singing of the birds. If we refuse the gifts that the Universe has to offer we might be depriving our selves of any future gifts. If you give someone a beautiful gift to trying to make them happy but they complain about the color or the size or the fabric you don’t feel like giving them any thing else again. This is what happens with the gifts of life. If we are unhappy we shall not be gifted again.
So learn to accept and appreciate all the things that come into your life!
Practice giving and receiving for a few months and you will see that all you need will flow freely into your life!
A few years or even months ago I would have laughed in your face if you would have told me about using affirmations. I would have thought that is stupid to repeat some crazy stuff to your self and it cannot work… Thank God I’ve tried them and I can say that they totally work! Affirmations are really powerful! And they are so easy to use and FUN!
We use affirmations all the time, whether we know it or not. Every thing you say to yourself is an affirmation. And usually there’s a lot of negative self talk in our mind. If we would analyze our own mind just for a few hours we would be horrified of the crazy things we think about and the roles our mind plays and the useless things we occupy our minds with. The mind can talk to itself for hours and hours about a stupid little thing playing all kind of roles. We’re thinking about the fight we had with someone, and what you should have said and what would he say to what you’ve said, and then you would do this, and he will not agree…Or we are thinking that we are no good and we are fat and we never do things right and we have no money… Do you think this kind of self talk is good for us? Or we can start replacing it with some positive self talk? There is a link between your thinking and your feeling and this kind of self talk will leave you feeling miserable. Maybe you are like I used to be and you don’t believe in affirmations but would you miss your old self talk if you would replace it just 5-10 minutes a day with some positive affirmations? I believe not!
So start making a plan! Oh, how I love plans and lists :) I made myself a list of all the things I want in my life. Things I do not have right now and I would like to have, qualities I want to improve at myself, bad habits I want to release, things I want to change, all kinds of stuff like that. Then, for each thing I wanted I made an affirmation. It must be simple, short, easy to say, resonate with your heart when you say it. Always put it in the present tense and make only positive statements. Like for example, if you don’t want to be sick any more don’t say: “I DON’T WANT TO BE SICK” say “I AM HEALTHY!” And don’t say “I will be…”, always say “I AM” Then, you can use this affirmation whenever you want or need. For my most precious subjects I save some time at the beginning of the day to say the correspondent affirmations but the “little ones” I just say them when I need them or when I have some free time, like when I stay in line somewhere, or when I work at my sawing machine. I say each affirmation for 5 minutes or so, out loud if I am alone or just repeating it in my head if I’m not alone. At first I thought I had to feel the feeling for each time I said it and I was very careful at each intonation but I found out you can say it as quick as you can, repeating it just like a mantra and I like it better this way. You can also use affirmations whenever a negative thought comes into your mind. Like each time when you are thinking about not having enough money (and don’t we all think about that?) just repeat for a few minutes, or as long as you can: “I HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY!” or “MY LIFE IS ABUNDANT IN EVERY WAY”
Using affirmations will help you release old habits of thought and create new ones. Usually the only thing that stands between us and the things we always wanted are our own negative beliefs. We may have declared that we want something and the universe immediately responds but if we don’t allow it into our lives it cannot come in. We sometimes think we don’t deserve to get what we want or we have all kind of beliefs that we are not even aware of and this old thinking patterns keep us away from the things we want. The patterns of thinking from our head weren’t always there. We heard and repeated some idea lots and lots of times until it actually became a belief. So an old belief it’s just a thought that has been repeated so many times into your mind that it has become printed into your subconscious. The good news is that you can replace it with a new one using the same technique. That is why affirmations work. Even if at first you don’t believe what you say, in time your mind will resist less and less, until it will totally accept the new idea, and finally turn it into a belief. And then it will all happen!
Don’t worry if at first you feel weird when you say your affirmation. It is very normal to feel like that, you are affirming something that is not (yet) true. But don’t give up, in a few days you will see that it gets better. You can use the mirror to check the level of resistance about a subject. Look at yourself while saying your affirmation and observe your reaction. If it feels really weird, than, you must have some very strong negative beliefs about this subject. Try to find out what those beliefs are, see if these beliefs are logical, see if they are really yours. Most of our beliefs come from our childhood, from our parents or teachers, and we don’t even know we have them. Once you realized what is the belief that is keeping you from obtaining what you want you can just let it go. Say to yourself: “You have served me all these years but it’s time to release you from my life!” And every time an old thinking pattern appears remember to say to yourself: “This is the way I used to think. I no longer want to think this way!” and then you can affirm the new thinking pattern.
Affirmation worked for many successful people and it can work for you!
You can listen to Louise Hay’s tapes, she has lots of wonderful affirmations but you can also make your own. It’s a fun process! You can make like a little poem with rhyme or you can put the affirmation in a little song. Do whatever you can to make it more fun :)
Some of the affirmations I currently use are:
“I am healthy! I am full of energy!” “I am surrounded by love! I give and receive love every day!” “I am opened to receive the abundance of life! I deserve the best! My life is magical!” “I trust myself! I accept myself exactly as I am!” “I am calm and relaxed! I have patience!” “I am happy, every cell in my body is smiling!” :) “I am creative and inspired! I freely express my full creative potential!” “I work in wonderful projects that bring me satisfaction and prosperity!”
Always remember that everything takes time. It took some time to get you where you are and it will take some time to change. But if you are willing to do anything, intention is all that is needed. Then, just let go and things will happen. Be patient about it, all things will happen at the perfect time for you. Maybe sometimes it will seem hard. That is because of your own resistance or impatience. When I first started changing my thinking habits I quit after two minutes. My mind was in no mood to do any kind of work…And the mind is used to do whatever it wants. So, after a few moments of trying to do some affirmations or visualizations my mind said: “I am bored! This is too heavy! Let’s do something else!” and I immediately fell for it. I though, yes, this is too hard… I have no time for this. The next time I tried it, it was exactly the same…my mind quit after a few minutes. The third and lucky time I already knew that the mind is slick and lazy and that’s how it is at the beginning. You just need to persevere and after a few days of making the mind to do its exercises it finally says:” OK! If you insist so much, I’ll do it!” And then you can begin to really say your affirmations and actually start changing your mind habits.
Well that’s it for today. Have fun with your affirmations! Let me know how it works!
Have you ever got angry because you felt you have no power over someone? Have you ever thought that somebody is wrong and if they would just change their thinking everything would be great for you? Did you ever blame others for the mess in your life? Did you feel powerless and frustrated about not being able to make them change? I have and it’s really frustrating! People are used to think that their parents are wrong, that the boss is wrong, that their children must behave in certain ways, that: “if only THEY would change, my life would be so much better!”
I recently found a magic key to this problem :) The solution is not for them to change! You cannot control or change all the people you consider wrong. The solution it’s much easier! The solution is inside YOU! Actually you are the key I’m talking about. You can change yourself and everything will be different!
Gregg Braden talks about the mirrors that surround us. He says that the ancients thought that everyone we meet is a mirror of us and they are all trying to teach us something about our self. Usually the people we want to change are people that have certain imperfections or behaviors or ideas that we don’t agree with. So, we should look at these people and we could see what are the parts of us that we don’t like or agree with. Some people will show us over and over again pieces of our selves that we need to accept in order to be whole. Every human being wants to be accepted and loved for exactly what they are. But who could love us like that if we don’t do it first? Start accepting your so called “flaws”. They are part of who you are, stop trying to be someone else. So, whenever you meet someone you dislike try to find out what is it about you that you need to accept. What part of you is yearning for your love and approval?
Deepak Chopra said a funny story in one of his workshops about this. One exercise in the workshop was to name a person that you dislike, make a list of what you don’t like about him or her and than try to find that quality or behavior at yourself. Think of a moment or an experience when you were behaving like that. If you can’t find anything, think again. We all have our moments so it’s not so hard to think of a moment you have been unpleasant or mean or angry. So the story was that a friend of his from the workshop said that this guy he doesn’t like it’s a “complete idiot” and he cannot think of any circumstance when he was a complete idiot. So, later that evening, they went to this friend’s house and it was snowing and cold and it was getting dark and the guy couldn’t find his keys. So he exclaimed: “who loses his keys in a night like this?” And Deepak said to himself: “Nobody but an idiot :)”
People can also be mirrors of things we are judgmental about. If we find ourselves disliking someone and we simply cannot imagine we could ever be like that, it must be something we are judging. We don’t need to change the world to feel better. We couldn’t if we tried! So just turn to yourself and try to see what is bothering you about this person? You can learn to except everyone exactly as they are and it feel so great to know that it’s ok to leave them how they are. We are not responsible for anyone but ourselves. We are not responsible for changing our boyfriend or girlfriend, parents or children, we don’t need to change the neighbors or coworkers even if we think we can help them. Everybody needs to learn their own lessons by themselves. Whenever we feel like we have a problem with someone else, we actually have a problem inside us and that’s where we need to focus, that’s where the key is.
When I first discovered this I felt so relieved! It seemed so hard to change someone’s mind or behavior. But it’s not my job to change the others, my job is to take care of my own mind and make changes inside. And believe me, the changes made from inside reflect everywhere around you. That’s what Gandhi meant when he said: “Be the change you want to see in the world” Not only that you are the only one you can change so don’t waist your time on trying to change the others. But the most important, wonderful part is that when you change, everything changes around you. When you open up to people, people open up to you, when you are happy people around you get happy, when you are calm and don’t argue, the people around you don’t feel the need to argue with you. The world is a hologram and any change made in one little pixel reflects in all other pixels of it. I experienced this and it feels MAGICAL! When you wish for your boyfriend to be more loving ask yourself how are you to him. Offer your love and you will receive back more than you need! If you want your parents to be more supportive of you or to accept you as you are try to accept them first and you will be amazed of the results. It certainly worked for me ;) If we become whatever we expect from the people around us then we can change the world! Use a reminder to keep you aware that YOU are the KEY! Every time you see it remember that you create your own life, nobody is responsible and nobody can be blamed for what you create with your mind and behavior. Turn to your self and you will find all the keys that can make your life MAGICAL!
I discovered not long ago the importance of self love. This post is not about vanity or self sufficiency. I’m talking about rediscovering who we are, accepting ourselves exactly how we are. Really loving and acknowledging the gifts you have, the power you have, the qualities you have. Not being ashamed of your self or blaming yourself, criticizing and doubting your own actions and thoughts. I used to be very critical of myself and others. I thought I’m not so great. My idea about myself was made up mostly from the opinions of others about me. People always said I’m great, I’m smart, I’m talented, I’m fun… So, I tried to believe them. With one part of my brain, I thought: “Yes, they are right, I’m kind of great!” but another little voice was always in the background:”Yeah, right! You’re great! Ha, ha!” It was a very illusory self confidence I was building this way. As soon as people stop flattering you, or someone dears to criticize something about you, the whole castle of cards collapses. You start doubting yourself, the little voice from before is yelling now: “Haven’t I told you? I knew those people were just joking when they said you’re great and you’re smart….” This was a very depressing way of seeing my self. You never really know who you are, you are drifting around, depending on other’s opinions. You can even hate your self because someone told you that you are not good enough. Sometimes even just assuming that they believe you are not good enough is a good enough reason to hate your self. Sometimes you become less than you can be because you deny and repress parts of yourself that you consider the others would never accept. For the first time in years I realized I wasn’t confident at all! I didn’t love or trust my self. It is very important to acknowledge this. If someone would have asked me a while ago: “Do you trust yourself? Do you love who you are?” I would have said: “Yes, of course” but I wasn’t aware of the painful truth.
I believe that being very sensitive to criticism means that you have very little confidence and little self appreciation. Since I truly began to know and appreciate who I am and I started loving myself more and more, other people’s criticism doesn’t bother me any more. I know I can be whatever I want to! I know my power! And nobody can take it from me unless I give my own power away by not trusting it.
Now I realize that all those times when I did not express my feelings, or I did not express my opinion, or I did it their way instead of what my heart told me to do, I was actually affirming that I am not good enough, I don’t know so much, my needs are not so important. I was giving away my power. We all need to start appreciating what we are and start living the life we are here for. We are, first of all, wonderful creatures of the Universe. We deserve to receive the abundance of life and we deserve to be loved just because we exist! I believe that you came into this life to fully express you uniqueness and creativity. Every one is unique and beautiful. Everyone has something to offer and to express. Be whole again and enjoy the life you came for: You wanted to experience and express true feelings! You wanted to be accepted for what you are without judgment! You wanted to follow your heart and always put yourself first! You wanted to love yourself and do what you can to please yourself! When you really love and respect your self you radiate LOVE and everybody will be attracted to you. You will see that when you start appreciating your body, your beauty, your creativity, your ideas, everybody else will! You will not believe how this will change your life and the way people around you will react to your presence. You will glow with confidence and love!
To start loving yourself more you can: - Use self esteem affirmations like: “I LOVE MYSELF! I TRUST MYSELF!” Do them every day looking in the mirror - Stop criticizing yourself and others - Start pleasing yourself more. Ask yourself at the beginning of the day: “what can I do today to please myself?” Every day, do at least two-three little things that will please yourself - Take care of yourself and your body. Eat healthy, exercise, relax and rest - Follow your heart! If you have any talents or qualities that you always wanted to express but for various reasons you did not, try to express them as much as you can. - Make a list of your qualities and appreciate yourself for every single one - Don’t waist any opportunity to say: “Well done! I am great!”
If you want to learn more about how you can love yourself Louise Hay is a wonderful teacher. She was a great inspiration for me! Actually the first time I heard someone talking about self love it was her. She thinks that loving yourself can really heal your life. You can heal your body and your mind, you will have more fulfilling relationships, you will have better jobs, and everything will improve!
There is always balance in your life. Nothing in the Universe really disappears. Nothing is lost, it is just transformed.
You can keep that in mind whenever you feel you have lost something. You can never loose anything or anyone. First of all we do not own anything in the first place. The only thing that is real in your life is your soul and that, you will never loose.
Have you noticed that whenever something flows away from your life something else flows in? Whenever you loose someone, somebody new appears. So, all we have to do when we think we lost something, is try to figure out what we’ve gained. When the fall comes, the trees never cry over the lost green leaves. They trust the wizdom of nature to receive new ones in the spring. Death is necessary in order for new life to be possible. We need to release the old to make room for the new. There is never a situation or an experience so bad that you cannot find any positive aspect of it. Think back to your life and make a list of all the so called “bad experiences” and see if you can find any positive things that resulted out of that experience. You will be surprised to see that there’s always a few. Sometimes, quite major changes in our life were the result of such a “bad” experience. Changes that in the end, made our life turn into a positive, new direction.
All the things that happened in our life, good or bad, are part of us; these are the things that made us who we are. We have learned and grown with each experience. Not understanding why this happened to us, asking what we have done to deserve this are useless ways of consuming ourselves. We have to accept each experience that comes into our lives and see what is to learn from it. We can ask ourselves what kind of thoughts we may be thinking to cause this. What is the lesson in this and what can we change in our thinking habits to improve our life experience.
So whenever you’re sad, or you had a bad experience that you don’t understand, you can use a reminder to remember that all things happen for a reason, and even if you don’t see the meaning of it now, all things happen for your greater good. Ask yourself what are the positive aspects, what is there to learn from this and what habit of thought you need to release from your mind. And the answers will come to you! This way there’s nothing but learning and enjoying each moment of our precious life!
When I first heard this idea it sounded very scientific to me but also magical. For me, the universe being a hologram means that the physical world as we know it is an illusion, it is all a projection in our minds, without us looking at the world there would be nothing but a random group of electrons, a quantum soup, as they say. For me, the holographic universe means that the whole world is inside me and what is in me reflects in everything that exists outside me. We are all reflections of this great, beautiful hologram that connects us all. To help us visualize better the idea, physicist David Bohm tells us to imagine two TV sets and that we have an image of a fish swimming on each screen. We see that when the fish on the first screen moves, the other also moves. When the first one turns right, the second one turns left just at the same time. We can be wondering how come they are so connected, how do they know to move just at the same time, maybe they are communicating at a subtle level. The answer is we only have one fish and 2 cameras that film the fish from different angles. That is exactly how the universe is. All that we see around us are simply projections of the same thing. Everything in the universe is interconnected. “We are really "receivers" floating through a kaleidoscopic sea of frequency, and what we extract from this sea and transmogrify into physical reality is but one channel from many extracted out of the superhologram.” Here is a very interesting article about the holographic universe http://twm.co.nz/hologram.html
The idea that I love most about the holographic nature of the Universe is that every change we make in our selves is reflected in everything around us. So we can change for the better and the world will respond to our change!
Even if we seem to be separated we are in fact just reflections of the same thing, this great, beautiful hologram that connects us all. The Universe perfectly correlates all of itself. Whatever your wishes are it can orchestrates the needed circumstances for you to fulfill your highest dreams and desires! So trust the power of the holographic Universe and experience magic into your life!
I am at the seaside right now and it’s the best vacation I had in years! Oh, it feels so good to simply enjoy! It’s been so long since I actually got to relax and really enjoy my vacation. And I know it can be better, I know now that it never stops getting better. I used to believe that fun is over after 35 or so… and I thought that my best years had already gone. I thought I could never top the fun I had in my 18-20’s when I had a lot of friends and we used to drink and dance on the beach all night until sunrise and then hang around at the beach bars and listen to chill music all day long and in the night we went dancing and drinking again. This was the way we had the best fun ever and I wasn’t interested in any other kind of fun. And we never imagined this could ever end. So it was pretty sad and scary later, at 24-25 when we all got jobs and we didn’t meet so often any more and drinking wasn’t so much fun and dancing without drinking wasn’t really possible. At first I was shocked. Then, I got used to the depressing idea that those were the days and it’s down hill from now on. At least I had my piece of fun, I was thinking! It’s very sad to imagine your life is almost over at 26 years old. What are you supposed to do with the rest of it?
In the last few years, my holidays felt more like “mourning days”. I was always sad, thinking and realizing that I can’t have fun any more, I can’t relax, I couldn’t even lay on the beach and do nothing. I was always thinking about how much work I need to do, worrying about my problems, thinking that I don’t look good enough to get naked on the beach, feeling miserable and criticizing myself for not having fun. Going out dancing at night was too painful because I could barely look at all those people dancing and having fun. Rarely, after drinking enough, I could dance and started to feel a bit better. But in the morning the depression was even worse. Something was deeply wrong! Something was crying out loud inside me!
And the cry was finally answered! I am saved! I am cured! I am ALIVE! I am still amazed at my own “FUN”. I am amazed like a little baby splashing in the water. I am amazed that I can just sit in the sand and relax! I really enjoyed again, after such a long time, the SEA. I think that for the first time in my life I danced without drinking or smoking. I feel connected to everyone around me. I can look into people’s eyes. I can smile to every one I see. I feel free to do what I want and when I want. I was here all summer every single year in the last 4 years but it was like I had a veil over my head. I was blind to the beauty of the sand I stepped on every day and the water I bathed in and the blue sky above, the warm sun shinning on my face and the wind ruffling my hair.
This is the best summer vacation ever! Hi, hi!
You can also have fun and ENJOY life! You can also change your life by changing the way you think! Maybe you'll read something useful on this blog, maybe you'll read the right book, maybe you'll start eating raw, maybe something else will happen. Anyway I think you are on the right way!! And you are WONDERFUL!!
Imagine you are a baby. You have no worries, your parents take care of you, you are being fed, washed, given everything you need. You feel free to express your feelings; you have no idea about not trusting your self or hating your body or not being good enough. You have complete trust in life! Now imagine that is the way things are happening right now. And they are! You are always guided, you are always safe, your life has meaning, everything happens for a reason!
I used to be worried all the time. I worried about the future, I dwelled upon things that happen in the past and thought about how I could have done them differently, I needed to control every thing that happened in order to feel safe. But I rarely felt safe. That’s because I was trying to do the impossible. Now I know I don’t need to control anything. At the contrary, the irony is that the feeling of security comes from the uncertainty itself. When you begin to realize that everything that happens to you is either an experience that’s here for you to enjoy, either a lesson that’s here to teach you about how you can enjoy more of life, then you can LET GO. Let go of the need to control your life! Accept everything that happens! Acknowledge the divine nature of every experience! If it’s not fun, then it must be something to learn from it.
Try to accept all things just as they are. Try to stop judging everything and labeling them as good or bad. All that exists is part of this perfect Universe, so nothing can be good or bad, it just IS. Accept yourself exactly as you are, accept your past actions; acknowledge that you did the best you could at that moment. Accept the present as it is. The present moment is the result of millions and millions of moments and it is perfect just the way it is. It cannot be different than it is. We can wish for the future to be different but the present is just as it’s supposed to be. Letting go feels much more secure than controlling. Now I love not knowing what’s going to come next. What would be the fun if I had all my future figured out? As long as I know that nothing can come into my experience unless I let it in with my thoughts and feelings, then I am responsible for all that is happening. So, I trust myself enough to feel safe.
Use a reminder to keep you aware that all is well, you don’t have to control, you don’t need to know it all, you can just relax and enjoy! Trust the uncertainty of life and experience magic!
I believe that being grateful is like a magical key of life. When you feel gratitude, you are in touch with your soul. Being grateful and appreciating what you have is the best way of fulfilling your dreams. Start appreciating what you have in your life and you will see magic happening. All the things you always wanted will start appearing. Start a list of what you are thankful for, read it and refine it every day. It might be hard for you at first and the list will probably be short but I promise it gets better. If you practice just a few moments of gratitude every day you will see that your list will get longer and one day you will find yourself filled with gratitude. So let’s look for reasons that we can be grateful for. First of all, we are alive. Have you ever wondered at the miracle of being alive? Life is something that we take for granted but it is so precious. Many people fear death but never consider being grateful that they are still alive. Being alive is magical and you can be grateful and appreciate every living thing around us. We all have our incredible body to be grateful for. Our body takes care of itself, it takes us wherever we want to go, it nourishes itself, it heals itself, it gives us ways of experiencing the world like seeing, tasting, hearing or touching. It is a wonderful gift of life and we can say thank you! We all have family or friends around us that love and support us. We can be grateful that they exist! You can send a message or call your friends and express your gratitude, send them a gift or maybe just send them a good thought. Even if our current house is not the biggest or the greatest, we live our lives in it so we can bless it with love. If you want a bigger or better house the best way to get it is to be grateful for the house you are living in now. Look for reasons to appreciate it and see what happens. I often think of all the little things that we use every day to make our life easier and I am so grateful that they exist. My comfy bed is a wonderful thing, all my furniture that keeps me organized, all my ideas, all my inspiration, the reliable car I’m driving, my computer and the internet that makes connecting so easy, the people I meet every day, little (or big) coincidences that make my life magical! I used to be very critical about all things around me. I always rushed into expressing my dissatisfaction or criticizing everything and everyone rather than seeing the positive aspects of it. But I now know that every thing, person or experience has its positive and negative aspects and it’s my choice to make it right or wrong. After practicing gratitude and appreciation for a while I can tell you it’s easy and it feels great to look for reasons to appreciate all that’s coming into your life. So why would we live our lives always looking for what is wrong? When I was a child I used to say a prayer every night before I went to bed. I used to pray for my family so I asked God for them to be healthy and happy, for me to learn well in school, asked for a toy or other stuff I wanted. But when I got older this didn’t feel right any more. Now, after learning the power of appreciation, I say a gratitude prayer every night, I say thanks for all that happened that day and everything I appreciate in my life. And it feels great!
Start a list of what you are thankful for, read it and refine it each day! Say a little gratitude prayer every night before you go to sleep! Look for things to appreciate in every thing you do, in every experience or person that you meet! Use a gratitude reminder and think of one thing to appreciate every time you see it!
Select a day from the week that you will call the GRATITUDE day and do all these things for a few weeks. You will be amazed of the results!
While working on cleaning my mind of old patterns of thought I realised how miraculous positive thoughts really are. How powerful are kindness and giving and unconditional love and all the good thoughts that could dwell in our minds instead of dissatisfaction, criticizm, disbelief or fear. I see that sometimes even if we know or hear about ideas or methods or habits of mind that can improve our life, even if they sound right or take just a moment to do, we simply do not do them. We don’t even try them. Maybe some of them seem hard, other seem silly, other unappropriate but I think in essence we refuse ourselvs a chance to feel better. When I started changing my life I was amazed to see how easy is to change some habits of mind and how good it felt trying the new ones. I couldn’t believe why people would stay stuck in their opaque and even destructive patterns of thinking when the opposite way was so simple to apply and so effective. I couldn’t believe how all the world changed around me when I changed, when my thoughts changed.
I used to consider my self an introvert person, I thought I had problems communicating with others, I was very critical of me and others and it’s important to say that all these ideas where habits of thought that I picked up as a child and carried on with them until now. When I stopped thinking I was all that and I started really believing I am what I think I am, I realised I had the power to be whatever I want. Was the introverted, lonely, critical person who I wanted to be? The answer was absolutly NO. First of all I guess I started thinking I was worth it! I said to my self: I am worth the work that I am about to do. So I started step by step, thought by thought, seeing myself as a voluble, social person, I imagined myself easily interacting with anyone around me, being friendly and nice. And it started happening! I was totally ecstatic one morning when I went outside and I felt like everybody is my friend, like I could go talk to anyone, I felt connected to all things around me. It was magical! And it still is :D
Another example is that I used to think of a relationship as a giving and receiving interaction. If I received something, then, it’s ok to give. I used to think that if I was in the same room with someone if they didn’t say anything I don’t have to say anything. I was sometimes angy at them for not speaking but I couln’t do it myself. I always expected to receive something so I could give myself. I discovered now the wonderful, miraculous, magical gift that is giving. A gratitude prayer that I love says something like: “How wonderful are you GOD, that put the gift in the act of giving” Yes, giving is a gift for the one who is receiving but is even a greater gift for the one that gives. I knew that in some aspects of my life – I always loved to make gifts and surprises to the loved ones – but I had no idea that you can give so much and feel so wonderful. Now I can give all the time, I give my attention, my good thoughts, a prayer, my time, a flower, a little gift that I made myself, an idea, support, anything can be a gift! So, the basic idea is that you can be anything you want. Don’t let your past fool you. Even if you think you were like that all your life and it's too late or imposible to change, that is not true! I used to think you are who you are and people don't change, but I'm glad to say I was wrong! You can change your life and your self by changing the way you think and act and perceive. This was and still is a magical process for me and I wish you will all enjoy this delightful transformation!
