POM - Peace of Mind
  • Home
  • POM Activities
    • Yoga
    • Handicrafts & Cooking
    • POM CRAFTERNOON
    • Community Connection
    • Fortnightly Blogs
    • Pom speech from Food for Lanka Fundraiser
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • New Page
  • Home
  • POM Activities
    • Yoga
    • Handicrafts & Cooking
    • POM CRAFTERNOON
    • Community Connection
    • Fortnightly Blogs
    • Pom speech from Food for Lanka Fundraiser
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • New Page

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 


​

Thank You For Reminding Me!

6/5/2022

0 Comments

 
I wanted to share a little thing I have been playing with that helps to reduce my tendency to be judgmental and increase my ability to be compassionate toward both myself and others.

It involves firstly becoming aware when a particular feeling has been triggered. Maybe you have been triggered by something someone has said or done and have had anger, irritation, jealously, hurt, or sadness come up.

As we know the first step is to recognise the emotion that has been triggered and to accept and hold it lightly, resisting the urge to suppress it or to feed it with justification, blame or criticism. The emotion will naturally subside when not suppressed, fed or inappropriately expressed. 

Then we are free to check in with our wise selves for what we need to remember to do, think or let go of. This may include doing nothing at all . 

Something I have been reminded of when my negative emotions are triggered is to ask myself a simple question. I ask myself 'what is this person or event reminding me? Then I say to myself 'thank you for reminding me to be kind if I am perceiving unkindness, connected if I am perceiving distraction or patient if I am perceiving impatience.I have been finding this simple question very useful to reduce judgment and foster compassion.

For example if I am perceiving someone's behaviour as impatient or rude ( I try to remember to seperate the behaviour from the person. So rather than think or say X is a rude person, I try to remember to think X is behaving rudely) It is a subtle but important distinction, that I often need reminding of. 

When I ask myself this simple question: What is this person who is behaving rudely remind me? My wise self tells me it is not nice for others or themselves when they behave this way, so patience and kindness is the way to go. I am then able to have compassion for them and for me and to genuinely thank them for reminding me to be kind and patient. 

Now I know this has the potential to be self righteous and judgmental and lacking in sincerity and compassion, like when we feel superior. However if we are able to be sincere in our response and to take responsibility for our part in the experience, like acknowledging that we may have behaved like this too, we are then able to feel compassion for the other person and ourselves too. 

Taking responsibility for past similar behaviour does not involve giving ourselves a hard time for creating this particular experience. It is no one's fault just a reminder to be thankful for. 

This can be really tricky to do with those strong negative emotions like anger, as I was reminded a couple of weeks ago when I really lost it in an angry outburst. Next blog I will talk more about this and some of the useful things to remember including to have compassion and forgiveness for others and ourselves, to  remember we are human, to do our 4 forces conscious clearing exercise (I will outline these steps in the next blog) and explore more helpful ways to deal with strong emotions like anger.    

We can also do this "Thank you for reminding me' when we have positive emotions triggered too. Like when someone gives us a smile and it feels good. "Thank you for reminding me to smile'! It's great to remember to thank the person for their kind reminder out loud or in thought, whatever is appropriate. Again sincerity is needed. It is so easy for our funny minds to be sarcastic and judging with insincere thanks. It's great to be reminded to be kind, joyful, grateful or generous so lets give thanks to whoever and whatever reminds us!

With love, appreciation and very best well wishes to us all 
Maree xx
0 Comments
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Author

    Maree Fowler

    Archives

    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