What if I told you... Things are showing up in your life that you aren’t noticing because they don’t look how you think they should look. 

Wanna know how I know? Because the same thing happens to me sometimes. 

I started to notice asthma symptoms this week, which is unusual because my asthma is well controlled. I started to tell myself negative stories about the asthma medication I’ve been taking since we moved to Portland in August. 

The negative story was that I was upset that my new insurance company made me change my prescription. I wasn’t sure this medicine was going to work. Then my symptoms confirmed what I’d been thinking. Except for one thing.

The problem wasn’t my new medication. The problem was that I didn’t look to see that my inhaler contained medication. When I did the math, that meant I’d been puffing on an empty inhaler for… let’s just say… a while. 

I went into another negative story about how my old inhaler had a counter so that I could see how many doses were left and on and on the story went. 

Except you know what? My new inhaler ALSO has a counter. I just didn’t look for it. If I would have stopped being resistant to a change in my medicine, I would have probably seen the counter. But the inhaler didn’t look the way I thought it should look so I wasn’t open to seeing the counter. And you know what else? The fact that I went weeks without medication is also significant!! It means my asthma has improved dramatically! 

Here's what we all forget.

It's NEVER about what you want. It's not the thing, the person, the job, the situation, the house, the trip, or anything. It's about how you want to FEEL. 

You want the thing you want because of how you will FEEL when you get it or that thing happens. Right? 

So when you FEEL that way FIRST you become an energetic vibrational match. You are probably thinking… how do I FEEL something first?

Lean into appreciation. It immediately lifts your vibration. If you look into the research you’ll find there is science around the vibrations that emotions create. More positive emotions have a higher vibration. 

Why appreciation instead of gratitude? Because - as I’m learning in Abundant Ever After with Cathy Heller - gratitude contains contrast. The contrast is “I’m grateful for this because I can also imagine a world where I don’t have this”. But appreciation is cleaner.

Give it a try right now. What do you appreciate? 

I bet I can predict your next question.

How do you go from negative thinking and feeling bad, to leaning into appreciation WITHOUT  toxic positivity and pretending everything is ok? 

Here are three ways you can play with.

1. Break your routine. Go home a different way. Do things at different times. This helps to shift patterned thinking. You'll see and experience new things and allow for new thinking.

2. Do what Mike Dooley suggests and play the field of possibilities. Apply for a lot of jobs. Go on a lot of dates. Look at a lot of homes. Submit a lot of proposals. Consider trips to lots of places. Get a passport. Then see what flows easily to you.

3. Allow all of your emotions to flow naturally and recognize that your thoughts are behind your emotions. Choose new thoughts to shift emotions. 

4. Make a 1-degree turn. Think about a cruise ship. If your boat captain made a 1 degree turn every hour, you'd end up somewhere totally different than where you planned. You can do the same thing with your emotions. Maybe it doesn't feel like you can move all the way up the emotion scale, but maybe you can move up one spot. That spot might lead to being able to move up one more spot, and so on. Those subtle shifts will add up. 

5. Go have fun. Sing. Dance. Color. Create. Exercise. Watch a funny show. 

Why this works

When you can change the feedback loop of your thoughts your emotions shift.

Then try to move yourself up the emotional ladder by using appreciation.

Use appreciation to change your thoughts. Not sure you believe me? Why not give it a try? 

Most important. Take good care of yourself. This daily checklist can make a big difference because when you are taking good care of yourself, you’re signaling to yourself that you matter and that feels really good. And it's free!! Even better!

I want to hear from you and I want to help. Email me and let me know … where does this show up for you? What would you like to shift?

All my love,

Brenda