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Love and Appreciation

The most amazing moments of my life have been when I have felt love or appreciation, another word for the same emotion, flow from me to another. Family, friend, inspiring person, lover, organization, experience or natural phenomenon can inspire this emotion. The incredible revelation is that I can actually do that whenever I want with my incredible ability to choose what I think, thus what I feel.

I can choose to see myself in a way that is loving and appreciative. I can choose to see others in the same way. I can choose to remember lovely moments. I can choose to just pay attention to the amazing world that lays at my feet infinite varieties of beauty and amazing vistas every single moment.

The sky rivals any painting in a museum most days. The modern technology available to each of us in a civilized society rivals every sci fi movie of yesterday. The flowers that bloom in most seasons, trees of every season, blossoms, grasses, lawns, even snow and rain give us lovely real art to appreciate every day. The bodies of water that speckle the landscape from creek to lake to ocean to pool are beautiful as well. Then of course there is art and architecture in most walks of life to appreciate as well.

There is a never ending array of experiences, views, people, conversations, and that is just what is in front of you. At any point in time you can recall a memory or imagine a scenario in your mind that can bring you to the emotion of love and appreciation. Why we don’t make it a point to have more of this in our lives is quite baffling.

We could spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out why we don’t enjoy more of our moments to the best of our ability but why not just enjoy our moments more now? Why not make it a priority to enjoy the gifts we have now? There is a reason that appreciation and love are held to the highest of ranks in every spiritual tradition known. Even science is finding evidence in massive amounts that speak to the health benefits of feeling these emotions. There is even suggestive evidence that feeling these emotions actually makes life circumstances work in your favor more often.

It has been my experience that this is the case. Of course like any other habit, the habit of thinking thoughts that are not enjoyable and not loving and not appreciative will take some awareness and retraining. No one abolishes a habit without replacing it with another habit in the long run. It requires that you become aware of how you are feeling which is a result of your habit of thinking. It requires that you decide that you can feel amazing and that is your highest priority.

When you feel not so great or even badly, become aware that this is insight to your habit of thinking and observe what exactly is the thought or belief that is dominant. Most of the time just that observation will make that negative emotion less dominant. More and more of the time, you will find the belief that is no longer serving you and inserting the new belief will feel good. You may have to reinsert the new belief until it becomes more prevalent a number of times but it will get easier.

As you begin to practice the habit of making feeling good, loving and appreciative a high priority, you will find yourself drawn to what you love more often and repelled by what brings you down more strongly. I think that is a pretty cool side effect. There will be a number of miraculous side effects as well…give it a try and watch the magic.

Now some may take issue with changing what you believe in order to feel good. Shouldn’t we be realistic and not ignore reality and our beliefs. Well since beliefs are just thoughts that one thinks enough times to create the reality you experience then most of them are arbitrary. In fact, beliefs about what other people intended or thought or why they did what they did or are doing, are totally based on how you decided to interpret the event. That interpretation is highly charged with erroneous assumptions and insecurities and personal bias…not truth.

Even if we were to say that our interpretation of the events were accurate, why not reinterpret the event in a way that made us feel better. We get to feel better and thus enjoy our now moment more. In the doing of that, the experience will show you that beliefs are subject to change, and not only that but beliefs become reality so why not choose beliefs that you enjoy.

Thank you for enduring my rambling while I enjoy a glass of wine…may your now moments become more beautiful and may you flow love and appreciation to yourself, your people, your place and your lovely thoughts, memories and dreams. I am in awe of each and every one of you.



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