An enjoyable subject I like to enter often is appreciation.
How much time do you spend on appreciating anything? Doesn’t matter what it is, literally anything. Can be a cup of coffee, the past night’s rest or your body. Could be your children or your job. Anything.
Do you have any idea the last time you spent any time on appreciation?
Appreciation yields one of this reality’s most powerful gifts, and it’s completely free, yet we tend to completely miss out on its benefits.
Usually, life is full of worry, or even complaining, about our life. We are constantly thinking about every task that needs to get done or worse yet, about what already has been done in the past. Yet this moment is what’s so valuable. How we are living this particular moment is what’s contributing to the next moment of life and appreciation yields the most wonderful results.
Think about it for a bit. Isn’t it possible for you to find something to appreciate in just about any and every menial task done throughout the day? It is all about perspective. Washing the dishes can be a grudging chore that you are dreading and can’t wait till it’s completed or you can appreciate the warm water and the fact that dishes are clean. You get to choose and it’s all the angle of the mind that controls the outcome.
Viewing a task thru the negative lens then sets up your following task to start from that place (unless you are one of the few that releases the old and sets a new intention before doing anything).
Think of it like this. You just bought your new car, a grey Toyota Highlander. You’ve been looking forward to this day for over a year. You love your ride, proud of it. Now on the highway, all you see are other grey Toyota Highlanders. They didn’t just arrive since you purchased yours, they most certainly were already there, you are just now aware of them. The same goes for appreciation. When you see life thru the lens of appreciation you are then, all of sudden, aware of everything else amazing in life.
Is the glass half full or half empty?
What do you want to bring more if in your life? More abundance or more scarcity? A very simple choice that we all are making subconsciously yet very few are actually aware of the ramifications that our view on life provides.
Such power in appreciation.
One of the “challenges” that I offer most people that reach out to me looking for a different life is to start each day with appreciation. Write down 5-10 things you are appreciative for. The first several days are easy and all of sudden you feel like you reach a hidden wall. Nothing new to appreciate…and that’s the place where you realize you have a lot to love. Life does provide EVERYTHING to be appreciative of.
Sitting here I appreciate Gambit, my GSD, who just walked past me (damn I love him and the joy he brings me). I appreciate being able to write this blog post at 3:00 in the afternoon. I appreciate the consciousness music I have playing over my Bose system. I appreciate the Bose system and being able to afford such a fine quality speaker. I appreciate my intuition leading me to write, specifically this post on appreciation. I appreciate knowing that I will grow a bit and learn from writing this post. On and on we go…
The amount of appreciation we have to be appreciative for is endless if we choose to make it so.
And it’s FREE. Is there anything else that yields such a high return for a zero-sum cost?
Let’s get specific for a moment. Appreciation is slightly different than gratitude. Gratitude, for most people, is done in the past tense for something. “I have gratitude for my pay raise – I have gratitude for waking up this morning – I have gratitude for this journal I bought last week” Usually it is in the past tense sense that gratitude is used. Appreciation is usually active and ongoing. Not stuck to a certain moment. Appreciating your new car is not bound by a moment but rather active. Appreciating your family is active and ongoing, not the fact that you had them. Appreciating your past pay raise is appreciating what it provides not the fact that you got one back then (as gratitude).
As always, do what works for you but my suggestion is work with appreciation versus gratitude. Every morning start with appreciation. It can even be mentally as you wake up. Just start your day expressing the higher frequency of appreciation and what how your week unfolds.
The universe operates on a very strict “rule” that what you give attention to grows. You are living the life you have right now based on the past thoughts and feelings you’ve expressed. Appreciation is a high frequency that yields the universal spin in your favor. When you are appreciating your life the universe is giving you more of that. More of that same frequency. More abundance and wonderful thoughts and moments to be appreciative for.
What you give attention to grows. What you appreciate appreciates. Where energy is placed life happens.
Change your thoughts change your life. And appreciation is one of the easiest ways to do this.
What can you show appreciation for in your life right now?
Thoughts left with Light and Love,
Jarred