Gratitude 24-7

Daily Insights to help keep you centered and connect with the happiness within.

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Change the Music

The most important environment you experience in life is the one in your head. The constant stream of observations, judgments, exhortations and self-critiques that characterize it determine how you’ll feel, what you’ll do and how you do it. If your dance through life doesn’t feel good, you need to change the tune in your head. When you stop being self-critical, looking for what’s wrong and comparing yourself with others and instead begin trying to appreciate some aspect of every person and situation you encounter, you’ll have a lighter step as you…

Waltz through life.

Steve and Jarl

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What’s the Point?

Although society would have you think otherwise, happiness doesn’t come from money, fame or other kinds of recognition. It doesn’t matter how many ground-breaking discoveries you’ve made or feats of bravery you’ve accomplished. What does matter is how you feel about yourself. Contentment is a state of mind you experience when you allow yourself to relax. When you drop all your prerequisites (success, money, partner, etc.,) and sink into this moment with deep appreciation of all that you do have, you’ve found something special…

The joy of living. 

Steve and Jarl

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Authenticity Requires Humility

Considering that most of what you know is based on second-hand information and even what you experience is colored by your interpretation, it doesn’t really make sense to assume that your version of reality is absolute truth. If your identity hinges on being savvy or knowledgeable, all the information in the world still won’t improve your experience of life. That only happens when you quiet your mind, accept reality in the moment as the only possible outcome of all that’s proceeded it, and realize that you’re part of the whole experience of life…

That is constantly evolving.

Steve and Jarl

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Soften

You roll through life accumulating knowledge that verifies your opinions about the world. But what if what you know is incorrect? No matter how certain you are of your ‘facts’, you can be sure that in another 50 years, science (and society) will have a different take on it. Why not keep this in mind and loosen the death grip on your ideas? It’ll allow you to open to more diverse sources of information. You’ll be less likely to get upset over disagreements and be…

A lot more agreeable.

Steve and Jarl

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Without Your Story

You can get in touch with the completely content part of yourself that resides beneath your self-image, need for acknowledgment or identification with the roles that you play. It’s worth trying because, when you connect with that part of yourself, you’re free. You’re free to enjoy a consistently pleasant sense of yourself that doesn’t depend on whimsical and tenuous approval from the outside world. You can develop such a pervasive feeling of satisfaction that it accompanies you no matter what’s going on around you. It hinges on one thing…

Acceptance of what is.

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Medicine for Mind and Body

Have you noticed when your body is not feeling well, you’re more critical of self, situation and others? The mind-body connection is so strong that being physically out-of-balance results in feeling mentally out of whack, and vice versa. Next time you find yourself spiraling down a rabbit hole of self-generated negativity, regardless of where it originates, try this most effective antidote… 

Bombard yourself with gratitude.

Steve and Jarl

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You Agreed to This

No matter how random or out of control things appear, on some level you agreed to the present circumstances of your life. The choices you make and the habits you develop all coalesce to create every situation you find yourself in. If external conditions were the primary determinant of your experience of life, you could argue about the degree of control you have. But the way you experience life is created internally. It’s conditioned by where you put your attention. Only one person is in charge of that. You. Steve and Jarl

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The Authentic You

The real you is perfect! It doesn’t need to be improved. However, like most people, you’re probably seeing life through the lens of the made-up version of you. That you has been created through conditioning and a desire to fit in. When you experience the unadulterated essence of who you really are, it’s delicious. Focusing on your breath and calming your mind allows the anxious, judgmental and fearful part of you to fade. When you remove the noise created by your programming, what’s left is…

The glorious, authentic you.

Steve and Jarl

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Maybe It’s Not Wrong

Life transpires according to the laws of the universe. Without conscious awareness of those laws, your ego narrates a story based on the tiny sliver of the reality it perceives. The more sure you are of your partially-informed story, the more you see problems. The more problems you see, the more you suffer. If you’d like to eliminate unnecessary suffering in your life, realize that you don’t really see the whole picture. Try to stop making things wrong that you don’t really understand. It makes you feel bad. Besides…

It’s probably not even true.

Steve and Jarl

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Keep Your Dreams to Yourself

When you’re dreaming or planning something new, it’s important to keep your energy focused and undiluted by naysayers. Maintaining your intention and sense of possibility is hard enough without subjecting them to the doubtful opinions of others. They may believe their wise counsel will prepare you for difficulties that lie ahead or they could be jealous that you’re trying to move forward. Either way, their motivations don’t matter as much as the potentially dampening effect they can have on your effort. Protect your dreams from getting compromised.

Keep ‘em to yourself.

Steve and Jarl

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Adjusting Your Reflection

The world you experience is an out-picturing of your mind. Nothing comes into being without it first being a mental image. This means you can’t be habitually negative and expect to feel good about the world. If you want to experience life differently, start with your self, right here and right now. Think of how you’d like to feel and then conjure up images that fit the feeling. Hold those images in your mind and keep the feeling going in your body until it’s your reality. When you love your mental imagery…

You’ll love your out-picturing.

Steve and Jarl

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Adjusting Your Reflection

The world you experience is an out-picturing of your mind. Nothing comes into being without it first being a mental image. This means you can’t be habitually negative and expect to feel good about the world. If you want to experience life differently, start with your self, right here and right now. Think of how you’d like to feel and then conjure up images that fit the feeling. Hold those images in your mind and keep the feeling going in your body until it’s your reality. When you love your mental imagery… You’ll love your out-picturing. Steve and Jarl

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Grievances Hold You Back

You can’t get into shape without exercise. You’re unlikely to loose weight without altering your food intake. Mastery isn’t possible without practice. Likewise, if you want to experience a freer and better-feeling world, you’ll have to let go of the things that are keeping you exactly where you are. You can fly high and feel free, you just have to let go of the stuff that’s weighing you down. How do you do that? Forgive. Steve and Jarl

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Shine Your Light

Think of yourself as a lamp. Your personality is the lamp shade. The real you is the light that resides beneath the layers of your conditioning. Your light gets obscured when your shade is thickened by shame and insecurity. Fortunately with persistence, you can undo the mistaken notions you’ve absorbed about yourself and modify your shade. Begin by realizing you are not, and have never been, the identity on the outside. You are the light on the inside… 

Shine that baby!

Steve and Jarl

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Love Your Reflection

How you view anyone else actually reveals how you feel about yourself. Your judgments of others are reflections of your own lack of self-acceptance. You meet others with the same level of compassion and understanding you give yourself. You can pretend that what you see out there is the problem, but that’s like blaming the mirror for the way you look. When you love and accept yourself, your powers of discernment are still intact, but your reaction to unpleasant or inappropriate behavior is kind and loving. The more you love yourself, the more you love…

Everything.

Steve and Jarl

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Overcoming Disharmony

Since everyone has a unique way of seeing things, the chances that you’ll  occasionally experience disharmony in your relationships are high. But, when you come to the realization that who you really are has very little to do with your fabricated stories, the tangled knots caused by your faulty thinking begin to loosen and you’re able to see through your misperceptions. You understand that most of the details that you differ on come from a false sense of self and don’t actually matter. Until that becomes clear and you’re able to see their beauty…

Try acting as if.

Steve and Jarl

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Soften Your Stance

Though it’s true that you create your own experience of life according to the thoughts you cultivate, everyone is dealt a different hand at birth. These particular gifts and limitations result in mental habits that are responsible for varying degrees of maturity, intelligence, self-love and acceptance. Rather than judge others for the unfortunate situations they find themselves in, consider that they might not have yet realized the cause of their problems. What’s best for your own mental diet is the same thing that most benefits them… Compassion and understanding. Steve and Jarl