The power of appreciation
If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know I love to write and I’m a big fan of journaling. Always have been since I was a teenager. Something about having a dedicated journal to share anything and everything that’s important to me in the moment. I’ve kept all kinds of journals, from dream journals to creative idea journals to business journals and journals filled with appreciation. I’ve also used writing to express pent-up energy, typically energy of emotions triggered by life experiences or future worries.
The most effective type of writing I’ve come across is grounded in pure appreciation. Not gratitude, mind you, but appreciation. And yes, there is a difference in the energy associated with each approach. I agree with Abraham-Hicks explanation of this difference, in that the act of gratitude is often steeped in energy of overcoming an obstacle and the energy of the obstacle is what is dominant, defeating the purpose of uplifting your mood. Kind of like saying an affirmation and not really believing it. Your rational mind argues with the positive affirmation and it ends up doing more harm than good.
Appreciation is an expression of attention that focuses on the positive, or beneficial, aspect of anything. You can replace the words, “I appreciate” with “I love…” and it has the same energy, emotion and feeling to it or whatever you’re focusing upon.
Here’s an example of gratitude versus appreciation:
“I’m grateful I made it to work on time given the traffic.”
Or,
“I love that I get to drive a beautiful car and have traffic flow in such a way that allows me to arrive at work in plenty of time to enjoy my day and eagerly anticipate good things that will unfold over the course of the day.”
In the first example using gratitude, there’s destructive energy surrounding overcoming the struggle of traffic, feeling pressured to get to work on time, and all of the past conditioning that goes along with leaving the house later than you normally would, knowing it will get you to work late.
The second example of appreciation opens the channel for pure love and positivity to be focused on anything experienced and anticipated around a given topic. You can appreciate your car, the weather, the fellow drivers on the road with you, the green lights, the work you do, the people you’ll see and the difference you’ll make for others in a positive way. In fact, when you focus on appreciation, you can write and write and write. It just flows and the energy of appreciation builds the more you ooze appreciation on whatever topic you’re focusing on.
For you:
Try it out. Pick something relatively routine in your life. Your home, your wardrobe, a pet—whatever you have a relatively neutral mood around, but may take for granted. Like a hot shower in the morning, or a good cup of coffee (or if you’re like me, an iced cold brew from Starbucks). Write or even just think about the things you appreciate about that particular topic or thing. Notice how your energy shifts. This works especially well if you do it with something that you’re not already upset about or overly focused on because it’s a problem. Sometimes you can appreciate something neutral and it improves your overall mood so whatever is bothering you becomes less of a bother. You can also use appreciation to reduce the negative energy or “hold” something has over you by appreciating all of the aspects of it, and believe me, you’ll be able to find them. If you can’t, focus on the positive outcomes that await you once you do overcome or move past that obstacle. Give it a try. ❤️❤️❤️
