Appreciation
Adds Value To Your Body, Mind & Relationships

Authored by William G. DeFoore, Ph.D.


 The appreciation we're talking about here is the kind you do in your brilliant mind and your good heart. In other words, it's a choice that you can make, and a very important one.

When you choose to appreciate yourself, physically, mentally and emotionally, you are literally adding value to your body and mind. Just like in the business world, when something appreciates, that means it has gone up in value.

So, now you're going to learn some specific skills for adding value to every aspect of yourself and the people you care for, so that you will be sure to give the best possible care that you can.

Value Of Appreciation


Appreciate Your Body & Your Health

The more you value something...the better care you will provide for it. So, here we're going to give you some tools and techniques for increasing the value you hold for your body and your health.

This is what I recommend, on a daily and ideally ongoing basis and as part of your journaling practice:

  1. Take nothing for granted. In your journal, write about how much you like and enjoy what you see, hear, smell and touch. Write about how much you love being able to walk, sit and stand, and/or any other functions that make your life easier.

  2. Shine the love light of your good heart on your organs, your bones, muscles, ligaments, joints and tendons. Think as you're doing this about how amazing your body is, in how it works 24/7 to allow you to breathe, digest, move around and express yourself.

  3. Write in your journal about how much you appreciate your body's return to health after you have been sick or injured. Think of some of the illnesses and injuries you've recovered from, and say, "Thanks! Well done!" to your magnificent, self-healing organism.

  4. Do a mental scan of your entire body, perhaps during meditation, and say a quiet, "Thank you" for all of its efforts to continue to provide you with the necessary health and well being for you to move about the world and do what you choose.

Brain

Appreciation For Your Brilliant Mind

Your mind is the headquarters of your entire existence...think about it. You have so much incredible power and creative freedom in your mental thought and focusing processes. And our purpose here is to help you use that power and freedom to create joy and fulfillment for you and those you love.

Here are some steps to appreciating your mind:

  1. Acknowledge that you have a brilliant mind...to yourself. It's standard equipment in the human organism, but the degree to which we each utilize and develop our brilliance varies greatly. Make up your mind that you're going to do your best to develop the full capacity of your brilliance.

  2. Your mind will work at its best if you decide to become an excellent Goodfinder! Why? Because the mental activities of gratitude, appreciation and optimism actually utilize higher brain functions, which exercises your mind's brilliant capacity to its greatest extent.

  3. Practice these simple and powerful skills to improve your memory. Your memory is like a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the better it will work for you...and even more important, you need to believe in and feel good about your memory...it's listening!

  4. Read, be curious, and learn! The brain is most definitely a "use it or lose it" organ. Pursuing new information, searching for answers to questions, and just exploring the territory of your greatest curiosity will serve you well. If you don't like to read, then watch videos or listen to audiobooks...just be sure you never stop learning!

  5. Learn to play a musical instrument. This has been shown consistently to provide the greatest possible benefit for your brain function, as demonstrated in the video below. Don't think of it as hard work...make sure it's fun. The easiest instrument to start with is the ukulele!




Appreciation For Your Relationships

When you focus on the positive aspects of your beloved family members and friends, you are literally opening your good heart to allow the love to flow through. Relationships are for the purpose of love, always.

It is far too easy to fall into the pattern of fault-finding and criticism in our close relationships, and that is prescription for a tremendous amount of anger, anxiety and depression...not what you want. And, these negative patterns close your good, loving heart.

So, the key is to be a Goodfinder in your relationships, always focusing your brilliant mind on what you like about the other person. If you'd like your friend/family member to change, always remember that change occurs most readily in an atmosphere of love and acceptance, and criticism and judgment actually stop the change and growth process.

I have devoted several pages on this web site to this subject, so rather than going further into the topic here, I recommend you go to this page on happy relationships, and go from there.




New! Comments

We'd love to hear from you! Leave us a comment in the box below.