Empowered Life Design

Gratitude:  The Heart of the Season.  What You Need To Know to Amp It Up All Year Long

Now that you’ve been celebrating being thankful for all the good things in your life…expressing Gratitude, how can you ensure you and yours continue to carry it through the rest of the Holiday Season and into your New Year?

With the hustle and bustle of the Season, the influence of over-committing, overdoing, overspending, and just plain overwhelm, can often be the Scrooge that steals many a Christmas.

Keeping in the true Spirit that is celebrated by many this time of year can prove challenging. And for some, serves as just fueling even more overwhelm to try to make it the “perfect” holiday, and particularly trying to make sure children understand the true meaning of the Season.

The answer lies in building on the Gratitude celebrated recently in the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Taking it to the next level.  You may already keep a gratitude journal.  Great!  That is a wonderful place to start!

However, really amping up the Warmth, Joy, and Peace you feel around expressing Gratitude comes from then rolling it into the next level: Appreciation.

The difference between Gratitude and Appreciation is not, well, appreciated, sometimes.  In fact you may use them interchangeably, as many do. 

Distinguishing the two is this:

Gratitude is an acknowledgement, if you will, of having received or experienced something that brought you good feelings.  It may even have an undertone of a sigh of “relief”. 

Appreciation includes first the acknowledgement, but then goes beyond.

Webster defines Appreciation as:  a rise in value.  It is in your focus on and feeling of adding value to that which you have received or experienced, and/or to the person or people responsible for your blessing, that takes it up a notch.  It takes it to the next level that allows even greater and better experiences to continue flooding in to you…and to those around you.

So, how do you amplify the celebration of Gratitude going on right now, and roll it into the next level of Appreciation that both you and your family will honor, enjoy, and share throughout the New Year?

Here are three simple ways for you to try now.

FIRST:  changing: “Thank you”, or “I’m grateful/thankful for…”

 To:  ”I so appreciate (you)”, “I really appreciate that (you did that for me)”, “I am so appreciative for…”  AND, remembering to really FEEL that sense of adding Value when you say it.

SECOND:  Amp up your gratitude journal.  Start by writing on the front of it “My Joy Journal“.  There is a very distinct amp up between the feeling of “relief” that is often felt when at the end of the day you list all the things you are thankful that turned out well, and the FEELING that even just the word “Joy” brings to you.

Also when writing your list of 5 things you are thankful/grateful for, write out “I so APPRECIATE…”  instead.

THIRD:   Make a commitment to yourself, and/or as a family to share your Appreciation with 1 (or more!) person each day.  Sometimes in the craziness, especially this time of year, but even in just the day-to-day living, you find yourself thinking, Wow, that was really nice.  OR, Gee, s/he looks nice today. I love her/his coat!…but then you never actually SAY it to the person. 

(Even voicing to someone you’re with such Appreciation about something/someone on television can have the same effect.  May seem funny, at first, but it sure beats yelling insults or disgust at the football players on TV!) 

The effect is increasing your awareness of all the Value around you, and increasing your vibration and the vibration of those around you to then receive, and give, even more.  It’s a win-win!

Today, commit to DO it. Appreciate (value) yourself enough to Think, Feel, and Share Appreciation through voicing it, in any and all situations you can!  BE the model for your kids and others around you.   

Love to know how these simple, yet profound ways to celebrate The Season help you and yours make this the Best of Holidays, and New Years!