Appreciation is such a powerful tool for shifting your focus in a positive direction. One of the best ways to use appreciation is to remove your focus from everything that’s going wrong.
Many of us get caught up in obsessing about the negative stuff and all day long our thoughts go something like this: “I hate this job, it would be so much easier if they would just let me do my work instead of bothering me constantly with meetings, change this, do that…ugh! Oh, here comes Ms. Annoying again, what terrible tales of woe does she have to share with me today? How am I going to pay that electric bill? I don’t think I’ll have enough money but it really needs to be paid soon. I’m worried about Dad, but he’s so headstrong and doesn’t want anyone to help him…”
Sound familiar? Obviously, your own life details are different, but notice the constant focus on negativity. Appreciation is a fantastic way to jolt yourself out of that state of mind.
Start by coming up with just ONE THING that is going right for you, and focus on it for as long as you can. Why are you so happy about it? How does it make you feel to think about this thing or situation?
A few examples:
“Let me think of something to appreciate. Oh, I saw that I lost two pounds when I weighed myself this morning. I still have more to go before I reach my goal but I’m thrilled that I’m on my way. Two pounds is substantial, really! Pick up a container that’s holding two pounds of something and you can really feel the weight. That equal amount of weight dropped off my body and that makes me feel good! Imagine if I keep going and lose two pounds a week? Over a month that will be nearly 10 pounds! That excites me! Okay, I’m definitely getting into the groove of this appreciation stuff!”
“I appreciate the fact that most of the time, everything seems to work out decently for me. I don’t always get what I want, and things don’t always work out like I planned, but overall I can’t really complain. I have a loving family (maybe some of them are a bit quirky but still good people), I have great friends, I have my health, I have a roof over my head, I have so many things to appreciate. Why focus on the stuff that aggravates me? Really! I can think of hundreds of positive things to focus on, and that’s what I’m going to do much more often.”
“I can’t think of a single thing to appreciate about my life right now, so I’m going to start with something not directly related to me. I appreciate… birds. During the summer I love to sit outside and listen to birdsong. I appreciate that there are so many different breeds of birds, and many of them are just stunning to look at. Brilliant colors, amazing songs, some of them will even interact with me when I whistle to them. Just watching birds makes me feel relaxed, and listening to them sing makes me feel uplifted. I admire the freedom that birds have to just lift off and fly wherever they like. I’m so grateful that I can think of these beautiful creatures and suddenly feel ten times better than I did a few moments ago.”
See how easy it is to appreciate the smallest things and end up feeling great afterwards?
The best thing is that doing this regularly (like daily, or several times a day) has a dramatic impact on your overall mood and mindset. So even if nothing else in your life has improved quite yet, you will still find yourself feeling more positive, stronger, better able to handle challenges and negativity, and so on.
Try it! 🙂