The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

When you are HERE, not over THERE somewhere, you will get your instructions.

www.grateful4.org

Gratitude

Intention

First

Things

The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful-for becoming an Observer

Intention-leave a trail of glitter behind me like a glam-snail

First-give some thought to Scotty article

Things-securing dates

Morning Platitude from The GratiDude

What is the world that you want to see and what are you waiting for to help shape it?

At times we feel powerless to impact or to affect our environment or our situation because problems seem so big and out of our control. And yes, the global economy and decisions about interest rates and investment in communities with tax dollars may be out of our jurisdiction or above our approval level however, there are innumerable remedies, solutions, and positive actions we can take that provide incremental benefits, relief, or a positive experience for someone that we do have control over and that we can get done ourselves without governmental approval.

If you believe that young people should have a better understanding of local history in your community don’t wait for the school system to introduce a local history curriculum and instead create your own historical society and offer school visits or field trip plans or excursions for kids to do walking tours and to learn local history through planned and approved activities.

If you are concerned about environmental degradation and pollution, organize a beach cleanup or trash pick up day in conjunction with a local civic organization, Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop and let some kid get a merit badge with a picture of a trash bag on his Cub Scout uniform.

When you see people in your community suffering from poor health or a lack of nutritious food options in a particular community seek out a way to organize and build a community garden. Community gardens are low capital cost startups that rely more on sweat equity so it is a perfect project for cash poor/time rich people that wish to make a positive difference in their community.

And when you see an old man waiting for the bus sitting in the dirt and you happen to have a saw and some hammers at home well why not build a bench and bring it out there and adorn it with a positive message and see what that feels like.

Yes, small acts of kindness can improve your mental and physical health.

Mental health benefits

Reduce stress and anxiety: Helping others can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Improve emotional well-being: Kindness can increase feelings of well-being and belonging.

Improve self-esteem: Helping others can improve your support networks and encourage you to be more active.

Physical health benefits

Reduce blood pressure: Kindness can improve heart health by dilating blood vessels.

Reduce pain: Kindness can reduce pain, stress, anxiety, depression, and blood pressure.

How small acts of kindness can help

Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while

Send a letter to a grandparent

Offer to help a neighbor with groceries

Make someone laugh

Offer to babysit for a friend

Walk your friend’s dog

Tell your family members how much you love them

Make eye contact with someone and smile

Why kindness is good for you

Research shows that acts of kindness release oxytocin and endorphins, which can create new neural connections in the brain.

We can’t on one side, curse the government, and then sit idly on her hands, waiting for them to provide solutions when we know that the best solutions and the most appropriate solutions come from the people that live in those communities. No matter how small or incremental the difference, the project, or the initiative is it’s the energy of action and showing concern that is fundamentally important because we can’t control other people’s reactions level of participation and we can only do what we feel compelled to do through the direction from our higher self.

There is no question that this gentleman up in Denver received a truly clear message while sitting in silence that he should build a bench at the bus stop. It is important to recognize and understand that this very clear and productive thought which has greatly impacted the lives of innumerable people by providing a safe, comfortable way to wait for their transportation that this idea did not come while the person was thinking about future concerns, bills, economic responsibilities, or ruminating over past decisions and wishing they had done something different.

You can’t receive inspiration or a message from your creator if you are not present in the moment of now.

Meditation makes you a better Christian because you are working on connecting to your breath and becoming present so you can receive the messages that are being sent by your God.

Don’t give the universe a busy signal by constantly being unavailable and predisposed by thinking of thoughts that are creating anxiety or regret.

Come back here to the moment of now and go build a bench for somebody.

There are no shortcuts to find the answers because those answers are inside of you and it takes stillness and slowing down to be able to understand what the thoughts are behind the feelings that you are feeling.

Thought awareness comes when you are not attached to what’s going on in your mind but can become an observer without attaching or judging what you’re experiencing.

And everybody gets caught up in future or past thoughts, that just happens, so our focus needs to be on allowing ourselves grace to come back in our mindful practice to now and to not be harsh or to judge ourselves when our “monkey mind” wishes to run about and do what it likes to do and not stay present.

Be kind to yourself and this will allow you to gradually become more and more comfortable with your own thoughts, and then you can receive messages from something bigger than you that can provide you inspiration or direction and at the very least help you sustain and maybe even expand your attitude of gratitude.

EVERY DAY:

Love

and

Gratitude

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