We’ve talked about soaking up the good feelings whenever we have ahhaaa moments of understanding – for as long as it feels good, whether that’s a moment or an hour of bliss. We’ve talked about how even the moments of soaking up good feelings releases old stress and tension, re-wires our brain pathways and anchors the good feelings into our new sense of normal.
Active appreciation is even bigger than all of those things. It’s actively seeking out and noticing things to appreciate and allowing ourselves to feel that appreciation inside our bodies in all the ways that we experience that appreciation:
- Noticing and soaking up the thoughts and ideas and images in our mind as we feel that appreciation.
- Noticing how we experience that moment of appreciation emotionally.
- Noticing what happens to the movement of our energy as we soak up every experience of that appreciation.
- How we experience appreciation physically in our bodies with our breath and our heartbeat and the wonder of our bodies as we move with more ease.
- And noticing the warm expansiveness of our heart when we allow ourselves to actively appreciate something.
There comes a time when active appreciation is a way to look for even more things to be thankful for and to appreciate and expand the opportunities to soak up moments of even more good feelings.
Just imagine – you’ve already been getting happier and happier, more and more peaceful throughout this book – with more and more moments of active appreciation you’re going to put those wonderful feelings on steroids!
Photo: I chose an eagle to showcase Ken Honda’s philosophy of Arigato – saying thank you for everything worth saying thank you to and also saying thank you to lots of things where the appropriateness of gratitude might not be immediately obvious. I’m not specifically doing money in this book, because Ken Honda is a master at it. Look for his book Happy Money.
Arigato indeed…
