The holiday season can be stressful for many, but focusing on gratitude will make a tremendous difference in mitigating this stress. Additionally, it may also change your entire outlook on life.
Here are some simple suggestions on how to have a more positive attitude:
- • Smile. Children, on average, smile 400 times a day. Adults only smile on average of 20 times per day. ‘Fake it until you make it” comes to mind. Consciously put that smile on, until it becomes innate.
- • Eat healthy. Avoiding junk food (sugar, processed foods and alcohol) will keep your mind clear.
- • Exercise. Good to keep the energy flowing.
- • Keep your dental health in check. Regular visits to the dentist, will keep your teeth and gums healthy and pain free. Nothing worse than a toothache to ruin your mindset.
- • Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t have. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
- • Donate. Many studies have shown that donating activates pleasure centers in the brain.
Here is an excerpt from our book Enlightened Indigo Child that may give you a good idea on how to consciously focus on gratitude:
Trick #4: Feel Gratitude
Just like love, gratitude is a high frequency. Having gratitude for the positive memories, lessons learned, and experiences you have, is one step closer to forgiveness.
Say or think the sentence: I am grateful for____________.
Just fill in the blank. Do this exercise as often as you can for as long as you can; for at least ten minutes or longer. It almost becomes a form of meditation and can create an inner peace like no medication could ever possibly achieve.
I often use this as a walking meditation. “What beautiful trees. Thank you for being here and cleaning our air and making the street lovelier. … What a beautiful building. So tall and majestic. Wow. And look at the pretty architecture. … The clouds. They’re so puffy and white. Thank you for providing rain for the plants to grow and giving us water to drink….. And look at that beautiful big pile of garbage on the street. Somebody just cleaned out their home to make room for new stuff……And those dirty pots and dishes left in the sink. So grateful to have such healthy food to eat on these lovely dishes.”
You get the point. Find the joy of everything. It’s there if you change your paradigm viewpoint.
While the old adage says to count sheep if you can’t sleep, I say to count blessings. Not only will you fall asleep quicker, you will be in a very restful high frequency state of tranquility. Your dreams will be better and you will wake up more refreshed than ever. The added bonus is that you will see your life attracting more positive experiences. It’s a paradigm shift of focusing on what you have and not on what you want. The Universal Law of Attraction will always bring more of whatever you think about.
If you worry incessantly on how your parents are mean, guess what? They will be. But if you show gratitude for all the nice things they have done (given you food, clothing, toys, life, etc.) then you will find that they will continue to do more of it.
And for the parents, if you worry and continue to point out how inadequate your child is relative to other kids his age, then you will never see the blessings of their situation. Not everyone can be a doctor, lawyer or rocket scientist, so focus on their strengths and show gratitude for your child’s gifts.
Gratefulness is a mindset, and a gift in and of itself. My hope is that you experience deep gratitude this holiday season, and appreciate the gifts that are freely yours each day.
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