You have had your fill of turkey sandwiches and football, tomorrow the holiday season officially start and you, and me some years, just aren’t feeling very loving, giving, or even a teensy-weensy bit festive in the least. I know how that feels. Some years I have thought I would find a tree house, move in, and stay until early January.

Holidays can be hard for many reasons. I sometimes dread them because it seems to get harder each year to get everything done and still find some time to enjoy the season itself. That’s when taking time to be grateful becomes my lifeline to surviving, and maybe even enjoying, the holidays.

So much research backs this up.  Last week, The New York Times (see link below) ran a delightful editorial by John Tierney who quoted several great researchers in the field of gratitude, Dr. Robert Emmons and Dr. Michael  McCullough. Both gentlemen, along with Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of the Positive Psychology movement, all find that being grateful, even just once a week writing down five things going right in your life, can make you feel happier and more loving towards others.

That’s a lot of payoff for so little an investment.

What if, each time you got up to go down the hall at the office, or got out of the car during the day, or brushed your teeth, you practiced my new One Minute Meditation? This meditation is an abbreviated version on my longer Gratitude Meditation, and in it I ask you to be grateful for one thing going right in your life right now, in this moment, and it only takes a moment to do, just 60 seconds.

 Try it for a week. 7 days. You can do it.

One of the incredible truths about gratitude is that it is impossible to feel both the positive emotion of thankfulness and a negative emotion such as anger or fear at the same time.

 M. J. Ryan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/a-serving-of-gratitude-brings-healthy-dividends.html?_r=1

Filed under: Uncategorized by lysa
2 Comments »

The week of Thanksgiving is upon us: turkeys, cooking, Pilgrims, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

 We are busy!

So what is going right for you in this moment? What is going right for you today? What is going right for you this week?

Close your eyes for a second and think of something going right, it can be anything.

This is what is going right for me: _____________________________________________

See, I knew you could do it. Now say “thank you” to yourself or out loud.

You just acknowledged that among the cranking up insanity of the holidays, which begins “officially” this week (ha!), there is something to be grateful for. Could you do this at least twice a day until Thursday’s meal? Your heart and mind will now be primed to suggest a new tradition at your Thanksgiving table: The Gratitude Game.

Here’s how it works:
* After the turkey and stuffing, during the pie and coffee time, suggest that you go around the table and each person tells one thing going right in his or her life right now that they are thankful for.

* See how it goes… If you have a tough group, you could call it quits, adjourn, and go wash the dishes. But, with a little encouragement from you, I’ll bet you can tease out a second round. How about a third? That’s usually the maximum folks feel comfortable with, although I have heard stories about some families that went for 11 rounds before they went for naps or football.

* After you finish, notice how you feel.

Please let me know how it went and Happy Thanksgiving!

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
Willie Nelson

Filed under: Uncategorized by lysa
2 Comments »

Filed under: Video by lysa
No Comments »

Have you been choosing or working on choosing to believe your life, your bank account, your romantic liaison could be different? In the words of the late Maureen Stapleton to Meg Ryan in the now classic movie, You’ve Got Mail, “You are daring to believe you could have a different life.”

Can you dare to believe? Can you let your imagination float out beyond what you can see in front of you on this plane of reality and entertain the possibility of something else? Can you choose to believe your life or your world can be different?

Around this time of the year–Thanksgiving and the holiday season, I think of the miracle of meringue when I need to believe my situation, what I’m presently experiencing, can be different. Why meringue, you ask a bit incredulously? Not only does it top my great Grandmother’s cherished holiday pie recipe, but to create meringue you have to believe in possibility.

There in the bowl in front of you sits an unappetizing glob of uncooked egg whites, some cream of tartar and a scoop of sugar.

That’s reality.

You see it, you can feel it and if you’re so inclined, you can taste it. In goes your whisk, and just as your arm is about to cease functioning for the rest of your adult life, something happens and before your very eyes the bowl of slimy liquid transforms into  shiny, snow white peaks and valleys of luscious meringue for which, you are most grateful ,and possibly astounded. You believed it could be, just like it said in the Joy of Cooking, and it happened.

So this week, imagine whatever is making you feel sad, frustrated, angry or helpless, as the raw batter in the bowl. Now, see it, feel it, choose it to be transformed into something abundant, beautiful, and wonderfully delicious.

  “You will see it when you believe it.”

                                           Wayne Dyer

Filed under: spiritual by lysa
No Comments »

How did this past week go as you contemplated the decision you made to seek out this website in your
pursuit of a more joy-filled life? What new thoughts or feelings did you experience?

Choosing to believe a situation, an experience or your life can be different is a lesson I had to relearn
(again) this week.

Monday started off with a big disappointment and the week went downhill from there, adding a second
and then a third blow. Into the tar pit I fell– weighted down with anger, frustration, helplessness, and
all-around self-pity. For several days I struggled against the dense, viscous cocoon I had created. I barely
saw over the dark surface, much less actively tried to choose to believe something, anything, would
ever, could ever, be different.

At times like these, it’s hard to stay focused. I looked into the handbag of my life and dug out some
things for which I could be grateful right then, in that present moment. I sat on my patio and went
through a short list. I practiced my Gratitude Meditation^SM and came up with a few more. I acknowledged
what was going right in my sea of sorrow. As the week came to a close, I sporadically believed these
setbacks were only temporary; in the timing of the universe they would work themselves out to my
benefit, despite what I was seeing in front of me, and how my return to running old belief tapes through
my head had dumped me into my fabricated black abyss.

Like a punching doll that falls over when hit, I am slowly swaying back up to center by reconnecting to
my center, the source of all truth–my heart, dwelling in thanks giving, and gingerly reclaiming my power
to choose to believe something different. You can too.

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of
their lives.
William James (1842 – 1910)

Filed under: joy by lysa
2 Comments »

By coming to look at this website you have put your foot or, maybe just a toe, on the path toward a
more spiritual-based life. Good for you! Perhaps, without knowing it, you have made a conscious effort
to change your life. You have chosen something different. This could be the most monumental choice
you have ever made.

Somewhere in your heart you have realized that your current worldview could use some adjusting or
maybe it needs a complete overhaul. In either case, CONGRATULATIONS!! You have become a spiritual
pioneer, willing to search for a more fulfilling, happier life.

Think about this for a moment; you have engaged one of your most profoundly human abilities, the
ability to choose or, re-choose. Deliberately deciding to make a change in our lives opens us up to seeing
the world and ourselves differently. That’s huge. You are very brave.

So go with this, roll it around in your brainpan for a bit. Think what making a conscious choice to think,
see, or believe something different from what you have thought, seen or experienced before might
do to your whole life. How fresh, dare I say it, not-before-thought thoughts might start drifting up to
the surface and begin nibbling away at old beliefs that are no longer serving you, making way for more
spiritually nourishing thoughts. Ponder the magnitude of making that choice.

Now that’s something to be grateful for!

Men often live and follow a beaten path by imitation,
Only a few wise men dare to carve out
A new path for themselves.

From The Rig-Veda, one of the Hindu sacred texts

Filed under: spiritual by lysa
1 Comment »