Be grateful…any time you want to lament what your life is not… sit down and list 10 things you can be grateful for. Start with I’m still
breathing (every moment we are alive is a new opportunity). I am reading this…that is actually 2 things to be grateful for; eyesight and literacy. I personally, am grateful for babies, any kind of baby; kids, kittens, puppies; something about babies just makes me smile. I even smile when some little kid is crying on the bus, I'm not sure if that is ghoulish delight or gratitude that my kids are long past that stage LOL.
If you need to work your way up to gratitude take the 3 things listed
above…then tonight before you go to bed add 1 more thing. Tomorrow morning read the list… go about your day and before retiring add 1 more thing. Keep doing this everyday for a week, then you have at 10 things.
Live outside of yourself. The happiest people I know choose to live in service to others. This will require some explanation. First off; you don’t have to go to Kenya and build a well, you don’t have to hand out pizza to street people, you don’t have to teach inner-city youth how to tat or even spend your days off scrubbing the church basement. All good things mind you and if you are so moved, that’s great. But what I am talking about can be as simple as taking care of your family (or partner)… it is not about waiting on them hand & foot… it is about choosing what is best for another person, thinking about them. An example would be, instead of complaining about your bitchy daughter (not a personal reference lol), try to find out what is going on in her life that has her so bitchy. You may not be able to improve the situation, but you will be happier when you stop taking her attitude personally.
Living outside yourself is never about recognition, gratitude, guilt or fear… it is only about serving another (others). Do for others because you can… anytime you attach your ego (the above 4 reasons) you will be disappointed. Which, co-incidentally, is once again living internally? Don’t expect more from yourself than you would from anyone else… but, expect at least as much of yourself as you do from other. No one is Mother Teresa (I suspect not even Mother Teresa) but in any given moment if you can do a kindness, (however small)… just do it; because you can. That very simply is… living outside of yourself.
Learn, grow, teach, heal… always forward into light & love.
Have a Joyous 2013.
breathing (every moment we are alive is a new opportunity). I am reading this…that is actually 2 things to be grateful for; eyesight and literacy. I personally, am grateful for babies, any kind of baby; kids, kittens, puppies; something about babies just makes me smile. I even smile when some little kid is crying on the bus, I'm not sure if that is ghoulish delight or gratitude that my kids are long past that stage LOL.
If you need to work your way up to gratitude take the 3 things listed
above…then tonight before you go to bed add 1 more thing. Tomorrow morning read the list… go about your day and before retiring add 1 more thing. Keep doing this everyday for a week, then you have at 10 things.
Live outside of yourself. The happiest people I know choose to live in service to others. This will require some explanation. First off; you don’t have to go to Kenya and build a well, you don’t have to hand out pizza to street people, you don’t have to teach inner-city youth how to tat or even spend your days off scrubbing the church basement. All good things mind you and if you are so moved, that’s great. But what I am talking about can be as simple as taking care of your family (or partner)… it is not about waiting on them hand & foot… it is about choosing what is best for another person, thinking about them. An example would be, instead of complaining about your bitchy daughter (not a personal reference lol), try to find out what is going on in her life that has her so bitchy. You may not be able to improve the situation, but you will be happier when you stop taking her attitude personally.
Living outside yourself is never about recognition, gratitude, guilt or fear… it is only about serving another (others). Do for others because you can… anytime you attach your ego (the above 4 reasons) you will be disappointed. Which, co-incidentally, is once again living internally? Don’t expect more from yourself than you would from anyone else… but, expect at least as much of yourself as you do from other. No one is Mother Teresa (I suspect not even Mother Teresa) but in any given moment if you can do a kindness, (however small)… just do it; because you can. That very simply is… living outside of yourself.
Learn, grow, teach, heal… always forward into light & love.
Have a Joyous 2013.