spiritedstrider – Page 9 – Appreciation Magic

¡Música en Español!

While I am a native speaker of English, I also know Spanish. I have to say that I’m very appreciative of the opportunities in my life that led to learning another language, too. One of the reasons I love Spanish so much is that I can appreciate the full experience of the music in Spanish. I’m a romantic and there are many romantic songs in Spanish that are true poetry set to beautiful music, with orchestras and great singers. Music is and always be a big part of my life and over the years, I’ve come to know many Spanish-speaking artists’ works and to appreciate them.

Here’s one I really like, sung by Luis Miguel for you to enjoy! It’s called Motivos.

Lunch

At my day job, we order out a lot. We also occasionally bring in food and have a potluck. And, we often bring our own lunches. But what I like about my environment is how we often eat together. Now many people may not find eating with one’s co-workers that much fun, but I happen to really enjoy it. We spend so much time with each other, it’s almost like having lunch with our family: our work family.

Not everyone likes to eat together at work but I’m grateful that there are many of us who do. It’s a nice way to get to know each other, talk about “off-work” topics and occasionally share in each others’ food for that day, share jokes, stories and family recipes. We laugh and generally don’t “talk shop” when we eat, so it’s a good stress reliever, too.

Today I’m grateful for my work lunches with my office mates. I appreciate their company, and the fact that we all have jobs that put food on our work table every afternoon during the week!

Can You Fit Inside That Box?

My good friends at Good Vibe University recently reminded me of the videos of a Japanese cat named Maru. I’d seen them before, but it’s been awhile since I tuned in. Now I’m glad I did. Maru is such a cute cat and the videos are really fun! I appreciate all the people and the cats who make entertaining videos like this one. So here’s one of Maru, who absolutely loves boxes: no matter what their size! I’d say Maru is a perfect example of “out of box” type thinking! Enjoy!

Kind and Caring People

Yesterday I had several examples of people being kind and caring in which to appreciate. The first was related to one of my daughters, who was in New Jersey with one of her college roommates for the weekend. She joined me in Manhattan for the Iowa Hawkeyes game watch (and while we had a great time, our beloved Hawkeyes lost!), and then she was to take a bus back to NJ to join her friend. While I accompanied her to the Port Authority and saw her off on what we thought was the right bus, it turns out that it was not. Added to that was the fact that her cell phone battery had died, so she had no cell phone.

Before I left the Port Authority (and not yet knowing that my daughter was on the wrong bus), I stopped to buy a juice from a store there for my ride home. A woman with a young child was ahead of me, along with a customer who was buying, too. The woman with her child was told by the cashier that she was 50 cents short, so she gave the cashier a debit card, which was declined. The customer next to her reached in her pocket and paid the 50 cents. Later, the woman with the child found a dollar and tried paying the other woman back and they “discussed” whether or not she would take it. I smiled as I watched this exchange of gratitude, happy for the kind, caring woman who helped her out.

A little later, as I’m coming off of the subway, I received a call from a number I didn’t know: it’s my daughter, using someone else’s phone on the bus that was taking her way out of her way into New Jersey to places I’d never heard of! She used this man’s phone several times to call both her friend in NJ and me. In the end, she was able to get off the bus and wait at a restaurant (where there were more kind people who offered her things and didn’t require her to buy anything) until her friend picked her up. In fact, she said she got to watch some of the Ohio State-Penn State game! After she was safely in the car with her friend, my daughter told me that the man and his wife offered to drive her to her friend’s house, too, if needed.

While one might look at that last offer with a word of “caution” about not accepting rides from strangers, I think it’s evidence of the kind, caring people who were part of our day yesterday. We’ll never know for sure, but I am very grateful for that man letting her use his phone and helping her figure out where she had gotten “lost.” This was the second example of kind, caring people who offered their assistance to complete strangers yesterday.

And while I’m still in shock over my Iowa Hawkeyes’ loss from yesterday, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to share it with one of my daughters.

Beautiful Weather

Today I’m grateful for the beautiful weather here in New York City. It was a gorgeous day, and one wouldn’t really think that it is November 13th! It felt more like an October-kind of day. I love how everyone seemed out and about today, taking advantage of the warmer temperatures. There were bicylists around, kids with skateboards and mothers taking strolls with their babies in strollers. As usual, there were plenty of tourists, too.

Days like these (where I spent considerable time walking about the city) are beautiful reminders of how pleasant weather makes being outdoors a happy experience for all. Thank you, Mother Nature!

List of Positive Aspects

One of the best techniques I’ve learned for improving any relationship is the List of Positive Aspects by Abraham-Hicks. It goes something like this: When you are having difficulty with someone, get out a notebook and label it My List of Positive Aspects. At the top of the page, write the name of the person at the top. Now, thinking back over a time or times when you felt something positive about this person, list every positive aspect you can think of about that person. Only write the positive and then sit with it for some moments. Feel that positive energy about this person. When you think again about this person, remember your list. When you do this, people “miraculously” change when they are in your presence, only demonstrating those positive aspects you’ve focused on.

I have used this technique over and over again, with great success. Sometimes it can be a challenge to even start the list, but when you do and practice it, you will end up adding to the list of positive qualities about that person. Eventually, your list about that person will be so long that you no longer need to refer to it as everytime you think about that person, you will hold him or her in that good feeling place.

Even though you’re not feeling it right now, there is always something positive about that person. If you can’t get the feeling right away, focus on something positive about their physical appearance to start. For example, do they have nice hair? Do they have nice eyes? Or perhaps they have a particular skill that you admire, such as excellent editing, beautiful singing voice, or a great dancer. Just write something positive and focus on that.

Today as I’m reminded of interactions that could be challenging, I am grateful that I have a technique like this to shift that from a challenge to no challenge at all. When I am doing so, I know that I am holding them in a place of love and love really does make my world go round!

Appreciating My Colleagues

I just got done with my regional conference and once again, I’m reminded of my fellow colleagues in the field of international education who make my work so meaningful and enjoyable. I absolutely love going to my professional association conferences because of the people! They are such interesting and passionate people and we always have a good time. Many of my colleagues over the years have also become my friends.

So today, as I reflect on these past few days, I’m sending out huge chunks of appreciation to my fellow colleagues around the region who are making a difference in peoples’ lives by serving in the field of international education. You rock!

Giddy Up!

Today I didn’t need an alarm clock as I woke up at 5 a.m. with a Charley horse in my calf! Now I get these occasionally, so I decided to go looking for what causes them and a cure. I had always heard that it was due to a lack of potassium, but I also found: dehydration, lack of stretching when exercising and the side effects of certain medications. What was really fun was reading the cures for them: bananas I had heard many times before and drinking plenty of water is an obvious solution if the cause is based on dehydration. There’s also massage, which sounds really good right now. But I found other “remedies” that people swore by. Things such as:

Drinking salt water

Rubbing mustard on the affected area

Drinking pickle juice

Since I’m at a conference and have none of these items (and they do sound fun to experiment with), I’m going to drink plenty of water today with the intention of hopping on the saddle of wellness. So how can I be appreciative of that good old horse called Charley this morning?

Well, I have my legs that do very well in getting me around wherever I go, I’m even grateful for the pain that lets me know strongly that I want to feel better (and launched huge rockets of desire to feel better!). I love how I have clear, clean drinking water in which to feed this horse. I appreciate the availability of the internet in which to research items with a few quick clicks, and I appreciate Charley for reminding me that treating myself to a massage now and then is a lovely way to be loving to myself.

So giddy-up, Charley! It’s time to turn around and go for a ride on the wellness, feel-better trail!

Overslept? Be Happy!

Even though last night we all got an extra hour of sleep here in the United States because we turned back our clocks before going to bed, I ended up oversleeping this morning. I had asked the hotel where I’m staying for a conference for a “wake-up” call that never happened. Consequently, I woke up later (to the tune of my “back-up” plan on my Blackberry phone a half an hour later), and wondered what time it really was. When I realized that I never received the wake-up call and had overslept, I had a choice to make: either feel flustered, frustrated and upset that I was now running late (or) appreciate the extra time I really did have to rest. As you probably imagine based on my overall theme for this blog, I’ve chosen the latter.

We are all faced with many small choices like this everyday. Happiness is truly a choice we make, and it starts with these little things that happen in our daily lives. We always have the choice to see the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty. In doing so, we align ourselves a bit closer to being happy most of the time.

So this morning, I’m grateful for the extra rest. I’m happy that no one really cared about the fact that I was late, and it wouldn’t really matter if they did anyway, as that is their issue. My job is to be happy and I’m in charge of that by myself. If I judge my happiness on what other people think, I will be disappointed. If I judge my happiness on how punctually I get up in the morning, then I’ll be judging myself a lot and that would not be a kind, loving way to treat myself. If I blame the hotel for not setting the wake-up call, I’m going to be attracting that energy back to myself. So I’m giving myself a break, as well as the hotel for not setting the “wake-up” call when I requested. I’m going to appreciate instead!

By being late, I met two really nice people this morning at breakfast. In being late, I ran into a colleague as I was coming out of my room. It sure was good to see her smiling face this morning! The extra sleep was great for my overall well-being and will prepare me for the next two days when I may not get as much sleep. I appreciate my Blackberry alarm that served as my “back-up,” too. I love how I got an inspiration to write about this here, too. So I’m choosing to be happy. Isn’t that a good way to start the day?

Conference Time + An Extra Hour of Sleep

I’m currently at a conference that officially starts tomorrow but because I’m in a leadership position in my professional association, I had to be here a day early. I also was reminded by another colleague that we get to turn our clocks back an hour tonight, so I’ll get “an extra hour” of sleep. Woo hoo! I’m so glad because these conference times can really be tiring. Of course, I’ll probably stay up extra late because I know I have an extra hour! Funny how that works, isn’t it?

I do appreciate conferences and getting a little extra sleep, now and then. I love meeting colleagues, many of whom have become my friends. So today I’m grateful for my job, my conference, the opportunities to meet new people in my region, the leadership opportunities that are available to me, and last–but not least–tonight’s extra hour of sleep! I’m probably going to need it, considering how long these conference days and nights tend to be. And I’m so grateful that I have such a comfortable hotel room with a bed that’s looking really comfy right now, too. (But that will be for later…)