Thanksgiving Everyday

Hope everyone had a delicious and love filled Thanksgiving holiday. If you don't have an official Thanksgiving Day holiday where you live, you should start one. Better yet make everyday a thanksgiving day! There is no better or faster way to improve your life than to focus your attention of things you are happy and grateful for every minute of the day. Don't waste any time worrying about anything. If you have something nagging at your consciousness, just start thinking how thankful you are going to be when you get past the challenge. Switch your attention to things you are happy about right now. I am so thankful for having a strong and resilient body. I am blessed with a wonderful wife and three children tha fill my heart with love and appreciation. I have a mom who is about to celebrate her 94th birthday who is filled with light and joy and continues to be an inspiration to all of us. She got to visit on Thanksgiving and share a good time and a delicous meal with much of the family including her first great grand daughter. Wow - that's a lot to be thankful for and I am just getting started. Happy Thanksgiving!!

How to Develop a Gratitude Mindset

by: Tamara Lechner

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Gratitude, the cardinal moral emotion that promotes cooperation and makes our society civil and kind, is the feeling of reverence for things that are given, according to Bob Emmons Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis and the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology.

Many of us spend most of the year thinking about what we want and what’s next. It’s not until Thanksgiving that we’re reminded to think about what we’re grateful for and how to express that gratitude.

Expressing thanks shouldn’t be a once-a-year tradition. It is possible to cultivate a gratitude mindset that will stick with you throughout the year. A gratitude mindset means lower levels of envy, anxiety, and depression as well as increased optimism and well-being. Research recently conducted at University of California-Davis found gratitude gives the person expressing it the power to heal, to be energized, and to change lives.

What Are the Benefits of Gratitude?

Gratitude can impact the physical, psychological, and social aspects of an individual’s well-being, studies show. Positive psychology sees gratitude as one of the keys in turning potential negatives into positives.  

Here are some of the benefits that come from adopting a gratitude mindset.

Physical benefits:

• a stronger immune system
• less bothered by aches and pains
• lower blood pressure
• sleep longer and feel more rested upon awakening

Social benefits:

• more compassionate, generous, and helpful
• more forgiving
• more outgoing
• feel less lonely or isolated

Psychological benefits:

• higher levels of positive emotion
• more alert, alive, awake
• more joy and pleasure
• more optimism and happiness

The Challenges to Gratitude

Being thankful might seem like a simple task. There are roadblocks to gratitude, including narcissism, materialism, and even overscheduling. There are also the myths that gratitude expressed at work is “kissing butt,” that it can lead to complacency, isn’t possible in the midst of suffering, or makes you a pushover.

Gratitude is stronger when it is shared. To sustain your gratitude mindset, find a way to verbalize, write it down, or share through social media. Just like meditation is a practice, so too is gratitude.

3 Quick Gratitude Boosters

Keep a Gratitude Journal: At the end of each day, make a list of three things you are grateful for. Think of everything from running water and a cozy bed to no red lights during your commute and having a great friend at work. The list can be endless! As you practice, you strengthen the neural pathways that help you find even more things to be grateful for. Pretty soon, gratitude will be your attitude.

In one study funded by the John Templeton Foundation as part of the Greater Good Science Center’s Expanding Gratitude Project, middle school students listed five things they were grateful for—for two weeks.  They were then compared to a control group documenting their everyday events. At the end, the gratitude group reported more satisfaction with their school experience.

Write a Gratitude Letter: Choose someone who has made a positive impact on your life. Write he or she a letter explaining how and thanking them. Be specific and include lots of description. You can either mail the letter or just tuck it away. Expressing your gratitude heightens it.

Receive Gratefully: Many of us are better givers than receivers. Put your focus on your experience of receiving gratitude. When you’re given a compliment, do you belittle yourself by saying “it was nothing” or by playing down your role? Notice your experience as a recipient and try to receive complements or thanks with grace. The law of giving and receiving places equal emphasis on both sides.

Gratitude is essential for happiness. By setting the intention to prioritize gratitude, you have already begun to adopt the mindset. So thank yourself!

- See more at: http://www.chopra.com/ccl/how-to-develop-a-gratitude-mindset?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=CCL%20Newsletter%20151117&utm_campaign=November#sthash.6IqPVGRK.dpuf

5 Creative Ways to Feed the Hungry

by: Fran Benedict

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It’s estimated that 48.1 million Americans lived in food-insecure households in 2014, according to Feeding America. And an estimated 100 billion pounds of food are thrown away annually in the United States. Reducing food losses by 30 percent would be enough food to feed more than 50 million Americans every year.

There are many things you can do to make a difference, and right now is the perfect time to start. From purging your cupboards to buying imperfect produce, each simple act supports ways to reduce an unnecessary epidemic we can work together to resolve.

Clear the Fridge

One way to avoid wasting food is to turn an assortment of ingredients that have been hanging out in the fridge into “everything but the kitchen sink” concoctions or “scraps for a colorful scrambles” meals. These creative food-saving efforts can be created from last night’s doggie bag to last weekend’s farmer’s market leftovers. If you make a habit of doing this, pretty soon you’ll lead the efforts to help fill people with food instead of landfills where leftover food waste accounts for almost 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions.

Many local food banks accept food scraps with the excess food you are unable to consume. Just be sure the food you donate from your fridge is compostable, like fruit and vegetables and their peels. Find out what the full list on what can be composted here. By nourishing the earth, you are helping nourish your community, too.

De-clutter the Pantry

Take inventory of what you have. This isn’t a lengthy process and can be an easy way to remove what you know won’t be consumed. If something is unopened and has not expired, you have something to add to a food donation pile. Sell-by and use-by dates are not federally regulated and do not indicate safety, except on certain baby foods. They are manufacturer suggestions for peak quality, according to the National Resources Defense Council. Most foods can be safely consumed after their use-by dates, however donating foods before this date is best. A good question to ask yourself is, “Would I feed my child or family member the same food I donate?” Assuming the answer is yes, it’s great fuel for the food donation pile.  

SuperFood Drive educates communities about the health benefits of eating nutrient-dense non-perishables and provides helpful guidelines on specific foods. If you feel inspired by the significant difference you can make in your community, this site also provides guidelines to host your own food drive. These contributions support the nationwide Food Bank Network initiatives for healthy options.

Share Your Garden’s Bounty

Do you have an abundance of veggies in your garden or know someone who does? If so, donate the extra produce to AmpleHarvest.org. This organization’s main focus is to eliminate the waste of fresh food to support the hungry and malnourished in communities across the country.

Supporting their efforts provides nourishment to 7,544 food pantries and soup kitchens across all 50 states. With a bit of forethought and minimal effort you can support the Plant A Row For The Hungry initiative when you prepare your next garden. Donating a bag of extra produce from your home or school garden is a wonderful way for gardeners and other growers to take part in improving community health, while also helping the environment.

Buy Imperfect Produce

Oftentimes grocery stores discard produce because of minor cosmetic blemishes. Reduce the amount of food waste by buying those imperfect fruits and vegetables, and donate it to a local food bank. Your efforts will support the Ugly Fruit and Vegetable Campaign, which saves approximately 26 percent of food that is wasted due to cosmetic reasons.

Buy One Get One Free

Are you a fan of coupons and weekly specials? Next time you’re shopping at the local store or browsing through a supermarket catalog and run across a buy-one, get-one-free opportunity, take advantage. Buy one for yourself, and set the other aside to feed the hungry. This is a simple, cost-effective way to make a life-saving difference for someone in need.

- See more at: http://www.chopra.com/ccl/5-creative-ways-to-feed-the-hungry?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=CCL%20Newsletter%20151117&utm_campaign=November#sthash.CwnevNz1.dpuf

Your Help Is Needed

I believe you will probably agree that we are at a tipping point in the story of this planet.  We have reached the point where the consciousness of a significant number of people has risen to a new level.  The most important result of this change is a growing awareness that reality is simply a matter of belief.  If reality is imagined into being then we have the opportunity to transform it in line with our hopes and dreams.  Reality can be intentionally shaped by consciousness.  The combined intent of a group of individuals has a multiplied impact on transforming the reality for all of Creation as specific beliefs are energized.  Therefore by linking our intention and clarifying a positive vision of the future we can deliberately shape reality and move energy in ever more positive and loving ways.

That is the intent for the PositiVibes Network.  We seek to bring people together around positive storylines for the future of the planet.  We are each a designer of reality, either by default or intention.  Our mission is to help more people realize that they have the power to make all of what they want for the world become reality and that we have the ability to deliberately create an ever more positive, loving, joyful and prosperous world for all.

We would be most appreciative if you would share with us a few paragraphs sharing your story for the world over the next five years and into the coming decades.  It is urgent that we start energizing new and improved stories for what the future holds.  We must take the power away from fear and anguish, replacing it with the energy of love and gratitude.  Please share your vision with us so that we can have a book of positive visions of the unfolding future of this planet to build the awareness around this opportunity.  Your story can be about what you or your business is doing to shape more joyous life experiences or a general vision to inspire hope and faith in a more carefree and loving world. 

Please send your story to mystory@transformingreality.com or                    The PositiVibes Network, 8716 Blaze Court, Davie, Florida 33328.