Living In Gratitude: 5 Ways Nature Promotes Personal Wellbeing

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Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction. ~E. O. Wilson

Scientific studies show that being in nature has an overwhelming influence on our brains and our behavior. Being in nature helps reduce stress, anxiety, and worry while increasing our ability to focus, be creative as well as boosts our ability to connect with others.

“People have been discussing their profound experiences in nature for the last several hundred years—from Thoreau to John Muir to many other writers,” says University of Utah researcher David Strayer. “Now we are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature.”

Nature holds the key

While Strayer and other scientists firmly believe experiencing the flora and fauna of our world benefits our wellbeing, people of all ages tend to spend a substantial amount of time indoors and online. The research on how nature improves our brains calls for spending more time outdoors to increase our health, happiness and creativity.

Below are 5 ways we benefit from being in nature.

  1. Decreased stress levels

Studies have shown that people tend to unwind and relax more when they are outside in a natural environment VS an urban one. This holds true whether they are in a forest or city greenspace. These people showed lower heart rates, better moods and less anxiety than those who were exposed to a purely urban environment. Scientists believe that humans are wired to be more relaxed and soothed in natural spaces and our bodies and minds behave positively in these natural environments.

  1. Boosts happiness and reduces brooding

A study conducted by Stanford University researcher, Gregory Bratman, showed that the emotional state and cognitive abilities of participants who took a walk in a natural setting were dramatically better than those who walked in an urban area. They reported feeling more positive and less apprehensive, ruminated less and performed better on short-term memory tasks than did the urban walkers.  Read more

Living In Gratitude: Insightful Words of Wisdom From Wayne Dyer

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It has been just over a year since Wayne Dyer passed away and just about that long since we posted our blog in tribute to him.

A truly perceptive man, Wayne Dyer was a renowned self-help advocate, author and lecturer. Below are just some of his wise and insightful words of wisdom.

 

Our intention creates our reality.

 

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

 

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

 

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.

Cannot be lonely if like person you're alone with Wayne Dyer GH logo

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

 

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Living In Gratitude: 19 Ways To Minimize Stress

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It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it. ~ Hans Selye

Stress is a part of daily life. This state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from the demands and pressures of life and work can result in headaches, fatigue, problems sleeping, difficulty making decisions and a host of other symptoms.

Below are 19 tips on how to manage and minimize stress.

  1. Chocolate meditation

  • Choose a chocolate that is indulgent or that you’ve never eaten. Dark chocolate is especially ideal for this exercise.
  • Open the packet. Inhale the aroma. Let it sweep over you.
  • Break off a piece and look at it. Really let your eyes drink in what it looks like, examining every nook and cranny.
  • Pop it in your mouth. See if it’s possible to hold it on your tongue and let it melt. Chocolate has over 300 different flavours. See if you can sense some of them.
  • If you notice your mind wandering, simply notice where it went and gently escort it back to the present moment.
  • After the chocolate has completely melted, swallow it very slowly and deliberately. Let it trickle down your throat.
  • Repeat this with one other piece.

2. Write down worries in a journal

The physical act of writing things down helps minimize stress by moving them from inside ourselves to an outside space.

3. Peel an orange

Studies show the smell of citrus is a tension tamer.

91 Savor each moment

4. Experience nature

Getting outside and enjoying nature is a great way to minimize stress. Focus on the sights, smells and sounds around you. Breathe deeply. Feel the movement of your body. Read more

Living In Gratitude: 10 Ways to Cultivate Meaningful Relationships

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Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you. ~Anonymous

Social media has enabled us to stay in touch with friends near and far but it doesn’t necessarily equate to meaningful relationships.

Close friendships require time and energy. They need to be nurtured and attended to. Below are 10 ways to cultivate successful relationships with family, friends and even coworkers.

1.  BE HAPPY WITH OURSELVES

Liking ourselves is the foundation for others to connect with us. After all, if we fundamentally don’t like who we are, why would anyone else?

2. LEARN TO LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND

Be the person who listens, hearing others without interrupting. Listening is one of the greatest gifts we can give another person. Allowing someone to speak, be heard and understood is an invaluable part of every meaningful relationship. Read more

Living In Gratitude: Stop Autopilot Apologies

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You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop and what you reinforce. ~Tony Gaskins

We all know people who apologize for everything, even if they’ve done nothing wrong. Maybe we’re actually one of those people.

There are times when an apology is warranted, but when we say we’re sorry for anything that makes us remotely ill at ease, this can quickly become a harmful habit, lowering our self-esteem, justifying other people’s poor behavior or actions, and turning us into a pushover.

Have you ever apologized when someone bumped into you in a crowded restaurant or store? Or when a peer critiqued your work? How about when someone did a chore or task that you were supposed to do but didn’t? Or maybe when you wanted someone to explain something in more detail?

This automatic apologetic reaction many of us have is used to diffuse confrontation, placate others and avoid making things awkward. That unwarranted apology automatically lets others know we believe we are at fault, even if we’re not.

And the more we make this autopilot apologizing a routine, the more we’ll use it in situations that DO matter. They also communicate that we’d rather be agreeable than honest. Over time, people will begin to see us as pushovers, someone who will take the blame, be the fall guy or girl and can (and will) be taken advantage of.

Pushover logo

So, how do we stop this pushover behavior?

Have An Apology Recap

When we find ourselves issuing an apology, we should ask ourselves two key questions.

  1. “Did I actually do something wrong?”
  2. And if not, “Did I want to communicate that I think I did something wrong?”

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Express Your Gratitude With Our Exclusive Spiral Pendants

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Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life. ~ Rumi

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The spiral symbolizes the path leading from external awareness to inner enlightenment and back again.  

Have you noticed when we you think of someone or something you appreciate that  ‘grateful thoughts’ fill you with a positive, even loving feeling? It then becomes natural to reach out with acts of appreciation, joy and generosity. That’s what gratitude does.  That’s what the spiral of gratitude is. 

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. ~Eckhart Tolle

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Living In Gratitude: 7 Questions To Ask Yourself At The End of Every Day

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Our days are filled with asking questions of others: coworkers, managers, teachers, partners, children, customer service personnel but there is one person we rarely ask anything.

Ourselves.

By asking these seven key questions, we frame our mindset with an optimistic outlook. This allows us to reflect on the day that just ended as well as set ourselves up for success tomorrow.

7 Questions To Ask Yourself At The End of Every Day

1. WHAT DID I LEARN TODAY?

Even if we don’t realize it, we learn something new every day. By taking time to acknowledge what we’ve learned gives us a sense of accomplishment. It contributes to our wellbeing, helping us grow and change. This recognition of learning opens us up to actively seeking more knowledge. Read more

Living In Gratitude: 6 Steps to Living in the Moment

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We live in an age of constant distraction. Every day, we are bombarded with a myriad of interruptions, which have only gotten more frequent thanks to ever-evolving technology. We can be consumed by self-consciousness, anxiety and stress. These disturbances often have us fretting about the future or contemplating past mistakes. They take us away from living in the present moment.

We’re living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence. ~ Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace

Our thoughts often control us, “coursing through our mind like a deafening waterfall”. Buddists refer to it as the Monkey Mind, because our consciousness vaults from thought to thought like a monkey swinging from one tree to another. This inhibits our ability to live in and enjoy the present.

Mindfulness is when we learn to quiet our monkey mind and live in the moment in a state of “active, open, intentional attention on the present.” Being mindful allows us to observe our thoughts without judgment. Rather than letting our thoughts control us, being mindful awakens us to experience life in the here and now.  Read more

Living In Gratitude: Science Says Do These 11 Things Daily To Be Happier & More Productive

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It’s a safe assumption to say that all of us want to be happy. But did you know that in addition to feeling lighthearted and content, happiness also boosts our personal productivity?

Science has proven that happy people accomplish more.

And, there are simple, scientifically proven things we can do daily to increase our happiness quotient.

1. Smile more

A genuine smile make us feel good. Smiling enhances our mood, increasing our attention and focus while reducing stress, especially during challenging times. A true smile involves our entire face, reaching and including our eyes.

Science shows smiling is beneficial:

“A new study led by a Michigan State University business scholar suggests customer-service workers who fake smile throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts–such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital–improve their mood and withdraw less.”

2. Exercise for 7 minutes

Exercise has an overwhelming impact on our happiness and well-being. Even a small, daily dose can dramatically enhance happiness. We can all find time to squeeze in 7 minutes to take a brisk walk, bust out some jumping jacks or dance to our favorite song.

Exercise can help you relax, increase your brainpower, and even improve your body image, even if you don’t lose any weight. A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies even when they saw no physical changes. Read more

Living In Gratitude: 5 Myths About Being Grateful

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Does gratitude make us lazy? Naive?

Robert Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, debunks five of the most common myths and misconceptions about being grateful.

1. Gratitude leads to complacency

If we are grateful, will we be motivated to challenge the status quo or improve our lot in life?

In reality, studies suggest that the opposite is true: Gratitude drives a sense of purpose and a desire to do more.

People are actually more successful at reaching their goals when they consciously practice gratitude. Among a group of study participants, the grateful group tasked to keep a gratitude journal made 20 percent more progress toward their goals than the non-grateful group and they continue to strive harder toward their goals. Read more