Gratefulness article and journal template

One of the finest tools with which to build a consciousness ready to receive Joy – is Gratefulness. Naturally grateful people live naturally Joy-filled lives. They always feel good about themselves. They always recognize that they are blessed. They always look for the good in people, places and things. They always attract other Joyous beings into their lives.

A Grateful Heart Nurtures A Healthy Body
Recent psychological studies on the effects of gratefulness on patients who have had surgeries show that those who were grateful - grateful to be alive, grateful for the wonder of modern medicine, grateful for each new day – healed faster and were able to resume their normal activities much more quickly than those who did not feel grateful about their life circumstances. The cells of their bodies actively responded to their grateful thoughts and words and made them well again.

A Grateful Mind Draws to It All That Is Good
Gratefulness is also a catalyst for drawing whatever you call “good” - directly to you. Using the Principle of the Law of Mind Action, it makes ultimate sense that those who focus on what is already good in their lives, draw more good to them all of the time. The thoughts we hold in our mind out picture in our life experience. Holding thoughts of what you are grateful to have already received, draws more things like that to you. It cannot fail. It is a Universal Law.

A Grateful Consciousness Creates Warm Relationships
Kindness is a by-product of gratefulness. Filled with their own senses of well being, grateful people feel free to give without any reservation. Who do you know who doesn’t enjoy being around someone who is basically kind, caring and compassionate? It simply follows that grateful people experience happy relationships because their positive influence on those around them is so strong.

Learn to Express Your Gratefulness and Prepare Yourself for Joy
Below are listed five gratefulness exercises. It is important for you to do each one every day until you begin to feel naturally grateful all of the time. You’ll know when you reach that naturally grateful state of mind because – you will automatically recognize the blessing in every event that happens in your life experience.

1)Before you get out of bed in the morning – reach out for feelings of gratefulness and express them out loud. Allow your natural gratitude to well up as you feel grateful for a fresh new day of life in front of you; for a good night’s sleep behind you; for a safe place to sleep each night; for the people who will support you this day; for all of your five senses; for the money you have in your bank account; for the creditors that trust you. Each morning – reach for the thought of something new that is part of the makeup of your life, for which you are truly and naturally grateful. Acknowledge the activity of Spirit in your Life by expressing your Gratefulness eagerly.

2)Say grace before every meal. Acknowledge to God [or the Universe], your gratefulness for the food you are about to eat (even snacks). Allow yourself to feel gratefulness for your healthy body temple and the opportunity to feed it generously. Express your gratefulness for all of the people who grew the food you are about to eat and processed it and transported it and sold it and prepared it. And finally, express your gratefulness to the animal, if one is involved, that gave its life to sustain and nourish yours.

3)Perform at least three kind acts every day for others. The acts you choose may be large acts of kindness that really take time and money to accomplish – like driving someone to an appointment or helping someone financially. Or then may be small, simple acts of kindness, like picking up a piece of trash off the street, that takes seconds and costs nothing. If you allow yourself to be open, Spirit will lead you directly to each act of kindness and you will know instinctively that you are called to do it. God does not have arms and legs on this plane of existence, so sometimes God asks us, when we are Awake, to perform Divine Kindnesses instead.

4) Perform at least one kind act for yourself. Taking care of yourself, body, mind and Spirit is an act of gratefulness. Your care of yourself acknowledges your gratefulness to God for creating you. When you feed your body well – nourish it, cleanse it, heal it – you are making a statement of gratefulness. When you cleanse your mind of negative thoughts and focus on what is good in your life – you are making a statement of gratefulness. When you lift up your energy level from low to high you are acknowledging your own perfection and that is an act of gratefulness. When you take time to pray and to listen to the words your Soul is speaking to you - you are expressing gratefulness. Allow yourself the gift of time needed for your own self-care. It is an important part of your gratefulness process.

5)Start a Gratefulness Journal and write in it every night, just before you go to sleep. Use any sort of notebook that appeals to you – or your computer - to list a minimum of five things for which you are grateful that very day. List new things, new experiences, new people who come into your life and bring your good to you. Your Gratefulness Journal list for one day might read something like this. I got a really good break this morning – traffic was light and I had time for a cup of coffee before I started work. My boss really liked the report I did last week and he said so in front of everyone at the staff meeting. I went with Joe to a new restaurant for lunch and the food was delicious, +Joe paid for lunch! I stopped off at the Doctor’s office after work so that he could look at my shoulder and he says it is almost healed. I don’t have to go back to him any more. There was a rebate check in the mailbox for $56 – I had forgotten that I even sent that paperwork in. I had an e-mail from Jim tonight telling me that Eric is preparing to be an Eagle Scout. Thank you God for my son, my grandson and for e-mail! I Am Joyful and I Am Grateful – Thank you God!

At the end of the week, reread your entries carefully and give thanks for the 35 (or more) little blessings that have come into your life in just one week. For an even greater cumulative effect – reread your entries every month and again at the end of the year. Five expressions of gratefulness a day adds up to 1825 little blessings a year. It is very impressive evidence that God Loves you all of the time.

Bonus Activity– for a Bonus Expression of Gratefulness, we suggest that as you close your Gratefulness Journal and prepare to go to sleep each night, that you give thanks for a solid, peaceful night of sleep ahead of you and for the opportunity to awake in the morning rested and ready for the next great day in your life.

From http://www.youareawakening.com/tp40/page.asp?id=48077

This is my personal version:

Thank you for the lessons I have been taught in the past and today, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve and grow :O)

Thank you for providing me with or Today, I am grateful for

My loving family

My healthy body

My Abundance

My wonderful friends and acquaintances

My great job with a daily opportunity for contribution

My wonderful pet

My education that I use for good

Thank you

Get this book... and NOT change... I dare ya ;O)

http://www.ubuntuthebook.com/presentation.html

BOOK OUT SOON

Nelson Mandela talks about Ubuntu (humanness)

"Ubuntu ... essence of being human...the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours." Archbishop Desmond Tutu

A recipe for life ;O)

Ubuntu is a South African ethic or ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhola languages.
A very rough translation in English would be "humanity towards others" and "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, "Yu, u nobuntu"; "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say, "A person is a person through other persons." It is not, "I think, therefore I am." It says rather: "I am human because I belong. I participate, I share." A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they are less than who they are.” - Desmond Tutu

Partly from http://www.ihousephilly.org/ubuntu.htm

21st century enlightenment from RSA

From Neale

On this day of your life, Penelope Josefine, I believe God wants you to know...

...that God is talking to you every minute of

every hour of every day.

You are never alone, or without help or guidance,

counsel or advice. You need but purely and earnestly

ask a question and God will answer you, directly

and immediately.

The answer may come in an unexpected form, but it

will come.Your only job then will be to not ignore it;

to see it for what it is. For all you know these very words

may be an answer to your question about whether God

is even listening to you or offering you guidance.

Love, Your Friend....

Neale

Quote of the day :O)

The only place where you can or need to be free is this moment. Not the rest of your life. Just now.

Eckhart Tolle

Languaging change through the quantum field

Linguistic re-sourcing pattern:

1. What's the problem?

2. How do you know it's a problem? (old reality strategy)

3. When did you decide that? -

4. When don't you do it now? - INTERVENTION

5. What are you deciding then? -`

6. How is it different from how you were?

7. How do you know that, now? (new reality strategy)

8. What (other) changes would you like to make?


1994 Neuro-energetics

Anthony Robbins quote

Memories are myths

Anthony Robbins

4 Mistakes Women Make at the Office By Donna Brazile

1. Taking a backseat, literally and figuratively.
Years ago at an important political strategy meeting, I found that a place hadn't been set for me at the table. I moved toward the line of chairs ringing the room until I thought: "Hey! No man would do that!" So I pushed aside a place card and sat down. If you want a seat at the power table, take one.

2. Accepting lower salaries.
One study I read says women feel the need to "earn" a higher salary, whereas men believe they "deserve" a higher salary. You need to know your worth—and demand it, respectfully.

3. Doing too much for free.
If you don't value your time, no one else will.

4. Treating other women like adversaries.
Some women are driven by the notion that the men have the power and they'll make room for only one woman. In many instances, that's true. So if there is only one woman at the table, Lord, let that one be me. But here's what would be even better: Instead of fighting for the single seat in the room, we should all be asking, "Why aren't there more chairs?" To change the prevailing power structures, we need to fight for each other.

Quote of the day :O)

To find a career to which you are adapted by nature, and then to work hard at it, is about as near to a formula for success and happiness as the world provides.

Mark Sullivan

Mail from Neale

On this day of your life, Penelope Josefine [or you],

I believe God wants you to know...

if you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it,

for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

Heraclitus said that, and he was right.

Life is delighted to bring you The Unexpected.

Are you delighted to receive it?

Indeed, belief in the coming of The Unexpected is the

genesis of hope. How can you hope for anything breathtaking or

exciting if you can only hope for the already expected? Therefore,

you must always think that anything can happen. Form your ideas

and your dreams within that framework! Remember,

God specializes in The Unexpected.

Love, Your Friend....

Neale

The Six Human Needs

Anthony Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is or can be motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.

You may want to consider these needs when thinking about developing and delivering products and services to people. The question to ask is, "What need or needs does my product fulfill for my customer?"

1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty the car will start, the water will flow from the tap when we turn it on and the currency we use will hold its value.

2. Variety. At the same time we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.

3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. I can imagine no worse a death than to think my life didn't matter.

4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for love. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about.

5. Growth. There could be some people who say they don't want to grow, but I think they're simply fearful of doing so or perhaps NOT doing so. To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it's there.

6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us.

Action Point
Evaluate this list to better understand your personal motivations and examine which ones seem the most significant to you. Then, look at what you do to fulfill the needs of others. It will likely make a difference in what and how you do what you do. It also should make a difference in the way you describe and explain what you and your product can do.

Quote of the day ;O)

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels

Anthony Robbins

How to trigger a desired emotional state - NLP anchoring

1) Find a quiet and comfortable spot where you can stay uninterrupted for at least 20 minutes and perform the training process. Sit down, put your feet at the floor and make sure you breathe deeply.

2) Pick a certain emotional state you want to access. It can also be a certain attitude: Curious, happy, ecstatic, resourceful, calm, relaxed, sleepy, orgasmic, whatever the state you want to anchor is, the method remains the same. But attention, because it must be something you have ALREADY experienced in your life. You may use the memory of a film that made you feel with that certain way, a book or even better a real event. Do you remember that time you got that girl to smile to you? Do you remember how GOOD you felt?

3) Pick what kind of trigger you want to use. Will it be a song? Will it be a sound? It can even be a specific body action or a posture: Let's say for reasons of simplicity that you choose it to be a clinched fist. The simpler it is to perform the trigger, the easier it is for you to access that state.

Some visual anchors:The following anecdote comes from one of Richard Bandler's seminars: During the seminar somebody was coughing a bit too often. So at some point Bandler decided to raise his hand every time that guy was coughing. After a while whenever he was raising his hand the guy and some other people would start to cough randomly.

Some sound anchors: Any music song. Some particular sound. How many times have you returned from vacations to find out that some song brings out some ecstatic feeling from you having fun at some beach club?

Some physical anchors: Any body posture you have. Huggy bears (when hugged) A touch A smell I personally wrap my hands with a specific way before I go to sleep and I know several people that do the same. I use the same anchor when I want to be calm.

3) Picture retrieval. Close your eyes and go back to that time when you felt that certain way. Bring the pictures up. Put as much details you can remember from that event. Take your time to bring up as much visual details as you can. See the whole event happen again.

4) Sound retrieval. Remember as much as you can from the sounds of that event.

5) Physical sensations. Remember how everything felt around you. Note if it was windy or if it was cold. Revive all details from your body.

6) Intensify. Now make all the pictures, sounds and physical feelings stronger, brighter and bigger. Loop the pictures and mental movies in your mind, for as long as possible. Double the images and make the sounds stronger.

7) Note the emotion and make it even more pure. By now your whole body should feel completely like if it is IN that state. You will probably BE AGAIN completely SUBMERGED in that emotional attitude. Feel the sensations pass through you. Intensify them again and again.

8) Anchor. At the top of your amplification, clinch your fist.

9) Relax. Feel your body relaxing. Repeat steps 6 to 9 at least a 40 times. You can do it during different days.

10) Test the anchor. Clinch your fist. You will get the feeling back all over you. Congratulations! You have now your own personal trigger of some nice state and this way you can use it whenever you want.

Some side notes. The more intense the state, the more powerful the anchor. This is a self hypnotic phenomenon. You must WANT IT TO WORK in order to work. And it works LIKE A CHARM, believe me. This next one is of prime importance. The stimulus/trigger should be applied ONLY when the states AMPLIFIES and the trigger should be removed when the state peaks. Ideally you should anchor at the maximum amplification of that emotional state. If you continue to apply the anchor after the state peaked, then you will anchor a feeling of relaxing and the anchor will not work at its maximum.

If you do not experience the state when you test it and especially if you experience anxiety, then stop applying the anchor. (You will anchor the negative state!) Focus on getting the four facts above right and the number of repetitions will be less important. Have fun with it.

http://happybrainstorm.com- edited by Cathmont

NLP Emotional State-Chaining Skills - by Jonathan Altfeld

I have decided to begin focusing more significantly, thematically speaking, on helping NLP students develop their skills with State Chaining. I hope this NLP article helps you to learn more about this under-appreciated NLP Skill-set.

Certainly I have a range of different seminars planned, and each course delivers on their relevant topics as a primary focus. It is also easy to blend certain themes or focuses into those courses, thanks to how we train at both process (method) and content (information) levels.

If you were to ask me 'what area of NLP skills do I think is centrally important to most of our dealings using NLP, and is also not as well developed/trained as it should be, in many of the NLP students that I meet?' I would have to say "State-Chaining."

In essence, this is about developing a High EQ (Emotional Quotient).
In any good NLP training, students raise their EQ. They develop a higher emotional quotient, by learning about states, and state-management, and how to influence states, and elicit states, and change states (both with themselves, and with others). However, one of the problems I see "out there," are EQ's that aren't at the levels where they should be.

I have certain expectations of skill-levels achieved when someone tells me they're a Practitioner or Master Practitioner or Trainer. Those 'labels' should mean something, they should mean a student has acquired a certain sufficient level of competence in a particular range of subjects. Why, then, am I increasingly disappointed in recent years by the prior levels of training students have had when those students tell me the levels of training they say they achieved?

This is not a new complaint on my part. Some say it's the nature of the marketplace, with so many new trainers popping up who have little or no experience, who are delivering shorter & shorter certification courses, etc. It seems inevitable that people are becoming Practitioners or Master Practitioners but not getting the level of skills that many have achieved, in the past, when taking longer courses.

Most of these people I've talked with seem happy with their trainers, which presumably means the trainers are doing at least something right, during whatever time they have available. But if people are leaving with a 'false sense of completeness' then perhaps they're not consciously aware that they truly shouldn't label themselves as having achieved those levels. If they can't effectively chain states in either themselves or others, for example, I can't justify calling them a Practitioner. It's amazing though, I regularly see even new NLP trainers at my Holographic Communication course who understand State-Chaining at an intellectual level, but still haven't worked out the proper timing of doing the process onstage, or, still have trouble using both their output (speaking) skills at the same time as their input (observing) skills.

So perhaps you read that and wonder, "OK, but so what?" And the answer to that is -- it's polluted the field of NLP with rampant incompetency. A field which reaches not just for excellence but for astronomical levels of skill the general public usually couldn't even fathom, is now being filled up with people who think they've got it, but haven't come even close. And some of those people are attempting changework or therapy with others and aren't remotely prepared for it. Some of those people are offering workshops where afterwards, students don't have a real clue as to what they've learned. That's bad for all of us. It's not just sad -- it's really detrimental on a grand scale. The bar has dropped significantly and we all need to take steps to raise it back up.

This is a pervasive problem I can do something to solve.
State-Chaining is so important because whenever we would like to influence ourselves to do something in our lives differently, better... or move other people to take certain actions in their lives, differently, better, etc... we have to first learn how to move them effectively. We have to learn how to move people away from wherever they're at, or to move ourselves away from wherever we're at, towards what's better, more optimal. Whether with self or with others, we have to learn how to move people, typically from one state, into another (& sometime then another, & another, etc).

State-Chaining is used not only to move ourselves or someone one time, but to begin to build new emotional pathways, new neural circuitry, so to speak, that then helps us move ourselves or someone else along that same new pathway, again, faster, the next time. It helps us to help ourselves or others build new more useful habits. How Very Useful!

Now, if you only want or need to be able to make quick sales, you don't need to spend time practicing state-chains. Just learn to sequence someone out of a current state into a better one, one time. Great, well done. That's part of the larger state-chaining process, but requires no repetition or NLP anchoring.

But if you want that person to always go into a buying state the next time they see you, you'd better learn how to do state-chaining well. If you want someone to desire you every time they see you, you'd better learn how to do state-chaining well. If you want someone to brighten up into a really happy & hopeful state every time they speak with you, no matter how down or fearful they were before you began talking, you really need to be able to chain states.

State-Chaining is a high-level skill, with
lots of critical components. Miss any components,
and the bigger skill fails.
This central skill area requires a lot of other good skills in NLP.

•good sensory acuity
•good pacing & leading skills
•good state elicitation skills
•good NLP anchoring skills (precision, & timing!)
•good strategy planning & implementation
•good trance (Milton Model) language
•good calibration skills
•& more!
And when I see people attempting to work with someone, and fail to chain states when they're intending to do so, I typically notice big gaps in any number of the above specific areas.

Fill in the gaps, strengthen those areas that need work, validate the correctness/effectiveness of the skills one thinks one already has, and then the overall skill set gels more, becomes more effective, more consistent. More magical.

And if the skill doesn't work, PLEASE don't blame NLP. it's NOT that NLP doesn't work, it's that whatever skill level one has achieved so far, isn't consistent, effective, practiced, or smooth enough. It's yet another artifact of minimalist training seminars where the focus is on finishing in minimum time. It's unfortunate, but if you can't state-chain like a wizard yet, and you ostensibly completed Practitioner training, your skills are probably lacking. I hate to be the messenger on that one, but it's absolutely true. "Short duration" of certification courses is one of the worst criteria you could possibly use.

Now, granted, I teach this skill set thoroughly in my Holographic Communication training, and I test to make sure everyone's got it. I also teach state-sequencing (with less time/emphasis on actually chaining) in my Linguistic Wizardry course. I also taught a bit of auditory or verbal state-chaining in my "Irresistible Voice 2" audio set. So I know that in my shorter applied NLP courses, I make sure people get good at these areas.

But I'm also going to aim to write more articles on this subject this coming year, and I'm going to be coming out with a home-study program on the topic as well, soon.

Let's begin from the beginning, so to speak. Build Your Foundations Well.
In this article, I'll focus on some foundational ideas behind state-chaining. Some basic concepts for you to mull over in the coming weeks.

One of the foundational things to consider is that all human behaviors are potentially available to us in one or more specific emotional states.

E.g., the act of being able to open a door by turning a handle is a behavior that is highly generalized; we can effectively perform that behavior across a vast array of different emotional states.

Yet how many men or women can calmly say "I'm sorry" in an emotional state of "Betrayal" or "Indignant?" How many people can smile a real ear to ear grin, when they're in a state of "deep depression?" Hopefully you get the point. We can accomplish/do some things in any setting, in any emotional state. Other things can only be done within certain specific emotional states.

Many of the things we as NLP enthusiasts would like to do ourselves, or to get others to do, can only be done in more energized & motivated states.

•How many buying decisions are made in states of deep doubt?
•How many dates begin from states of zero attraction?
•How many negotiations are concluded successfully amongst deep distrust?
•How many changes can a client create while feeling numb & disinterested?
(The answer is obvious to all of the above: Not many!)

In order to create the opportunity for these behaviors/choices to happen... we have to move people from their less-useful states, towards more positive and useful states. We have to learn to move people from 'present states' to 'desired states.'

Some refer to 'present states' as 'Inhibitory states', and 'desired states' as 'Excitatory states.'

I tend to refer to these as 'origin & destination' states. We meet people regularly in origin states, and people typically need to be in destination states, to take clear & positive action in their lives without hesitation.

If you think about it... if you think long & hard while scanning through your own life experiences... you will know these comments above to be true.

And without leveling personal judgment over/of people, without having to address the *reasons* people are so often stuck in their Inhibitory states, NLP helps us to learn how to work at a process level, at the emotional level, without personal judgment getting in the way. In doing so we learn more effectively how to invite people into their more Excitatory states. We build new pathways, create new options.

This is very powerful stuff. And there is always more we can learn on this topic! If you'd like to become absolutely masterful with this material... I invite you to invest in my Audio Program on State-Chaining for Influence... Creating the Automatic Yes. The "Automatic Yes" CDs are entirely about Emotional State-Chaining!

Thanks for reading and learning with us!

If you loved THE SECRET- here's the next step

What FEAR truly is

False

Evidence

Appearing

Real

How can I help? Acts of kindness

One small, thoughtful gesture can make someone else's day...

1. Say "Good morning" to a person standing next to you in the elevator.

2. Pay the toll for the driver behind you.

3. Take a minute to direct someone who is lost, even though you're rushing.

4. Write a letter to a child who could use some extra attention. Kids love getting mail.

5. Offer to pick up groceries for an elderly neighbor, especially in extreme weather.

6. Give a homeless person your doggie bag.

7. Say "I love you" to someone you love.

8. Put a coin in an expired meter.

9. Help a mother carry her baby stroller up the subway stairs, or hold a door open for her.

10. Each time you get a new item of clothing, give away something old.

11. Take someone's shift as the car-pool parent.

12. Bring your assistant coffee.

13. Out of the blue, send flowers to a friend.

14. Say "please" and "thank you"—and really mean it.

15. When you're on a crowded train or bus, offer your seat to an elderly, disabled or pregnant person.

16. Don't interrupt when someone is explaining herself.

17. Let a fellow driver merge into your lane.

18. Offer to baby-sit for a single mom.

19. Put your shopping cart back in its place.

20. Call or write to a teacher who changed your life.

21. Bring a box of doughnuts to share at the office.

22. Forgive someone a debt–and never bring it up again.

23. Listen with all your senses.

24. Write a note to the boss of someone who helps you, and explain how great a job that person is doing.

25. Simply say "I'm sorry" when you're wrong.

26. Throw away your trash—and someone else's—after a movie, picnic or visit to a park.

27. Encourage someone who seems despondent.

28. Volunteer to take care of a friend's dog while he is vacationing.

29. Help a friend pack for a move.

30. Ask someone "How are you really doing?"—and then really listen to her response.

31. Offer change when the person in front of you at the register comes up short.

32. Before a friend moves away, give her your favorite recipe or quote and a photo of the two of you together.

33. Leave a generous tip for a pleasant waiter.

34. At work, offer to transfer a caller who needs help from another department.

35. Pass along a great book you've just finished reading.

Quote of the day :O)

You can either waltz boldly onto the floor of life and live the way you know your spirit is nudging you to, or you can sit quietly by the wall and recede in the shadows of fear and self-doubt.

Oprah Winfrey

You get or repeat what you talk about- words are important