How to Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude

This article appears in Dumb Little Man Tips for Life blog at www.dumblittleman.com, written by Mark Harrison and contains some great advice.

Check out his new book, Thirty Days to Change Your Life .

 When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself. ~Tecumseh

Adopting an attitude of appreciation towards the things in your life makes an enormous difference to your level of happiness. People who consciously attempt to be thankful and appreciative tend to feel happier and at peace to a greater extent than others.
According to a research project from the University of Miami, people who practice some form of conscious gratitude:

exercised more regularly, were healthier, slept better and felt more optimistic.

made more progress towards personal goals

were more alert, enthusiastic and could handle stress more effectively

Some people are naturally more optimistic and positive than others, and some studies suggest that, to a certain degree, our genes determine happiness. However, even the most pessimistic of souls can develop a more optimistic and happier mindset with gentle and persistent practice. Here are some ideas for feeling happier and more at peace.

Be careful when you make comparisons
It’s natural to compare ourselves with others, and many of us tend to compare ourselves with those who are better off. Of course, we all encounter problems and obstacles every day, but most of them are trivial compared with the problems many people experience. We all know that people experience serious illness, live constantly with great pain or relentless hunger; there are people who never had an education, who can’t read or write, people who have been abused or who have no family. The list, of course, is almost endless.
Is the glass half empty or half full? Of course, there are people who are more successful, wealthier, have a ‘better’ job, etc., and it is easy to be envious of them. But there are so many others who are worse off than ourselves, so why not focus on how fortunate we are? Feelings of envy are corrosive and can cause great damage to your happiness and self esteem, so choosing the right comparisons is important.

Be more conscious about the things we take for granted
Many of the things we should be thankful for get forgotten because we are so used to them, and it is only when we lose them that we remember how fortunate we were. I recently had a minor leg injury which made me realize how precious the ability to walk really is! Don’t wait until something’s gone before you are grateful – your sight, your health, your family – take some time to appreciate these wonderful things.

See the good in every situation
Situations are rarely ‘all good’ or ‘all bad.’ These are, to a large extent, labels we put on situations whereas, in reality, it is our response to the situations that determines what kind of experience it is. Even in the most apparently awful situation, we can derive some benefit if we have the right mindset. I think most people would agree that growth and development usually involves some degree of pain, and so challenging situations are opportunities for such growth.
As a manager, for example, I have probably learned the most through interacting with ‘difficult’ people and through having to deal with situations which, initially, made me feel uncomfortable. Instead of seeing these people and situations as problems and obstacles, I try to see them as opportunities which will lead to growth and future success.

Keep a gratitude journal
This is something very concrete you can do to ensure that gratitude is a conscious and regular part of your day or week. Making a list of the good things in our life can be a wonderful experience. Although we might not think we have much to be grateful for, when we start writing, it becomes clear that we do have a lot going for us. At the end of the day, why not take ten minutes to list a few of the good things that happened during the day? You will end up with a record of things you are grateful for which it will be very helpful to read in times of stress or unhappiness.

Little things matter

Just as millions of snowflakes pile up to create a blanket of snow, the ‘thank you’s’ we say pile up and fall gently upon one another until, in our hearts and minds, we are adrift in gratitude. ~Daphne Rose Kingman

A dripping tap soon fills a bucket until it is overflowing. The same is true of anything in life, and developing appreciation is no different. Appreciating the many small things in your day will lead to greater and greater levels of gratitude and happiness. When someone smiles at you, when you receive a small complement, when the bus is on time, when a friend sends you a nice SMS message… these are all things to be thankful for.

As with all things, success requires persistence. A little bit of gratitude every day can, over time, make a big difference to our level of happiness and well being.

Written on 7/12/2010 by Mark Harrison. Mark Harrison writes about personal growth, communication and increasing personal wealth. Check out his new book, Thirty Days to Change Your Life .
Photo Credit: treslola

Who is the Boss?

“There is only one boss, and whether a person shines shoes for a living or heads up the biggest corporation in the world, the boss remains the same. It is the customer!”

~ Sam M. Walton,  CEO Wal-Mart

Hypnotic language pattern

"The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause." ~ Mark Twain

as any hypnotist knows ! ~ AyPee

6 Famous Psychology Experiments

This article is taken from Kendra's Psychology Blog at  http://bit.ly/d2kvpx

I have obviously heard of Pavlov’s experiments with Dogs (and I have met a few people that must have been there!) and I guess we all believe that we are non conformist . The Asch experiments challenges conformity – read on.

Whether it is love or conformity; whatever the behaviour, there appears to be no end to humans wishing to understand themselves. Even within NLP we look for how people DO their behaviours rather than why.

It’s an interesting article.

6 Famous Psychology Experiments

By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide to Psychology

Kendra's Bio

Kendra's Blog

 

Tuesday July 20, 2010

The history of psychology is rich with fascinating studies and experiments that have helped changed the way we think about the human mind and behaviour. Some of the most famous psychology experiments include Pavlov's research with dogs, Milgram's studies of obedience and Harlow's work with rhesus monkeys. Explore some of these famous psychology experiments to learn more about some of the best-known research in psychology history.

Learn more about some of psychology's most famous experiments.
_{Photo courtesy Rich Legg/iStockPhoto}

• Pavlov's Dogs: How Ivan Pavlov Discovered Classical Conditioning: Classical conditioning is one of the major topics studied by students in every introductory psychology class. You may be surprised to learn that it was actually a physiologist who made this important psychological discovery.
• The Little Albert Experiment: The Little Albert experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviourist John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor. Learn more about the Little Albert experiment and discover what happened to the boy in the study.
• The Asch Conformity Experiments: Researchers have long been interested in the degree to which people follow or rebel against social norms. During the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments designed to demonstrate the powers of conformity in groups.
• Harry Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments: In a series of controversial experiments conducted in 1960s, psychologist Harry Harlow demonstrated the powerful effects of love on normal development. By showing the devastating effects of deprivation on young rhesus monkeys, Harlow revealed the importance of love for healthy childhood development. His experiments were often unethical and shockingly cruel, yet they uncovered fundamental truths that have heavily influenced our understanding of child development.
• The Milgram Obedience Experiment: In Milgram's experiment, participants were asked to deliver electrical shocks to a "learner" whenever an incorrect answer was given. In reality, the learner was actually a confederate in the experiment who pretended to be shocked. The purpose of the experiment was to determine how far people were willing to go in order to obey the commands of an authority figure. Milgram found that 65% of participants were willing to deliver the maximum level of shocks despite the fact that the learner seemed to be in serious distress or even unconscious.
• The Stanford Prison Experiment: Philip Zimbardo's famous experiment cast regular students in the roles of prisoners and prison guards. While the study was originally slated to last two weeks, it had to be halted after just six days because the guards became abusive and the prisoners began to show signs of extreme stress and anxiety.

Good People Bad People

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more

 

 

~ Woody Allen.  US movie actor, comedian, & director

Taken from http://www.quotationspage.com
Image http://www.collider.com

Imagination Encircles The World

 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
~ Albert Einstein

 

Einstein’s biography is available at the Wikipedia site.

Creativity

In his blog,  http://zenhabits.net, Leo Babauta writes “Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic”. 
Nebulous could mean vague and Murky can mean dark, dim, or gloomy – with which I am not sure I agree.

To me creativity is a high energy state and it is almost impossible for it to occur from a low energy state.
If it is high energy then by definition it is bright and awake; even if it emanates from the unconscious. 

The unconscious is recognised as being deep inside but it is not a dark place. Rather it has a perceived depth which makes it remote (some may say too distant to understand) but again, it is  a bright and energetic place.

I also believe the only place that creativity can can occur, is in the present.
It cannot happen whilst one is “stuck in the past”, although it can be fed from those experiences which obviously happened in the past.
So …

 Creation always happens in the Here and Now
see my blog post “Life Just Is” – posted 5th July,2010

Solitude

Leo goes onto identify the number 1 creativity habit is solitude.
He says “Creativity flourishes in solitude. With quiet, you can hear your thoughts, you can reach deep within yourself, you can focus” and “… there are lots of ways to find this solitude”

This a very interesting observation.

For me the “solitude”, that Leo refers to is not a separation from others (kids create beautifully amidst noise and chaos)  or even silence. It is in the separation and silence of entering into an unconscious or internal state. A beautiful mind?

Go Create

When I work with clients, I usually have to gather them up from the past and bring them into the present so that they can create a future -  to me coaching is all about creativity.

Create your own adventure because experience is all that there is.

Oi! Playmates

Arthur Askey was one of the comedians that I grew up with

This is from my name sake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Askey

What were your TV favourites?