Thank You More Please

‘With gratitude the Universe is eternally abundant.’

happythankyoumoreplease

Darren and I watched a fantastic film the other night called happythankyoumoreplease and it has inspired me to write a blog post on the importance of gratitude.

I’ve known this for quite some time, and the messages have been coming to me from all over the place about the importance of being grateful for all that you have in life, especially when we are wishing to manifest something that we would love to experience in our lives.

The first time the message came to me strongly was when I watched Shaun Anchor’s fantastic TED talk ‘The Happiness Advantage‘ where he says that it’s important to list at least three things you are grateful for every day.

Last week I went on a course about finances, and the lady running the course reminded us that in order for us to go with the flow of the energy of the Universe, we must first be grateful for all that we have, before it can send any more energy our way, especially in the form of money.

And so I decided to start (and most importantly, commit to) Daily Gratitudes.

Have an attitude of gratitude

So, the first thing I do when I wake up, before I meditate, shower, eat breakfast or touch my laptop or phone, is pick up a piece of paper and pen from my bedside table and make a list of everything that I am grateful for in my life.

Importantly, this is an exhaustive list. A list that I keep writing until I can’t think of anything else to write. A list that can sometimes include around 40 items (the longer the better!). I these are all things that I am genuinely, wholeheartedly and honestly grateful for.

Then I pop the list back on my bedside table and make a point of reading it again before I go to bed. This is so that before I drift off to sleep, I have filled me head and my subconscious with positive, grateful thoughts, that will then ensure I have a good, happy nights sleep and enjoy positive dreams.

And the film, well I won’t tell you too much about it, but I will say that there is a beautiful message in the film about the importance of saying thank you whenever something good happens, or someone does something nice for you. Followed by ‘More Please’, so that the Universe knows to give you more lovely things.

It’s written and directed by Josh Radnor or ‘How I Met Your Mother’ fame and I can highly recommend it as a feel good film. Oh, and it won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in  2010.

Thank You More Please.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

The film ‘happythankyoumoreplease‘

The Happiness Advantage TED talk by Shaun Anchor

Live beyond limits

“If your life was a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go?”

– Amy Purdy –

I stumbled across the most beautiful TED talk this morning thanks to You Tube suggesting it to me after having watched Shaun Anchor’s talk on The Happiness Advantage for the umpteenth time (it’s SO awesome!).

Amy, a keen snowboarder and lover of life and travel, sadly lost both of her legs below the knee at the age of 19. However, her story is not that of sorrow or sadness, but one rather of a celebration of what happened and how it forced her to push through the boundaries and limitations in front of her. And most importantly, her choice of embracing the magic of her imagination to create the kind of life she wanted to live.

She didn’t allow herself to be held back by anything in her quest to get back on her board, and after years of rehabilitation, hard work, effort and sheer perseverance, she became the top ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world. And rather than be held back by the seeming limits of having lost both of her legs, she used these as a jumping off point to transcend them.

She also now spends a great deal of time helping others, especially those with physical challenges get involved with adventure sports like snowboarding, skateboarding and wakeboarding. And she has set up a Not for Profit organisation called Adaptive Action Sports.

The beauty of this story is that Amy is has not only challenged herself to be able to continue to do what she truly loves, but she has made a wonderfully positive impact on the world at the same time.

So the question for you today is, what boarders do you need to push off of in order to ensure that the story of your life goes the positive way you wish it to go?

Inspiration for today’s post

TEDx talk – Amy Purdy – Living Beyond Limits

 

Want to know the secret to better work and a happier life?

“Good things happen to good people, who think good thoughts, have good hearts and do good things.” 

– Kat Kinnie –

I have another awesome TED talk to share with you today, this time from a pretty funny guy and positive psychologist called Shaun Anchor. I have loved this talk since the first time I watched it last year and I think I have re-watched it at least 5 or 6 times since, shared it on Facebook and stuck it on my Onwards and Upwards Pinterest board too.

90% of your happiness is predicted by the way your brain processes the world.

He posits that 90% of your long-term happiness is predicted, not by your external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. And that if we change our formula for happiness and success, we can change the way we affect reality.

Only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ.

He also says that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ and that 75% of people’s job success is predicted by their level of optimism, their social support and their ability to see stress as a challenge rather than a threat.

Your brain performs better at positive.

He also says that ‘We’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that’s because we think that we have to be successful and then we’ll be happier. But the real problem is, our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise someone’s level of positivity in the present, then their brains experience something called a Happiness Advantage, which is that your brain performs better at positive, than negative, neutral or stressed.

The Happiness Advantage – your brain is 31% more productive at positive.

His talk discusses something that he refers to as The Happiness Advantage and the fact that you can train your brain to become more positive in a 2 minute span of time for 21 days in a row. He says that by doing this and creating new positive habits, you can re-wire your brain allowing it to work more optimistically and more successfully.

How to create lasting positive change

• 3 gratitudes a day – write down 3 things you’re grateful for each day. Your brain starts to scan the world, not for the negative, but for the positive.
• Journaling 1 positive experience you’ve had in the last 24 hours – this allows your brain to re-live it
• Exercise – teaches your brain that your behaviour matters
• Meditation – allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD we’ve been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to slow down and relax.
• Random acts of kindness – write one positive email a day praising or thanking someone

Shaun says that by maintaining these positive habits every day, for 21 days in a row, and beyond, we can train our brains for positivity and success, just as you can train your body to perform better.

Who would have thought the secret to happiness and success could be as easy as re-training your brain for 2 minutes a day?

Inspiration for this post

Shaun Anchor’s TED talk – The Happiness Advantage – Linking Positive Brains To Performance