Are you fully appreciating life’s blessings and simple pleasures? That may sound counter intuitive – when stressed we tend to focus on what’s not right, what needs to done; here we invite you to develop an appreciative mind set, do the inner work which means that the way you experience a situation changes even if the situation itself doesn’t.
Charles Dickens once wrote: ‘Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some’.
Leading big change can be stressful. It is vital to find ways to become resilient.
An appreciative mindset is central to this, and yet can be elusive. Our minds tend not to go there automatically; we tend to have what psychologists have called a ‘negativity dominance’. This stems from our evolutionary past, where we have succeeded individually and as a species by focusing on the things that need improving – the things that aren’t quite right.
As a result, it often requires deliberate choice to appreciate our blessings and make a habit of it.
Some people keep a gratitude diary. Some create traditions in their relationships at home or at work of sharing thanks and appreciation. Others find it is enough to reflect quietly on life’s good things, including the small signs of progress in the big change you are working towards.
What is certain is that few of us consciously spend enough time building our resilience or appreciating the simple good things in life.
‘Reflect upon your present blessings…’
How might you?
