Things I’m Grateful For

Hello.

I am in the process of transferring the site to a new host. This might take a couple of days, because I’m also transferring the domain name to the new host.

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Solomon.

It is my opinions that there are 2 types of emotions. There are those that all animals experience - fear, anger, desire, etc, and those that only humans experience - valour, altruism and gratitude. It was Cicero who said “Gratitude is the not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others”. Being grateful isn’t something that “should be done because other’s expect us to”. It’s simply a way of making life that much brighter.

I’ve been keeping this blog for over a year, and can testify to Cicero’s comment. Being grateful really does expand one’s mind to one’s fellow man. I am much more aware now, of how gratitude can help people, and devote a portion of my time and money to giving something back to those who are less fortunate than myself. Feeling thankful has been a life changing experience for me.

So, how can you get this wonderful feeling in your own life? It’s easy.

1. Choose what to focus on. If you spend time learning how to play the fiddle, you’ll get better at it. If you train to run a marathon, you’ll get better at it. If you teach yourself to do Sudoku puzzles, you’ll get better at them. It’s the same with gratitude. Every day, look around and open your eyes to the things around you that you can be grateful for. Since you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you have an internet connection. Since you have that internet connection, I’m going to assume you have a house, and a job to pay for that connection with. That’s 3 things right there that you could be grateful for. Since I’ve been practising this as long as I have, I can think of other, more subtle things that you could be grateful for. The fact you can read. The fact that you have eyes to see with. The fact that your brain is comprehending the words you’re reading. Some of those things might have occurred to you already, and that’s great! You’re already on the way. Fine tune your focus to see the good things in life.
2. Imagine you’re driving down a road, on a hot summer’s day, when the smell of rotting garbage assails your nostrils. You look out of the passenger window of your car, and see piles and piles of garbage. Huge mounds of rubbish, buzzing with flies. Rats crawling all over it. Rotting food, with seagulls picking at it. Maggots wriggling about. And the all pervading stench of filth. It’s making you want to vomit. Then, you turn and look out of the driver’s window. You see a lovely green verge, covered with wild flowers. Trees are blossoming. Birds are sitting in the trees, singing beautiful songs. There’s that smell of freshly mown grass on the air, and the sun is shining. Rabbits are scampering about in the grass, and butterflies are flitting about. Pretty flowers are turning their colourful faces towards the sun, and bees are buzzing about, going from flower to flower. You feel peaceful and relaxed. This is what life is like. There is sufficient evidence, every second, to prove that life is a pile of garbage or a bed of roses. Yes, there might be negative things happening in your life. But you don’t have to make your life all about them. It all depends on your attitude.
3. Constantly look for new things to be grateful for. Every day, I’m grateful for coffee and a hot shower. Which is fine. I feel grateful for those things every day, so I list them every day. However, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut, so I’m constantly looking for more things to be grateful for, every day. This gives me more chances to feel good, and who doesn’t want that?
4. Get used to the feeling of gratitude. Take something, right now, that you actually feel grateful for, and feel grateful for it. Get used to that feeling of warmth and happiness. Feels great, doesn’t it? Exercise your “gratitude muscle” by feeling grateful as often as possible. Like any muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. What’s more, this kind of exercise actually feels good. You don’t get sweaty and tired. You get happy and satisfied. It becomes it’s own reward. I found that the more grateful I felt, the more grateful I wanted to feel.
5. Things could always be worse. If you stub your big toe, be grateful that you didn’t stub two toes. And if you did stub two toes, be grateful that you didn’t break them. And if you did break them, be thankful that your body will heal them. Yes, negative things do happen. Be aware of them, but don’t focus on them, and don’t ignore them either. Focusing on them can turn a stubbed toe into a broken leg. Ignoring them can turn a broken toe into a badly set toe. Neither of those things are good. Being aware of those things enables you to take steps to correct them, which can teach you a new skill set - something else to be grateful for.
6. Try to realise how much you already have. This is one of the main tenets of being grateful. The new coffee machine is going to be just another trinket in a life full of them if you aren’t grateful for it. The shiny new car will quickly become an annoyance when it breaks down. It’s easy to forget how many cups of coffee you’ve enjoyed, or how many successful journeys you’ve made in the car, when faced with something going wrong. Being grateful can act as a buffer, and help you realise that things aren’t really that bad. After all, who wants to feel bad? Also, try to realise that you’re way better off than a large percentage of the world’s population. Next time you have to wait a few extra seconds in the queue at Starbucks, remember those people who have to walk 4 miles every single day just to get a drink of water. And not even clean water. Water that could quite possibly harm them and kill their children. Suddenly, those few extra seconds waiting in line don’t seem so bad, do they?
7. Another important facet of gratitude is expressing it. Say thank you to people. Send thank you emails, or letters. I often send an email when I order stuff off ebay or Amazon, thanking the seller for getting the product to me. People love being thanked. It makes them feel good, and it makes you feel good to have brightened someone’s day. Basically, fake it til you make it. Saying “thank you” is one of the simplest ways to cultivate gratitude.
8. Watch this video.
9. Google “first world problem”. A first world problem is something like the batteries in the remote control for your television running out, so you actually have to get out of the chair and change the channel manually. It’s such an insignificant thing compared to the struggle for daily life that some people have, but it’s easy to get caught up in little details like that, instead of being grateful that you have a television in the first place.
10. One of my favourite author’s, Peter McWilliams, wrote a book called Wealth 101, which discusses “getting what you want, and enjoying what you’ve got”. It’s the book that inspired me to start this blog. You can find it on Amazon, for as little as $0.01. It’s well worth a read.

I hope you found this guide useful. If you want to be emailed when it is updated, please leave me a comment below, with your email address in the correct field. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, let me know below.

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Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting up OK, despite only getting about 5 hours sleep. I look like a zombie right now.
2. Breakfast cereals.
3. Seeing a Pigeon, Magpie and Sparrow in the garden, all at the same time.
4. Free parking today.
5. I have a job to go to. I earn money doing it.
6. I know that my job today will be quickly over, and I’ll have a chance to loaf about a bit.
7. A nice warm shower.
8. I can get to the cashpoint today, and get some cash, and then get some more fuel. I have about half a tank left still, but it wont hurt to fill up.
9. Work went quickly. Despite the huge amount of paper’s this morning, C and I managed to get everything done before 9AM, which I think is a record.
10. I only had to serve about 10 customers.
11. Getting everything done quickly meant that I had time to stand and chat to my colleagues.
12. I’ve finally booked some holiday (provisionally). I’ve asked for weekends off, mainly, so I should get them, which means M will have to work Saturday’s. What a shame.
13. Chatting to A and Dinky in the Square, and setting the world to rights.
14. Chatting to PC K.
15. A Green&Blacks cereal bar.
16. Realising how much I enjoy sitting chatting.
17. Chocolate covered raisins. Delicious.
18. Going to the cashpoint early, so I had enough money to get the drinks with.
19. A nice big drink of cola from Starbucks. I am so glad A was there with me or I wouldn’t have known what to do.
20. Lovefilm have sent me another disk.
21. Playing with Wenna and the hosepipe. She really seems to love trying to bite the stream of water, and being hosed helps cool her down in this hot weather.
22. I got to borrow someone’s staff discount to buy the newspapers I wanted with.
23. I’ve been paid for an auction I was running on ebay.
24. Some communications I’ve had with another seller on ebay have been quite fruitful, and I’m going to go ahead with purchasing several items from them.
25. A nice nap. I needed it today.
26. Listening to a couple of hypnosis tapes. I do seem to be generally better after listening to them.
27. Cold water.
28. The electric fan and blackout curtains have done a good job of keeping me cool today.
29. Catching an open bottle of liquid before it fell over.
30. Playing with Wenna up the garden. I felt so guilty when I accidentally threw her ball over the fence into next doors garden. She kept looking for it.
31. Lying on the bed.
32. I’m making plans to move away from my current hosting provider. This means that creating a public access gratitude blog should be much easier.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. Teasing my boss. I complained about the stuffiness, and he responded that the air conditioning would kick in at 9:30, and went on to say that he was “Energy Monitor” for the area. I burst out laughing, and kept calling him that all day after.
2. Laughing with L.
3. Laughing with Dinky and A in the Square.

Things I want to manifest:

1. Job offers.
2. Money.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Served a few customers.
2. Apparently, I gave helpful advice to A and Dinky. Which is cool.
3. Fetched PC K a bottle.
4. Gave Dinky a marguerite.

I’ve found these things to be grateful for or appreciate today:

1. Waking up the sound of birdsong. OK, it was only a Cuckoo, but it’s better than a car alarm or the sound of shouting.
2. Hot coffee.
3. I put 2 more posters up last night - this one and this one. They look really nice, and were well worth the money. I was having a look on Allposters again last night, and was getting tempted by some of the posters. I’m going to put up the one’s I have, and then see how much space I have left over, and see if I can squeeze another one or two in somewhere.
4. Having the idea once again to to a “themed post” - to pick something out of my life, and list all the reasons I’m grateful for it. I think Wenna is going to be first.
5. While checking on my Wordpress Dashboard this morning, I noticed a new incoming link. The owner of Bloghunting decided that this blog was worth a mention, and provided a really nice write-up.
6. The weather is cooler today, which is nice. Some heat is nice, but too much becomes oppressive, like tarragon in the stew.
7. I’m off work all day.
8. Watching Wenna get excited about going for a walk. I sort of want to become more like her - excited about things in life, and unashamed to show it.
9. Mom and dad have got into Sudoku in a big way. They spend hours doing it now, and it’s been less than a week since I showed them how to do it. Doing puzzles like this really does seem to help keep their brains active. I was doing a quiz on TV with mom and Nat the other week, and mom was consistently faster at getting the answers than Nat or I were.
10. Being able to solve a Sudoku puzzle in 11m38s. I play online for free, at Websudoku.com. It’s really great. It even tells you if you’ve gone wrong, and where.
11. Going to the market at the City. We save so much money there. An example - 1x yoghurt from Tesco’s = 59p. 4x yoghurt’s from the market = £1.00. A saving of nearly £1.40.
12. Seeing a Starling not 3 feet away from me. Here is a cool Youtube video of a massive flock of starlings.
13. Meeting a really cute Border Collie called Molly while walking round the market.
14. Spending way less than I expected.
15. Cadbury ice creams.
16. Being able to catch the bus into the City. Driving would have been an absolute nightmare.
17. We managed to get some Rabbit, which I haven’t had for years.
18. I’m back in the house now. Going to the market isn’t one of my favourite activities.
19. Fixing the light on my speakers didn’t break them like I thought it had when I first switched them back on.
20. Realising that it might be a good idea to have a chat with my boss about a few working relationships.
21. The blue light no longer exists.
22. My blackout curtains. They do a fantastic job of cutting out external light, and because of that, they help keep my room cool in summer. I have a south-west facing window, which means I get the full force of the sun. It’s nice in winter, but in summer it’s overpowering. Pulling the curtains to during the hot days prevents the light (and therefore the heat) from getting in, which means my room is nice and cool no matter how hot it is outside.
23. Tasty yoghurt.
24. Listening to Last.fm.
25. I’ve ordered mom’s Ecover stuff. All being well, it will be here Monday.
26. Chatting to Nit.
27. A nice long hot soak in the bath.
28. Finding a way to let go of the anger.
29. Someone is going to take Quin’s parcel to the post office for me tomorrow.
30. Having a fan in the room. It’s on number 3 at the moment, and I’m in danger of losing my wig.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. Yesterday’s posting on RandomBlatherings. I’m laughing with amusement, but also with a feeling of release.
2. “Let boredom and impatience be the reminders to do some inner work.” This made me laugh because it’s the exact time/situation that I do it in.
3. “Am I doing Fregair?” Apparently.
4. I was walking past the TV tonight, and there was a documentary on. A person was on a sofa talking, and I asked “Is that a man or a woman,” because I wasn’t entirely sure. Dad replied that it was so-and-so’s wife, to which I responded “poor chap”.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A fulfilling day off.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Fetched the milk in.
2. Carried the bags.

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I’ve found these things to be grateful for or appreciate today:

1. A god night’s sleep.
2. My bed was just the right temperature this morning, and I didn’t want to get out of it.
3. I’m not in work until 1PM, so I have some time to myself before work.
4. Breakfast cereals.
5. Being able to turn my speakers up and drown out mom talking. There’s only so much “he’s gone without you, Wenna. He’s gone without you. Isn’t it a shame he’s gone without you…” that I can take (dad has gone out and left the dog behind).
6. Getting some nice comments from various new readers.
7. The milk was free of alien lifeforms today (I found a slug inside the milk bottle yesterday).
8. I’m off work tomorrow.
9. I’ve been accepted by the Alliance and Leicester bank for a new account, which means I should earn £50.
10. Playing with Wenna and the hosepipe.
11. The dried mealworms I ordered from ebay have arrived.
12. Mom’s book I ordered from Amazon has arrived.
13. Lovefilm have sent me another couple of DVD’s.
14. I’ve been paid back by another $4 on Kiva.org. I’m up to $380 now.
15. Safe driving.
16. Work went OK.
17. A delicious pasty, and a sandwich from Greggs.
18. I texted a friend earlier, asking her if she was enjoying the warm weather we’ve been having. She replied that she wasn’t, but was making the most of it be washing the curtains. I thought that this was a great case of “making hay while the sun shines”.
19. I got the £5 from the SMS survey. I should also be getting 12p for every text I sent.
20. The working day is over, and I’m off tomorrow.
21. I’m glad today that Wenna is in my life. We’ve been playing with the hose pipe again.
22. A tasty evening meal.
23. I seem to have gotten a plugin working in the Wordpress installation on my new blog host.
24. I have the entire day to myself tomorrow.
25. The bubble seems to be developing. I really seem to be developing the ability to stand back and look at a person’s emotions, and keep them separate from my own.
26. Catharsis. And getting another post on RandomBlatherings. I could get used to this being nasty malarkey.
27. Today, I really “get” Taught Me Well by Alice Peacock.
28. The freeing up of energy that catharsis brings. I really feel like laughing.
29. That I am aware that there is more to life than “things”. I think I’d like to make my mantra “does it make me feel good?” and then live by that. If something doesn’t make me feel good, I shan’t do it.
30. I’ve ordered some mealworms from ebay, and they should be here on Tues/Wed of next week.
31. Alice Peacock. I just love her voice.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. #18.
2. Laughing with Dinky.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A nice, quick, easy, simple day at work with pleasant customers. I’ve learned that I need to be specific. MANIFESTED.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Fetched the milk in.
2. Served lots of customers.