POM - Peace of Mind
  • Home
  • POM Activities
  • About
  • Home
  • POM Activities
  • About

Gratitude is a Super Power!

Picture
Picture
I am grateful to be looking at gratitude yet again this blog!
Gratitude is an awesome superpower. I read recently that one of the most powerful statements you can make, feel or think is ‘thank you’. Thank you to others and yourself too.
 
It is so helpful to remember to be thankful to all those people in our lives who have been motherly, kind and caring toward us, including of course our own maternal mothers, to whom we owe so much, including our lives. Remembering to be thankful to friends, family and strangers too for the kindness they show us in all sorts of ways is powerful to promote our happiness and peace of mind. We'll talk more about gratitude for mothering kindness next blog, as it will be Mother's Day weekend. I'll be on board travelling from Canberra to Sydney!
 
It is also great to be thankful to others who give us the opportunity to be kind to them. This includes, friends, family, pets, strangers and of course our children or anyone we care for.

It's great to remember to tune into our wise selves to be kind and thankful to ourselves too. Seeing ourselves be a positive force in the world, being kind and grateful creates a happy perception. We can reinforce this goodness by being thankful to ourselves. We can be grateful to ourselves for doing our best to be a kind, positive force in the world. Remembering also to forgive ourselves and others for all those so called ‘mistakes’, more helpfully known as learning opportunities. 
 
The opportunities to extend kindness do not always come in the ways we expect and sometimes these kind acts are received without thanks. I find it helpful to thank myself, especially during those times like when I have spent a lot of time and effort doing something like making a family meal which is received with 'I don't like this!' Resting in my intention to have prepared a healthy meal and thanking myself helps to prevent resentment. A space I  have known very well. 

Sometimes extending kindness, especially as parents, can be in the form of a strong boundary like ‘please, don’t speak to me like that’, or ‘no, you can’t do that’. Such Kindness always has the intention to protect others from harm.

I can remember the need for such a strong kind boundary many years ago when I needed to enforce the ‘no sleeping with phone rule’ with my then thirteen-year-old. As I was saying goodnight to them, I discovered the phone under their bedclothes. I removed the phone and there was much subsequent protesting.  I needed to check in with my wise self to remember that my intention was to prevent harm and for them to get a good night’s sleep. I was then able to thank myself for being courageously kind, as the protests continued.  
 
More about gratitude and its awesome benefits next blog.
With love, appreciation and very best well wishes to us all 


​

Marvellous Mistakes

6/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Ever expect yourself to be perfect or to get it right every time?  Are you ever hard on yourself when you don't achieve the desired result or even worse make a mistake?  Often, I like most of us, tend to be my own worst critic.  Following a so called 'failure' I can easily slip into the habit of critical negative self talk. This is never helpful.  Two truths that have really helped me be mindful not to slip into the habit of critical or negative talk both to myself and others are 
  • Perfection is an impossible goal for anybody 
  • We all make so called 'mistakes' or decisions that have not worked out as we would have hoped - it is how we learn and grow.  
Perfection is an impossible goal for anybody
So often we expect ourselves to be perfect and think we need to wait until we are perfect before we can feel good about who we are and our lives.  When we understand that perfection is an impossible goal for anyone we can stop exhausting ourselves with trying to achieve it.  It may be tempting to go to the other extreme and say 'well if I can't get it perfect or be perfect, why even try!  

​Understanding that perfection is impossible does not mean we do not try to do our best. It is important to give our best effort to things that come up; we all know the difference between a good effort and a foolish slap dash effort.   
As long as we have given whatever situation arises our best effort (considering our available resources at the time)  despite the end result we can be happy with ourselves.   Often when we have done a particular task or dealt with a certain situation we can see both, things  that have gone well and things that we could have done a little differently.  We can learn from our experiences when we ask ourselves
  • What went well?
  • What did not go so well
  • What will id do differently next time? How can I do a better best next time?
Once we have our best effort it is equally important to let go of the expectation of it turning out as we would have hoped, especially the impossible goal of getting it perfect..  Obstacles beyond our control hinder so much of what we set out to achieve.  "That can happen, and does" as a friend of mine says cheerfully.  The one thing that is in our control is how we respond to both the situation and the outcome.  When we have done our best we can be happy and accept the outcome as an opportunity for learning and growth. 

We all make so called 'mistakes' they allow us to  learn and grow.  
So often we look at our so called 'mistakes' and think of ourselves as a failure somehow.  Rather than do this it is much more helpful to recognise and celebrate the effort you put in, regardless of the result.  As I said above we are not in control of the outcome - life is full of ups and downs.  We  all make mistakes and things often don't go as we had planned.  What is most helpful is to not get into that negative, critical self talk and instead see it as a learning opportunity.  When we accept we all make mistakes we are able to forgive ourselves and others for these and are free to accept our and others imperfections and do our best with whatever comes up.  When I think about it some of my so called mistakes have led me to exactly the place I need to be.  Things like failing to get into medicine, get that perfect job, have a family easily, get the tap steps right and be a model mother, have been perfect opportunities to develop humility and compassion for both myself and others.
Falling down is part of life, getting back up is living.  We all make mistakes, they help us learn and grow.  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Author

    Maree Fowler

    Archives

    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe to our mailing list and receive a free Mindfulness Meditation

    * indicates required

POM - Peace Of Mind.


Hours

Monday - Friday: 9am - 5pm

Email

maree@pom-melbourne.com