Small Pleasures
Guest post by Julia Osovskaya
A magic little video about all those simple things in life we are sometimes so quick to forget and a beautiful reminder to be thankful for every day we’re given. Enjoy!
Julia Osovskaya is a thankful spirit who believes that positive thinking, optimistic attitude and thankful mindset go a long way. Having completed a personal blog challenge of giving thanks daily for 365 days in a row, she has made it a mission to spread the word about life transformational power of gratitude. In addition to being a thankful person, Julia writes for blogs about chair design and all things golden and works in the social media marketing.
Benefits of Gratitude
Guest post by Julia Osovskaya
Practicing regular gratitude really works. Skeptics might still be giving me a hard time about it, but having completed a whole year of daily thanksgiving, I know what I am talking about and stand behind it. My thankful efforts proved to be more than worthy – the experience was truly and almost magically life-changing. Among the positive changes I observed happening in me are the following things:
- Having expressed my gratitude for some of the bad, sad and unfortunate things that took place in my life, it felt like I was freed of them. They don’t hold me down any more, which means I am ready for all of what life has in store for me in the future, whether good or bad.
- I don’t really get upset that much anymore. It’s just not easy to bring me down when I constantly remind myself of all the amazing things I am blessed to have, see and experience.
- Gratitude made me immune to most of life’s downs and lows by blocking the negativity way before it even gets to me. It’s the most natural habit now to focus right on the good ignoring the bad until the minute when I can do something about making it better. Or coming to terms with the bad, if it’s not in my power to change it.
- It gave me a whole new appreciation of nature. I don’t notice “bad” weather anymore, because I’ve learnt to really see the beauty in absolutely everything around me.
- I’ve become a much more cheerful person and this is something other people actually notice about me. Now it doesn’t take really knowing me to see my positivity.
- I get up in the morning and I look forward to every day. I now know that no matter what the day ahead holds for me, there will definitely be at least one thing to give thanks for.
- By making me see just exactly why I appreciated the dear people in my life, it showed me who my true friends were and, in turn, made me a better friend to them.
- I must admit my thanksgiving year also made it easier for me to say thank you and made me put even more meaning into it each time I do. Whenever I thank now, it’s certainly not just out of habit or me just trying to be polite. I really acknowledge what I say even if it’s the simplest kind of “thank you” for the simplest of everyday things.
Now tell us, what has changed in your life as a result of an effort to be more thankful? What are some of the benefits you’ve noticed? How does your own gratitude practice affect you?
Image courtesy of LaurieCoyleDesigns
Julia Osovskaya is a thankful spirit who believes that positive thinking, optimistic attitude and thankful mindset go a long way. Having completed a personal blog challenge of giving thanks daily for 365 days in a row, she has made it a mission to spread the word about life transformational power of gratitude. In addition to being a thankful person, Julia writes for blogs about chair design and all things golden and works in the social media marketing.
Summer Gratitude
As the days start to get shorter, let’s be thankful for summer. After all, it’s not over yet! Have you been able to enjoy the summer? What are you thankful for? Post it here: http://thankfulfor.com or in the comments below.
CommentsThankfulfor…Travel
We live in a world where we can easily venture beyond our city borders and explore places far from home. While our modes of travel are something to be grateful for in and of themselves, today I’d like to point out how wonderful it is to discover the similarities and differences when traveling to cities around the world. Many people take summer vacations as an opportunity to travel. If you have, post what you are thankfulfor about the places you’ve visited.
Comments
Happy 4th of July everyone! What are you thankful for today? Some ideas…
- America
- Our independence
- Our service men and women
- Family
- Friends
- Summer
- BBQ’s
- Fireworks
Post what else you might be thankful for today!
Image courtesy of Frank Gruber.
Thankfulfor: Moms
Last year the we pulled some of the wonderful posts from the Thankfulfor.com community and put them in a lovely e-book for all to enjoy. We thought we’d bring it back again - for us, it never gets old.
CommentsThankfulfor: To Mama With Love
We can’t let this day go by without sending a special message out to all the mom’s out there. We also wanted to highlight a special organization that really offers a unique and generous way to show mothers around the world how much you care. The organization is called Epic Change - the program is called To Mama With Love. Here’s a letter from the founder, Stacey Monk:
In the US alone, $14.6B is spent annually on Mother’s Day for “stuff” that could just never say what’s in our hearts. What if instead, we all just unleashed that love on the world? How would it impact our world if we stopped using stuff as a surrogate for love? What if we invested that love to make the world a better place for Mamas & children everywhere?
This Mother’s Day, we aim to find out…
Last year, we created a site called To Mama With Love that invited people to change the future by changing the present they gave for Mother’s Day. Instead of giving a traditional gift, we invited people to share their love for their mamas in words, photos & video on the site, and invest the funds they’d have otherwise spent in a Mama who’s creating hope in the world.
People across the globe participated, love for hundreds of moms was shared, and nearly $20,000 USD was raised to build a home out of pure love for many of the children who attend Mama Lucy Kamptoni’s school in Arusha, Tanzania. This past week, we launched To Mama With Love for 2011 in honor of four remarkable women who are transforming our world, and in honor of all the amazing women across the globe who pour their love into each of us. This year, we aim to support Mama Lucy & three more changemakers from Afghanistan, Nepal, & the US who invest their hearts & lives in loving the world’s children & creating a better future for us all. Check out the video to learn more about Maggie, Suraya, Renu and Mama Lucy.
To Mama With Love was born from my love for a woman half the world a way who reminded me of all the lessons my own mom had taught me when I was growing up. She taught me how to hold onto hope when I’d all but given up. That hope is ours to create, that it never dies as long as we just hold onto it. She taught me that I am hope – and you are too. She taught me that even when we think we have nothing, love somehow finds a way.
My guess is there’s a woman in your life who’s taught you all these lessons & so many more. I hope you’ll share your love for her, and make an investment in the world’s women & children, at www.ToMamaWithLove.org this Mother’s Day. I truly believe that when, with wide-open hearts, we dare to share all the love we have in us, it just might change everything.
CommentsTimes change, and today we live in a huge-bandwidth world with learning and growing opportunities unimagined by our ancestors. Still, these two existential questions remain for us as they did for Aristotle: What is happiness, and how do we achieve it?
There is progress to report. Faculty members at UC Davis are leaders in the study of the “science of happiness.” And while happiness research is in its infancy, three major points are emerging:
- the positive trumps the negative
- social participation trumps materialism
- generosity trumps selfishness
Sounds like common sense, right? But it’s all in how you define those concepts, and personalities and preferences count a lot. What makes an extrovert happy might not be the same thing that makes an introvert gleeful.
Everybody is different, of course, but some things appear to prod even the biggest grumps to crack a smile. No matter your personality type, thinking about happiness is a grand tradition in philosophical circles dating back to the dawn of civilization. In ancient Greece, Aristotle wrote extensively on the relation between pleasure and happiness in his Nichomacean Ethics.
“Aristotle’s own view was that the good life, the happy life, is a life of virtue or excellence,” UC Davis philosophy instructor G.J. Mattey said. “The more valuable a person’s powers are, and the more perfectly those powers are exercised, the happier the person’s life.”
Lots of good nuggets in this video from Tech Cocktail, but listen to the end of the clip, where Tim talks about one of the keys to happiness - waking up each day and thinking about what you’re grateful for. We agree. Have you posted something today?
