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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff. Richard Carlson
The more genuinely grateful I feel for the gift of my life, the more peaceful I feel. Gratitude, then, is worthy of a little practice.
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Spend a Moment Every Day Thinking of Someone to Thank This simple strategy, which may rake only a few seconds to complete, has long been one of the most important habits I have ever engaged in, I try to remember to start my day thinking of someone to thank. To me, gratitude and inner peace go hand in hand. The more genuinely grateful I feel for the gift of my life, the more peaceful I feel. Gratitude, then, is worthy of a little practice.
As you think of people to be grateful for, remember that it can be anyone – someone who allowed you to merge into traffic, someone who held the door open for you, or a physician who saved your life The point is to gear your attention toward gratitude, preferably first thing m the morning. I learned a long time ago that it’s easy to allow my mind co slip into various forms of negativity. When I do, the first thing that leaves me is my sense of gratitude. I begin to take the people in my life [and the love of God] for granted, and the love that I often feel is replaced with resentment and frustration. What this exercise reminds me to do is to focus on the good in my life. Invariably as I think of one person to feel gratitude for, the image of another person pops into my head, then another and another. Pretty soon I’m thinking of other things to be grateful for – my health, my children, my home, my career, the readers of my books, my freedom, and on and on it goes It may seem like an awfully simple suggestion, but it really works! IF you wake up m the morning with gratitude on your mind, it’s pretty difficult, in fact almost impossible, to feel anything but peace. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [The Bible agrees: ‘Peace’ follows ‘gratitude’. Philippians 4:6ff 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ] Bracketed text is my comment, D.S.
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Family members, people from
your past, teachers, gurus, people from work, someone who gave you a
break, as well as countless others. You may want to thank a higher power
[or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] for the gift of life itself, or
for the beauty of nature.
