Being thankful transforms you.

Seeing the good in what you have right now can transform you.  It can change your daily outlook and increase your happiness. You’ll find more feelings of satisfaction and likely see your relationships improve because you complain less and appreciate more. Many research has shown that gratitude can improve an individual’s well-being and happiness. A thankful person feels more contentment and joy and doesn’t dwell on negative things.

This is what seeing the good is all about; gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation.  It is an attitude, a perspective and a way of life.  Seeing the good is also a choice.  Choose to see the good in your everyday life.  Be thankful for all that you have.

But, at the same time, we all know that that isn’t always possible, especially when times get tough and there seems to be a never-ending bombardment of negativity coming your way. In my opinion, those are the times that you need to reach out and grab on to your gratitude and thankfulness even more. Using it as a motivating force to bring you back to what you have, instead of focusing on what you don’t have.

And one of the most important things to appreciate and give thanks for is the seemingly simple, yet extremely amazing, fact that you woke up today. That you’re alive. You see, every day is an opportunity to have a fresh start and not everybody is as fortunate as you or me to have even woken up today. So, make sure you breathe gratitude into your lungs, speak gratitude into your heart, manifest gratitude into your mind, and embody gratitude into your soul every chance you get.

And, when you wake up in the morning, say thank you. Allowing you to treat each moment since you opened up our eyes with such care and love that you won’t be able to waste that miracle, that huge miracle of waking up. In this life, experiencing it all, one day at a time.

Everyone wants to achieve some type of success in their lives. Whether it's personal success, professional success, or relationship success, you should be continuously striving to become better. 

Now this process can be done on your own, by yourself, without the help of others. But, this can also be a collaborative effort that incorporates other opinions, perspectives, and advice on a certain matter. So, why not choose that option? Well, in my opinion, many people are afraid that someone else is going to sabotage their success, try to duplicate it, or something else that may result in a negative outcome. 

Why is that? Why do some people feel the need to tear someone down? It seems to me, that they are coming from a place of envy, jealous, anger, frustration, or pain. They may be experience these emotions, and because misery loves company, they will do whatever it take to try to tear you down and you bring down to their levels. They are living in a scarcity mentality, which is a zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit— even with those who help in the production. They also have a hard time being genuinely happy for the other people.

On the other hand, the Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth or security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in the sharing of prestige, recognition, profits and decision-making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.

To put it simply, someone else's success does not have to threaten yours. It takes only a moment to tear them down using your words, while it may take more time and effort to build someone up using your words.

Remember, there is enough room at the table for everyone to eat, to win, and to succeed. You can go at it alone and try to achieve success at the expense of friendships and relationships, but wouldn't it be much more enjoyable and fulfilling to do it as a collective unit. There is no "I" in team, so use that collaboration, use that teamwork to make the dreamwork! 

Even though it is temporarily easier to opt out of life so we don’t get hurt, in the long run it becomes much harder. Each easy individual decision to now show up adds up to a much harder life down the line. When you stop showing up for life because it has hit you upside the head (however understandable that is), eventually if you stop showing up for life it will stop showing up for you.

And as one of my favorite authors Alan Cohen once said, "Show up as your full self and the rest will take care of itself."  What Alan means, is to show up in life as your authentic self, with your heart wide open.

You can start showing up again. Start small but start. It can start with changing the way we choose to think from ‘Things never work out to me” to ”Something good is just around the corner”, from “I can’t be bothered” to “I’m going to make the effort tonight and see what happens”. They don’t have to be big things but they are all deliberate steps to re-engage and show up for life.

Your responsibility is to learn to love yourself and appreciate yourself just as you are. How do you do that? How do you cultivate self-love and self-acceptance in a world that constantly compares you to others, tells you that you must do more and have more in order to feel worthy? You do this by taking a journey deep inside yourself. Everything that is essential is inside of you.

Accept yourself as you are, with all your imperfections in this moment, and have patience and understanding for your journey struggling to be a human being. We are all on the same journey -- the journey to self-acceptance. And when you take a leap and show up for what you want in your life then health, love, friendship, laughter, connection, and learning will start showing up for you in return quicker than you could ever imagine! 

Why does it bother you when you see someone belittling, yelling, or verbally abusing someone else, but at the same time, you allow yourself to speak to yourself in that same tone? That doesn't make sense, yet it happens on a daily basis to so many of us. 

Why are we so hard on ourselves? Pushing, prodding, and criticizing ourselves is seems to be more of the rule than the exception these days.

Despite what we’ve come to believe, living with an inner drill-sergeant, whose sole mission is to make us better and whip us into shape, isn’t the most effective strategy for self-improvement or living a happy, healthy, fulfilled life. In this every changing world, the abundant habit of self-judgement, criticism, and harmful self-talk sadly has not. To be honest, being hard on ourselves and never feeling like we are enough, is a societal norm. 

I find it hard to believe that we don't want to feel good about ourselves. We want to have a healthy self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-love, but we often speak to ourselves in ways that not only keep us stuck in the stress response, but diminish our ability to feel good. You have to ask yourself if you want to be happier and more peaceful? If the answer is yes, then, be the radical for change and challenge your old beliefs. Because finding that inner peace and happiness is an inside job, no matter what anyone or society tells you. 

Remember to err is human, to forgive divine. Recognizing we’re all human, and that we all make mistakes and stumble is very important.  Learn to hold these mistakes, mishaps, and failings with a little less pressure and seriousness. Remember none of us are perfect and mistakes do happen. When we are kind and compassionate with ourselves, then we become more compassionate with others. And becoming compassionate with ourselves creates better conditions for us to grow and flourish. 

For quite some time, I needed help. I needed to change my life and the way I was living. I can remember to this day, so many people around me tried to show me the way, but I was never responsive to their help. One day, I finally made the decision to get some help, and these memories came flooding back of what these people said to me and what they did for me. I was too stubborn, arrogant, and proud to realize what they were trying to accomplish with me. They were trying to tell me I didn’t have to live like that anymore. They were carrying a message, a message that ultimately saved my life. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Everybody has someone like this in their life that they wish would change for the better. Regardless if you disapprove of this person’s lifestyle, you have no actual control over them deciding to make those necessary changes. So, does that mean you give up and let this person continuously self-sabotage their own lives? The answer is no, but there is only so much that you can do as a person looking from the outside. 

You should never stop trying to support people that so desperately need help and require a change in their lives. You just have to remind ourselves that you can’t physically make someone want to change. Instead, you can be a leader, you can be an example of how to live a better life, and you can constantly carry the message. This message, in whichever form it takes, can provide hope and a promise of freedom that can eventually lead to a better way of life full of happiness, joy, and peace. 

Ultimately, this decision to change lies in the hands, the mind, and the heart of the person that needs to make a change. Once you truly recognize this, you can free ourselves of any false burdens you may place upon ourselves for not being able to make someone want to transform their lives. You always have to remember that you can’t force someone to change or get better.

You can only carry the message, you cannot carry the person.

You are aware of your thoughts. So, in that respect, they may seem real to you. But, your thoughts do not exist outside of your awareness. There is nowhere else where the thought that is appearing to you at this moment is actually happening. Unlike the way we imagine it, our thoughts are not tangible, like the physical world outside of us. Maybe you can attest to this, but I’ve never seen a thought walk by me on the street. So, we should be able to wrap our heads around the notion that our thoughts are NOT real.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

What makes a thought feel real is the attention you bring to it. You transform a thought into a physical manifestation by focusing on it and relating to it as if it is an event happening in the world somewhere. Usually within the world of the person or thing that we are thinking about. Does that make sense?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Well, think about it. This happens when you link the thought and the object that the thought is about when in actuality these two are not remotely connected. Your thought does NOT affect the object of that thought unless you believe that it really does. Once you come to this realization, it will allow you to free yourself from your thoughts. No longer will you be burdened by attending to a thought, answering it, changing it, identifying with it, and everything else that comes along with it because it will literally cease to exist. If you let a thought become nothing, then that’s what it ultimately will be…nothing.

So, next time a thought appears before you, within your awareness, remember that it’s not real in the sense that it has some physical form or exists somewhere outside of you. The contents of what you’re thinking about are in no way affected by the fact this thought is arising in you, nor is anyone aware that it’s happening in your internal world. The thought appears in front of and within only you, therefore without your undivided attention, it simply disappears into thin air.

Remember, thoughts are just thoughts. Thoughts are not facts. Thoughts are not always meaningful. The important thing is not what thoughts you may have, it's what you do and how you react when you have these thoughts.

Society has developed into one of impulse, emotion, passion, and self-worship. This is especially prevalent in the younger generations, but many of us have been either raised or conditioned with this aversion to delayed gratification.

Patience is a dying virtue. No one likes to wait. We get aggravated when the food we ordered takes a little bit longer than expected to arrive, we get frustrated when our browser doesn’t load on our Smartphone instantaneously, and we get annoyed when a package from Amazon is delayed by one day. Basically, we’re a society that wants things yesterday and have a hard time taking a step back and letting life unfold on it’s own.

But, this is not a self-righteous lecture. I am definitely guilty of falling victim to instant gratification. It’s way to easy to do so, especially in a world of immediate goods, services, and convenience, our tolerance to delayed results has become one of our biggest vices. This intolerance has festered in every facet of our lives; creating a culture that seeks immediate satisfaction at the expense of not only our future but our character.

It all boils down to patience, or the lack thereof, that more and more people are dealing with these days. That’s because patience doesn’t come easy. Patience is an art and a practice. It’s a savoring of the moment so that the desired conditions, when they arrive, will be fully appreciated.

So, instead of worrying about when things will happen or complaining about your present circumstances, try to let go and let God. Try to listen to the messages. Try to see the signs. Try to recognize what your surroundings are telling you. Try to have faith that everything will eventually sort itself out. Try to embrace the fact that everything doesn’t happen according to your own personal timeline. Try to keep it in the moment. It takes patience to know that you are on the right path and while you’re not exactly where you want to be, it’s being able to recognize it’s only for now. This won’t be forever.

When you have a gratitude mindset, you appreciate everything in life, whether that be your relationships, your health, your business, and your overall sense of well-being. By developing a gratitude mindset you can greatly improve your feelings of positivity and appreciation for everything you have in your life.  Engaging in a regular gratitude practice can change your mindset, self-confidence and perspective for the better if you focus on being thankful and thinking positively.

It’s actually easier than you may think to develop a gratitude mindset and build daily habits that support a gratitude practice of being grateful and appreciative for what you have. When you feel grateful and appreciate the things you have, the things that you appreciate grow.  Developing a gratitude mindset can change your perspective on where you are right now, and where you’re going in the future for the better.

Gratitude is linked to experiencing greater levels of happiness.  Expressing gratitude can help you feel better and more self-confident because your mindset is focused on appreciation and being thankful.  Being grateful every day can change your life because your first thought is one of gratitude rather than negativity.

You meet so many people throughout you life and some of them stick around, while others don’t. It can be hard to know exactly who belongs in your life. This doesn't mean that you aren’t connected with the people in your life (friends, colleagues, partners, & even family members,), but as you grow old, sometimes you grow apart.

The people you meet and relationships you form are all meant to help you learn and grow, no matter how they turn out. When times get tough and you hit a rough patch, it’s very easy to see who is by your side and who is no where to be found. It’s not that you are not as good of friends with someone, but you often grow differently and at different paces, and eventually growing without one another.

Of course, it isn’t pleasant losing a certain relationship in your life, but it happens. There should be no hard feelings during this process; it is truly just a part of growing and maturing. You have to realize what you need to grow, and sometimes the relationships you are in can hold you back.

The universe works in mysterious ways and puts you through so much to learn on a daily basis. Sometimes it is unpredictable, but in the end, everything is happening for a reason, and you are always exactly where you're supposed to be.

Remember that. 

Salvador Dali said, “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”

Yet, many people are paralyzed by perfection. After all, perfectionism sounds great: who doesn’t want to be perfect? However, aiming for perfection is a great way to become and unsatisfied and disappointed. Why? Simply because, as Salvador Dali references, perfection isn’t attainable. Aiming for perfection causes many people to quit when they could have made incremental progress toward a goal.

If you frame your goals in terms of perfection, you are likely to experience feelings of failure frequently. Your failures are brilliant opportunities to learn. The issue comes when you have a toxic relationship with failure. Telling yourself “I’m going to fail at this,” or “this cannot possibly work” are ways to make sure that you do indeed quit or that you definitely don’t succeed.

By choosing a goal for yourself that is a step past where you are now, you can find yourself far more satisfied, and more importantly, actually making progress toward the goal.