How To Begin Your Day - Or At Least A Way To Consider!

One of the big problems people have is developing a ROUTINE that does two very important things:

1. Is something that they feel can be sustained day after day, week after week, month after month.

2. Is actually something that they enjoy and that they get a great benefit from.

Now there are a MILLION things we could put in here that might fit into the above-mentioned categories, depending on you, your personality, health, and general disposition.

Some people have the ability to fall out of bed and go straight into a lotus position and meditate. Others can get up and within a few seconds, they're performing the first of many different yoga poses.

There was a time when I would literally just be sitting up, and still half-asleep, I would be pulling on my running shoes and be out the door jogging within two minutes of waking up.

Mind you I was still half-asleep as I started my slow jog.

As I have gotten older and moved through different phases of my life, I have finally settled in on the one that I have been using for the longest time now... Several years in fact.

It is simply waking up and before I get out of bed, I spend a few moments cultivating a mindset of gratitude and appreciation.

Yeah, yeah. 

I can already hear you saying how "fluffy" that is.

Trust me, I don't do it for the fluff.

I do it because it puts me in a great mood to begin my day as I don't get up until I feel that sense of gratitude and appreciation all throughout my body.

When I have cultivated that feeling of appreciation and gratitude, I am a kinder, more empathetic, compassionate, and integrity-based person. I also realize that being that person is a magnet for other people.

Think about it.

Most people like to be around happy people who are apparently happy for no reason. They are kind, appreciative, and considerate of other people for the most part, and who doesn't want to be around people like that?

You may ask, "What do I have to be appreciative or grateful for?"

This is when you need to put on a different pair of glasses.

What are you talking about? I don't wear glasses.

I'm talking about the metaphorical glasses that allow you to see the world from a different perspective.

Perspective?

You can choose to see the world through the eyes that you are still alive and breathing, and that there are people with much less than you.

Personally, being a person of faith, I start out being grateful to The Divine Creator for giving me life. I then move to my amazing wife who has tolerated and put up with me for over 42 years. I then move to my pets, all 8 of them, and think about how much I enjoy their personality and how much love they give me.

I then feel gratitude that I am as healthy as I am and that I have a job and an opportunity to make my way in this world and that I have a passion to help make this world a better place.

Oftentimes, I don't get all the way through those things before I'm feeling happy, energetic, and ready to get on with my day.

Trust me in that science has shown us that our thoughts influence our emotions, our emotions influence our actions, and that leads me to the logical conclusion to start with the best thoughts I can.

Appreciation and gratitude do the trick for me.

Try it and see if it doesn't work for you. 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised!