Appreciation is a way of giving thanks to the things we are glad about in our lives. It is one of the major keys to living a joyful life. According to the dictionary it is “thankful recognition.” It’s a way that can lift your spirits quickly when you start to focus on all that you are grateful for in your life.
I’ve met hundreds if not thousands of people from all walks of life and have learned that everything is relative. In Sweden, we talk about “luxproblem” or luxury problems when someone’s phone isn’t working or they are bored with their work/school. If you just only compare your life to someone who has it worse, very quickly you can find so much to be grateful for in your own life. Basically if you have eyes to read this and are breathing, guess what? You can be grateful!
Gratitude and appreciation are so important because no matter what the circumstances are, you can always find some little thing to be thankful for which will help you to get to a higher energy level to be able to attract good things into your life.
Appreciation is also the key to having good relationships. When you can focus on the good parts of a relationship or person, you are seeing the person with love. This will cause even more good energy to flow between you and that person. When you first fall in love, all you can see is the goodness of that person. With time, the “honeymoon phase” will end, and those little things can start to get on your nerves. If you allow those things to bother you and continue to focus on them, it’s only going to get worse. But when you can focus on the good things—which appreciation does for you—then you will only see more of that.
I’ve always love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday that helps people to remember what they are thankful for. One of the best ways to get into the appreciation mode is to think of ten things that you are grateful for every night before you fall asleep and in the morning when you wake up. When you do this as you are going to sleep, you’ll put yourself into a positive state that will carry you through the night. When you do this in the morning, it helps start your day in a positive light. This is one of the keys to living a joyful life.
No matter how dire the situation may seem, find those ten things to be grateful for…they may be minuscule but it will help. You will start to condition your mind to look for the good in life. Our brains are like a muscle and what we focus on is what will create our reality. So use appreciation and gratitude as a tool to creating a very joyful life.
