What Is Music And Why Is It So Important To Us? Eckhart Tolle

Many activities can serve as portals to presence, but we must be careful not to become dependent upon them.

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Neuroscience Reveals How Gratitude Literally Changes Your Brain to be Happier | The Power of Ideas

We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?

According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.

When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant. And gratitude is the most effective practice for stimulating feelings of happiness.

In this article we’ll share some of the research demonstrating that gratitude makes you happier, followed by some practical steps you can take to positively transform the molecular structure of the brain.

Studies of gratitude making you happier

In one study of gratitude, conducted by Robert A. Emmons at the University of California at Davis and his colleague Mike McCullough at the University of Miami, randomly assigned participants were given one of three tasks. The participants kept a journal each week, with one group describing things they were grateful for, another describing what’s hassling them and the other keeping track of neutral events. After ten weeks, the participants in the gratitude group felt 25 percent better than the other groups, and had exercised an average of 1.5 hours more.

In a later study by Emmons with a similar set up, participants completing gratitude exercises each day offered other people in their lives more emotional support than those in other groups.

Another study on gratitude was conducted with adults suffering from congenital and adult-onset neuromuscular disorders (NMDs), with the majority of people having post-polio syndrome (PPS). 

Compared to those not jotting down what they’re grateful for every night, participants that did express gratitude felt more refreshed each day upon wakening. They also felt more connected with others than did participants in the group not expressing gratitude.

A fourth study didn’t require a gratitude journal, but looked at the amount of gratitude people showed in their daily lives. In this study, a group of Chinese researchers found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and also with lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Better sleep, with less anxiety and depression. Some compelling reasons to express gratitude more regularly.

Three simple steps to becoming more grateful

If you’ve only got time to say one prayer today, make it the simple words of “thank you.”

This is worth keeping in mind as you go about figuring out your daily practices and routines.

Here are three practical steps you can take to infusing routines of gratitude into your life.

1) Keep a daily journal of three things you are thankful for. This works well first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed.

2) Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them every day.

3) Look in the mirror when you are brushing your teeth, and think about something you have done well recently or something you like about yourself.

Please let me know what you think below.

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27 Things You Need To Thank Yourself For Before The Year’s Over | Russell Lacy

In our society, we beat up on ourselves a lot – too much.

For many of us, it’s every minute of every day, all throughout the year. It’s no wonder most of us are too stressed out. We replay negative thoughts about our inadequacies or lack of capabilities over and over again in our minds. At some point, it’s like enough already. Isn’t it about time that we started appreciating ourselves for all of the things that we’ve done? This is especially true for this time of year.
 

Along with some end-of-the-year reflection and goal planning for the new year, don’t forget to thank yourself for all that you have achieved and overcome this year. I’m sure there were moments when it wasn’t easy. You probably had moments when you doubted yourself, struggled in defining the type of life you want to live, and lost sight of your goals. Yet, you pushed through it all.
 

Now, take a moment to be proud of the person who you’ve become. Here are 27 things you need to thank yourself for before 2016 is over:

 1. Following your goals (well, some of them)

 2. Making your priorities clearer and sticking to them

 3. Not putting up with people’s crap

 4. Taking time out for yourself, even if that meant ditching your friends

 5. Working out more/ trying to take care of yourself more

 6. Not settling for things

 7. Developing your skills and passions

 8. Not giving up on your what you want out of your career (even when it got on your nerves)

 9. Finishing things that you started

 10. Having the courage to remove people out of your life who didn’t add to it

 11. Speaking up more when you felt wronged

 12. Going the extra mile (though you didn’t always want to)

 13. Getting more sleep

 14. Following your gut (even if that meant venturing into unfamiliar territory)

 15. Persevering through the unexpected

 16. Not beating up on yourself as much

 17. Accepting your flaws, regardless of what people might think

 18. Deciding not to take life so seriously

 19. Laughing a heck of a lot more

 20. Not doing the same dumb things that you did in 2015

 21. Not reminding yourself of the dumb things you did in 2015

 22. Spending more time with your family

 23. Saving more. Finally.

 24. Planning for the life you want in the future

 25. Being more grateful for the little things.

 26. Making choices that you know your future self would be proud of

 27. Being patient with yourself, knowing through every journey you face you’re becoming wiser

Have a go and let me know what you think!  Would you change any of the items above?

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Appreciation Quotes Help Forge Friendship - Make Your Gratitude Count | Simran Khurana

Appreciating someone is not that difficult. You just need to remember to express your appreciation when the opportunity arises. But how many of us remember to do so?

Voltaire rightly pointed out the merits of appreciation, "Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." When you appreciate your loved ones, you build a bond of trust and love.  Appreciation builds bridges and fosters healthy relationships. 

Appreciate Those Who Are Closest to You

Appreciation can start at home. When your mother packs you a nutritious lunch, or your dad helps you with homework, show your appreciation with a hug or a smile. When your husband helps you with household chores, or your mother-in-law offers to babysit when you had to go out, express gratitude and love.

Appreciate Others Around You

Appreciate people outside your family too. Give your neighbors credit when their dogs did not create a nuisance. Thank the local police for their effort in controlling the crime rate in the neighborhood. 

You can find many opportunities to express your appreciation.

Appreciating someone does not make you less important. This is not a war of ego. Your words of appreciation reveal your humble and generous nature. By appreciating others, your value does not depreciate! On the contrary, you look good in the eyes of others.

Is Appreciation the Same Thing as Flattery?

Renowned motivational speaker Dale Carnegie beautifully expressed the difference between appreciation and flattery.  He said, "The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned."

Sugarcoated words of flattery appear fake while discerning words of appreciation sound genuine. Appreciation makes specific mention of praise-worthy qualities. Flattery is wishy-washy, smothering the truth behind a veil of false words. You can instinctively tell if a person is expressing true appreciation or false flattery. 

How to Appreciate Someone?

Appreciation should be sincere. When you praise your mother for her cooking, talk about what you specifically liked about the food. Share your thoughts about what else you would like. And thank her profusely for making your meal so good.

Say "thanks" to your friend who threw you a surprise birthday party. If your friend has spent money for the party, offer to share the expense. Also, tell your friend what you enjoyed most about the birthday celebration.

Use these appreciation quotes to make beautiful thank you cards and messages. Your friends and family will remember you for the kind words of appreciation.

Walt Disney
Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.

Booker T. Washington
Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

Sam Walton
Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune.

Voltaire
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

John F. Kennedy
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Oprah Winfrey
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.

Albert Schweitzer
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Dalai Lama
The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Leo Buscaglia
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Michael Jordan
When I was playing before I retired, I never really understood the appreciation and the respect that people gave me. People had treated me like a god or something, and that was very embarrassing.

Henry Clay
Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the gratefully and appreciating heart.

Mark Twain
To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.

Friedrich Nietzsche
There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

Mae West
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!

Steve Maraboli
Forget yesterday -- it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow -- you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift -- today.

William Arthur
Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

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Let me know what you think below!