Tag: gratitude

How do you focus on the goodness in your life and stop complaining?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Personal Development

It’s easy to get caught up focusing on what’s not how you’d like it to be. When we do this we forget to notice what is working in our life. This video explores that tendency and ways to focus on and see the goodness in your life.

You can use a wide range of tools and techniques to help shift your vibration, release the old energies, enabling your energy and mood to elevate. Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) is one process you can use at home for free once you have learned how to do it.

TRE is the body’s natural, built-in mechanism for shaking out tension, stress and trauma. Just as your body will subconsciously react in fight, flight or freeze, it also has a subconscious process to help the nervous system to unwind those reactions and to calm back down into a socially engaged state, where you feel safe to play and interact with others.

TRE enables the body to release its contractions, its tightness, its buried tension and emotions bit by bit. Like letting steam out of a pressure cooker so that it doesn’t explode.

TRE supports your body and your health. When you are caught in defensive patterns your body feels like it is fighting to survive, so it focuses its energy on that. Blood flow goes to your arms and legs to enable you to fight or run away. Your digestive system, immune system, reproductive system and much more gets less focus as the body considers these less important than escaping the tiger or threat you’re facing.

The body assumes if you get away from the danger then when you are safe it can return its focus to the health-promoting and maintenance activities. Unfortunately, many people stay in fight or flight or freeze, in high-stress defensive patterns for long periods of time. The body doesn’t get the message that you’re safe now and it should focus its energy back into your health-promoting activities. It really is important to do that inner work so your body can function more fully. TRE can help with this.

As you shake out that built-up tension, stress and trauma your inner child is willing to talk to you more. They like it as you start to relax and can be more playful. They like to see you are taking care of yourself. Even though your outer world may not have changed that much, it becomes easier to appreciate all you have, to be grateful and enjoy your now more. 

You feel better inside and this radiates out enabling your outer world to improve too. This is how you can change your life bit by bit for free at home, by shaking off your tension, stress and trauma. It’s worth doing so you can enjoy life more and stop complaining.

In this video, Jodi-Anne explores ‘How do we focus on the goodness in our life and stop complaining?’ It is one of over 100 questions she has asked about life and channelled an answer through automatic writing. All of these answers to questions about life, how to live peacefully and happily are available for free on the ‘Life Insights‘ page of her website.

How to be grateful?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Personal Development, Self help techniques

Gratitude is not hard. It is a habit to cultivate. Instead of seeing what is wrong with the world, just focus on what is right. Focus on the beauty, the joys, the flowers and trees. Focus on the kindness, the peace and tranquility of nature, the laughter of children.

gratitudeGratitude comes easily once you have made it a habit. You can be thankful for the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the home you live in, the friends you have. There are many people in the world who do not have these luxuries, they sleep cold in the street and starve most days. So be grateful for what you have, even if it annoys you, even if it is not your favourite taste or look. At least you have it, whatever it is.

Be grateful for arriving safely at your destination each day and waking to a new one the next morning. Many people don’t wake up, they die, and you have been gifted with another day. Even if your life is not how you would like it to be – if you are unhappy at work, alone, or unhappy in your relationship – don’t focus on the negatives as that will just increase the size of them. It will seem worse than it is and your level of dissatisfaction will increase. Focus instead on the positives. At least you have a job, it is providing you with income, opportunities to make friends, to learn and grow. Find the good in it and you will feel more satisfied.

Think about what it is you would prefer, the kind of job you would like to move into, picture it, feel it, know you will make the change when the time is right and be grateful to the Universe which is guiding you towards it. Know it will happen with certainty and take steps towards it, even little ones – read a book related to it, research positions, training required, do a course, talk to someone in the role. Each step you take you will feel more empowered, excited and hopeful. This is much more productive and feels better than simply complaining about your current job or feeling stuck and acting like a victim. You are not a victim. You have options. You just have to learn to take them and believe that you can change your life. You truly can.

Gratitude is one of the keys to a satisfying, fulfilling, enjoyable life. Your circumstances don’t have to change to create it, just your attitude and your thinking patterns. Each time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought or complaining, stop yourself. Just stop it. Refuse to do it. Refocus on something else. You can say to your mind “Thank you, but i’m not doing that any more”, then look for a more positive aspect of the situation or a solution to focus on.

When you focus on solutions, you find them. When you focus on problems, you see more of them. Like attracts like energetically. When you focus on problems, your mind thinks it is helping you by coming up with all sorts of thoughts about the problem. It is like you have placed an order at the restaurant and your mind serves up all kinds of beautiful dishes in the hope to help you, to serve you and fulfil your order.

If your focus is on solutions, then your mind and intuition will come up with lots of ideas on how to solve the situation. They will just surface and come to you, if you ask for guidance and you allow some space and time, to sit quietly and listen for the answers from within.

An attitude of gratitude can greatly improve your life and it is simple. It doesn’t cost money. You don’t have to go anywhere to get it. You just have to make the effort to focus your thoughts on more positive aspects of life. Keeping a journal can help. Some people like to write a list of items they are grateful for each night. It may include interactions with others, experiences throughout the day, insights they had, even ‘negative’ experiences that they learned something from.Mandala-Gratitude

Another way to do it, is to sit at the dining table and add a round of sharing to the conversation at dinner. You may ask each person to share something they are grateful for that occurred during the day, or three things. This forces each person to come up with three things to be grateful for. It helps build the habit of being grateful. Good to do.

Gratitude is a tool you can use to help yourself enjoy life more. It is well worth cultivating for a lifetime of greater pleasure and enjoyment of life. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (22 April 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.

Celebrating life – how to do it?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Conscious Evolution, Personal Development

To celebrate life is to honour and accept all that is. It is to say thank you for all that has been, is and will be. It is saying thank you for all of it. I accept it. I honour it. I allow it to be my truth. I stop fighting against what is. I stop resenting what was. And I stop trying to force what is to come to be what I want. I accept God has a plan for my life and what I need most will come. Life will bring me what I need, so I heal, so I grow, so I evolve into a loving being of high vibration and can be of greatest service while I am here on Earth.

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Celebrating life is acknowledging life knows best. It all happens without my effort, my struggle. I can just relax and enjoy the ride whatever comes, knowing it is needed and meant to occur. The pleasant and unpleasant events, all come for a reason and I ride through them without judgement, without attachment, without misery – my thoughts are calm and accepting of what is – so I don’t feel misery or create drama.

When triggered I use the tools I have learned to process the internal reaction and return to peace. I use my breath to calm my body. I use Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) to release any stress, tension and trauma. And I talk to and hold the younger me who is in pain or who has surfaced related to the trigger and needs reassurance that she is safe, loved, cared for and seen. I give myself the nurturance I need and sing through the day knowing all is well and I am being led forth by the Universe, through good and seemingly bad challenges that lead to my growth and evolution. Thank you, Universe for looking after me. I have faith that all is working out for my highest good, so I relax, trust, play, knowing all is well in the bigger scheme of life.

Instead I celebrate life. I celebrate the diversity of experiences, the learning, the greater self-awareness and the connection to spirit. I feel the vibration in and around me. I sense the love and beauty in all things. I see God’s touch wherever I go and I know I am guided forth to create my best life, to experience all that I can to evolve and grow while here on Earth.

I celebrate life and sing, not because I got my way or things worked out how I wanted because they have not. I sing because I am free. Free of the tyranny of judgement and fear, free from the misery and drama of questioning and controlling. Free from the pain of feeling stuck, lost, fearful.

I celebrate and sing because I am resting in the arms of the divine, knowing I am held and supported, knowing I walk the Earth with an army of supportive Angels and Guides walking by my side, urging me on into the unknown, into the depths of my heart and soul, into greatness, into wholeness, into unity with Self, God, life, with all there is, recognising, feeling and embodying oneness. I celebrate the lack of separation, isolation, loneliness. I celebrate the oneness that is our true nature and the acceptance of self and life that has finally occurred.

I enjoy each day, waiting to see what will occur, what growth will result, what greater freedom will occur due to healing whatever is triggered this day by the people, things, places, times and events I experience. I trust it is all leading me forth to achieve my highest potential, to embody my higher self on Earth. Such a gift, such an opportunity. For these gifts I am grateful and I celebrate life. Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (17 Dec 2015).

Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.