Thanksgiving: A Step Beyond Gratefulness...How It Works.

In following self-help trends for the past 30 years, the latest has been the emergence of “gratefulness” lists or boards. The idea behind this is to further inspire people to a much more positive state of being on the road to happiness. So, besides a board or list to look at, how can we keep these positive feelings going, for a bit longer than just a few minutes? In business, we often look at our position and the bottom line for happiness. While finances are one of the three major pillars in life, there is much more to the story of how happiness is created day-to-day.

Every encounter we have with another person stays in our memory, quite a bit longer than any other experience we can have. In fact, you can notice this yourself, not only from positive experiences with other people, but from the negative ones, too. It’s quite amazing when we stop to consider how much of an impact we really have on each other’s lives, and our own personal enjoyment of it.

Just a glance or even a few kind words can have a major impact on how our nervous system responds to stimuli. So, to keep positive feelings in motion more often in life and in our business, we can actually be grateful long before any encounter with another person takes place. Remember the days of looking forward to or being excited about a particular date and time? We can experience this feeling throughout the day once we understand the basics of how these feelings are being created. To get into this frame of mind, we need to understand a few basic points first.

Our body responds to whatever we are doing in the moment, and how – regardless of our current financial position. Every thought, word, or action we take part in, sets energy outside of us and inside of us into motion. Without having to worry about everything that travels through us, when we make a positive encounter with another person happen (and this is something we do together, and for each other at the same time), in those moments, gratefulness happens – on its own. In fact, our nervous system recognizes these feelings emotionally, before the logistical part of our brain processes what’s happening! In other words, the energy travels through us first, and then – we recognize if it was positive, or not.

So, focusing more on how positive feelings are being created together, will allow “thankfulness” to happen naturally without us trying to manufacture that idea. Since a positive encounter stays with us and carries us onto a higher path of energy, we can keep this energy loop moving with us throughout the day, quite easily. The only other catch here is that most of us are on different trains of thought, and sometimes the energy from one person to another, doesn’t always translate perfectly in our real-time experiences together.

Realizing that we always have the capacity to change the channel and replace those negative feelings with a present more positive encounter, will allow us to stay in a positive state of mind much more often. Just like our bottom line, when a positive is added in – the numbers go up. It works the same way with our emotions, as well. Unless it’s truly an emergency that needs our direct attention (and we are already hardwired to take care of those), looking for others to walk down a negative path with us – before we get onto a better one, depletes the time and energy we have available to make a good moment possible – right now. (As a note, if it is something legitimately negative that’s getting in the way of a happier situation, we do need to take a few moments to examine that circumstance, so the path can stay clear for the future.) While this takes a bit of practice to succeed at regularly, once we understand that we are always at a cross-roads as to what kind of moment we would like to experience, it won’t take very long before we collectively get the positive memo!

Making a positive moment or experience happen as soon as possible is where we all really wanted to be – because it feels best to be “there!” So, start out where you wanted to end-up; it’s the fastest route to your destination. Then, it won’t be long before this becomes a habit and how we choose to live most of the time. Once people get the idea that a positive encounter serves both people equally, there’s no need to control our moments, because positive energy begins to organize our logistical circumstances, once it’s in motion. From here, everything important that we needed to share or learn with others will unfold, naturally. (You can witness this for yourself in the next positive moment you have with another person.) It’s not something that we need to worry about or over-think, as half of energy’s job is efficiency – without losing the positive emotional component. It takes care of both of those ends at the same time.

Just like those popular image boards, contemplating how intelligent positive energy is and how it directs our course – all on its own, might be something for us to consider at the end of a good day. It might lend to even more positive feelings and excitement about how the process is working in our lives. This gives us more of an incentive to travel even further down those positive paths to see what’s in store for us together…

And to think we are here to not only take part in this mystery, but to put this energy in motion, so that we reap all the rewards and benefits from doing so – to me, goes much further than a few things we can isolate on a list, or with a few pretty pictures – as nice as they are!

At the end of any great day, it was the combination of all the positive things we were a part of, that makes us feel the way we do. And since we spend more time every day with other people, maybe you can see why this is message is so important, even for our own happiness. My desire is that one day, besides our financial gains, we can look at the world and ourselves, with all of the majesty that life has always had waiting for us to see. In every experience that we choose to make a positive one, we are paving the road of our happier moments – right there and then. So, the happier now, becomes the much happier later on, too. Like our bottom line, it just continues to build along with us – with interest.

Just one more thing for us to be grateful about, right?

That was the point behind this article, so I hope it landed in just the right place for you…

Now, let’s see if we can keep this positive energy going between us – far beyond the holidays!