#Gratitude

This morning, I woke to a brilliant blue sky, the scent of flowers in the garden and just a general internal squeeling! As I sat eating my porridge, listening to a TED talk, and breathing in the day, I could feel my internal gratitude oozing out in abundance! I’ve struggled with quite a big decision over the last week, and it created an uptight Betty… and I find myself thinking about stress & anxiety, perspectives and the lenses we wear each day. I felt so inspired I wanted to share and explore the importance of positive emotion, looking at some of the emotions we may have experienced over the last week verses some we could do with welcoming more frequently into our lives! Awe, wonder or amazement…. when did you last feel that? How can you find moments to bask in the glow and create better internal flow?

How can we influence our flourish or flounder mentality?   Well firstly, let’s reflect on the last week that you have had.

So how did you do? How did you feel as you were reflecting back on your past week? Did you experience more positivity or negativity? This is only a weeks view so of course it’s a snapshot – each week delivers a fresh set of delights, challenges and emotions.  The importance here, is recognising what happened and how that impacted on you.  What do you want more of, what is missing? How can you create a better ratio that improves mental health, resilience and general happiness?

When was the last time you experienced awe, wonder or amazement?

Huh? So when was the last time you truly felt that? When was the last time you felt gratitude pump through your body like oxygenated blood? I’m thinking not often enough? The metaphor of oxiginated and deoxiginated blood is a powerful one when we look at happiness and gratitude triggers. Our bodies need oxygenated blood to pump around our body, our heart thrives on it! That is the balance of life, how we breathe and function at our optimum – and like our bodies, our mind also responds by flipping our subconscious switch, which starts generating positive emotion – it’s called the broaden-and-build-response, and its us who’s are responsible for it. Tap into your happiness boosters and you have the key to the metaphorical gate to confidence, compassion, joy, meaning and creativity.

Lets start with curiosity.  Let’s put a fresh pair of learning lenses on…

Whilst qualifying as a coach, there was a great emphasis on our ‘learning lenses’, in terms of how we view, absorb, challenge and remain curious about the content around us. So what do I mean by that? It literally means to take off the lenses you are wearing and put a new pair on that allows you to see with fresh eyes – to step away from internal bias and tap into our curiosity with no judgement.

Curiosity, optimism & gratitude can decrease anxiety

Oooohhhhh now there’s a statement! Emotion drives action. Fact. I know first hand, that when my brain is embracing negative emotion, I engage in actions that can impact negatively.  Yet, when I have a mindset of the broaden-and-build psychological response, my outlook is a way better! I am more optimistic, responsive, resilient, open, aware, ready, curious, confident, happy and my self actualising opportunities increase.

So what do you feel grateful for now, right now, and I’ll repeat the question I asked earlier…. when was the last time you experiences awe,  wonder or amazement? How can you tap onto that? How can you allow yourself to experience that? I promise you, it’s needed.

Basically folks, if you want to feel more positive emotion, you must take responsibility for your own happiness. Seek it out, hold it tight, let it glow within you and see the trickle effect begin.  Happiness leads to success, which triggers and impacts positively on you and everyone around you.  It affects how you view challenges, how you run with your goals which in turn leads to more happiness…

So what are you waiting for? It all starts with you. 💭