Gratitude

[caressa]

Today I am spending it!

[BW]

"Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed."


- Dr. Wayne Dyer

When you are grateful, you will enjoy life better! It will have meaning. You will want to bounce out of bed to greet the day!

Today is the day that matters! Go make the best of it!

[BW]

"Do not be concerned others not appreciating you. Be concerned about your not appreciating others."

- Confucius


I admit it! I am guilty of sometimes thinking, "What will people think about me?" or, "Does this person appreciate everything that I am doing? Does he/she realize the trouble and effort that I am going through to help him/her out?"


What a crazy thought to have! I should not be thinking about what others are thinking! I should not be concerned with their appreciation! When I (or you) do something for someone, it should be because we want to do it, not because we are seeking appreciation.

This is not approval to be taken advantage of - no one has the right to take advantage of a nice person. When you appreciate others - and let them know you appreciate them - you will light up their spirit!

Give it a try today!

[BW]

"It costs you nothing to be grateful and appreciative, yet it has a considerable impact on the quality of your life. So, don't waste another minute. Every day, reflect on the priceless gifts you've been enjoying. Openly share your gratitude with others. And, the next time somebody asks if anything great happened to you today, you'll have plenty to say!"


-Jeff Keller

[BW]

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."


- Tom Landry

[BW]

"I challenge anybody in their darkest moment to write what they're grateful for, even stupid little things like green grass or a friendly conversation with somebody on the elevator. You start to realize how rich you are."


- Jim Carrey

While I agree with the essence of what Jim Carrey is saying, I do not buy into the idea that there are 'stupid little thing' you can be grateful for!

I think it is the culmination of 'little' things, the 'everyday' things, and the 'monotony' things that should be celebrated on a daily basis!

There is no need to wait for special occasions. Celebrate today! Enjoy yourself now! Don't wait!

[BW]

"The impossible is often untried."


- Author Unknown

Is there something that you have not done because you think it is impossible? Is the only reason you have not tried to do it because it is 'impossible'?

Why not at least try?

********************

You can turn painful situations around through laughter.
If you can find humor in anything
--even poverty--You can survive it.--

Bill Cosby

[BW]

"Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have."


- Jim Rohn

This goes for Gratitude. It goes for Love. It goes for Happiness. It goes for Joy. It goes for everything!

The more you give out, the more you shall receive. What goes around, comes around. If you start it, it will come back to you.

Share your gratitude with others and you will receive more in kind.

Here is your fair warning... If you share your misery, or your gossip, or your helplessness, or anything else negative, more of the same will come back.

Share the good stuff!

[BW]

"Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that you have never talked to before, and actually listen."

live, love, enjoy, and be grateful!

[BW]

"It's really important that you feel good. Because this feeling good is what goes out as a signal into the universe and starts to attract more of itself to you. So the more you can feel good, the more you will attract the things that help you feel good and that will keep bringing you up higher and higher."


- Joe Vitale

How awesome is that! Joe's quote is as if you are being given permission and TOLD to feel good! As the old adage goes, "If it feels good, do it!" (Careful - this is a G-Rated list!)

When you help others, when do you feel grateful, and when you express joy, love, and happiness, you feel good!

[BW]

"Many successful victories came from failure lessons. Failure lessons can be learned as a part of experimental process for successful victories."


- Lan Farley

The secret to being successful is to fail over and over again. Of course, you need to take away a lesson from that 'failure' and improve upon it again, and again, and again!


If you have never failed, you have never lived!

[BW]

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."


- Norman Cousins


Are you carrying around something that should be shared with others? You have a gift inside of you waiting to come out to enrich others.

Share your treasures with others; you will feel grateful to release it and others will be grateful for you sharing it.

Everyone wins!

[BW]

"This is the gift - to have the wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy."


- Abraham Maslow


There is an express that talks about seeing through the eyes of a child - I cannot recall what it is exactly, but it talks about the need for most of us adult to free our minds from all the "Stinkin' Thinkin', all the jealousy in our heads, and all the "monkey mind"" thoughts that hold us back.

When we have a clear mind life is better. Gratitude flows easier. We smile a little bit wider. Go for the clear mind.

And enjoy it!

[caressa]

When we do this, everything stays new because it is in the moment and we re-experience and live it time and again.

Loved yesterday's too, every time I picked up, I gave away a piece of me. There was not much 'me' left when I found the doors of recovery. I had to rediscover who I was.

[BW]

"Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic."


-- John Henry Jowett

Wow! Gratitude acts as a preventative and protects as a vaccine, it works in the present by neutralizing toxins, and thoroughly cleans any of the germies that you may have lingering about you!

Of course, this is easier to understand when it is taken in a figurative manner. Figuratively speaking, being grateful will prevent ill-thoughts from plaguing your mind. If you are having negative thoughts, expressing gratitude will act as an antitoxin to clear those negative thoughts away. Finally, as an antiseptic, it keeps your mind pure of any negative thoughts that might be floating around.

I guess you can say it is the perfect non-drug!

[BW]

"If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice."


-- Meister Eckhart

[BW]

"In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events."

[BW]

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV

During this Thanksgiving month, I encourage you to take time each day to thank God for something He has done for you. You are to thank Him always for everything—great or small—but being specific about something each day that is especially meaningful to you will be a blessing to you . . . and to God.

There is so much in life to be thankful for, and that’s where you need to keep your focus—not just on Thanksgiving Day but every day.

Fill your mind with memories that are true, pure, lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise. Then express your thanks to God. As the psalmist says in Psalm 100:4, “Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!” End this day right by being thankful.

[BW]

"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."


- Maxim Gorky

[caressa]

Really like this one. Just 'being' is a gift in itself.